The Fast of the First Born

This pre-Passover fast applies to a select few.

By Lesli Koppelman Ross

Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook (Jason Aronson Inc.).

The sunrise to sunset ta'anit (fast) bekhorim (of the firstborn) is the only fast that applies to just a segment of the community: all males who are the firstborn children in their families (if the firstborn child is female, the first son born after her is not obligated). The father of a child too young to fast fasts for him, and if he himself is bekhor, the mother fasts for the child on the day of ErevPesach [the day in which Passover begins at nightfall]. Since it is forbidden to abstain from eating on Shabbat (except for Yom Kippur), when ErevPesach falls on Saturday night, the fast takes place on Thursday.

There is a widely practiced exemption: On the principle that fasting is prohibited on a joyous occasion, Judaism allows for anyone who attends a religious feast to forego fasting. It is customary to hold a celebratory meal on the completion of study of a tractate of Talmud, called a siyyum (conclusion). So rabbis initiated the practice of studying a portion of a Talmud tractate after morning services, held especially early on Erev Pesach. All the firstborn are invited to be present for the conclusion and share cake and schnapps afterward, considered a seudat (meal) mitzvah (in honor of a commandment; in this case, studying the Torah).

Among some Sephardim [Jews of Mediterranean descent], women used to observe the fast of the firstborn. The Syrians, who stringently observe it, include their women in the siyyum and seudat mitzvah following morning services. As an alternative, a community would sometimes arrange for the poor to be married on the day of ErevPesach. The firstborn were invited, since the wedding meal is a seudat mitzvah exempting them from the fast.

Lesli Koppelman Ross is a writer and artist whose works have appeared nationally. She has devoted much of her time to the causes of Ethiopian Jewry and Jewish education. Her latest book is The Lifetime Guide to the Jewish Holidays: Abundant Ways to Bring the Joy, Meaning and Relevance of Celebration into Your Home and Heart Year After Year. (Jewish Legacy Press).