whole of their ninth (lunar) month Ramadan (see D'Herbelot, BUjL Or. s. v.). (On this religious ob- servance among pagan nations, consult Meiners, Gesch. di-r Relig. ii, lb9 ; Lakemacher, Antic. Gvcec. iSacr. p. t)2G ; "Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alter/hum. ii, 237 ; Bottiger, Kunstmythol. i, 132.) See Asceticism.
I. Jewish Fasting. — The word C^IU {v>](TTtin,jfjuni- um) is not found in the Pentateuch, but it often occurs in the historical books and tlie prophets (2 Sam. xii, 16; 1 Kings xxi, 9-12; Ezra viii, 21 ; Psa. Ixix, 10; Isa. Iviii, 5 ; Joel i, 1-1 ; ii, 15 ; Zech. viii, 19, etc.). In the law the only term used to denote the religious ob- servance of fasting is the more significant one, ri|:^ wED (raTntvovv t)]v -i^/vxiiv ; qfflir/i.'7-e animaiii), " af- fflicting the soul" (Lev. xvi, 29-31 ; xxiii, 27 ; Numb. XXX, 13). The word r.'^Jl^'Fi, i. c. affliction, which oc- curs Ezra ix, 5, where it is rendered in A. V. "heavi- ness," is commonly used to denote fasting in the Tal- mud, and is the title of one of its treatises.
The sacrifice of the personal will, which gives to fasting all its value, is expressed in the old term used in the law, afflicting the soul. The faitiiful son of Is- rael realized the blessing of "chastening his soul with fasting" (Psa. Ixix, 10). But the frequent admoni- tions and stern denunciations of the jirophets may show us how prone the Jews were in their formal fasts to lose the idea of a spiritual discipline, and to regard them as being in themselves a means of winning favor from God, or, in a still worse spirit, to make a parade of them in order to appear religious before men (Isa. Iviii, 3; Zech. vii, 5, 6; Mai. iii, 14; conip. Matt, vi, 16).
The Jewish fasts were observed with various de- grees of strictness. Sometimes there was entire absti- nence from food (Esth. iv, 16, etc.). On other occasions there appears to have been only a restriction to a very plain diet (Dan. x, 3). Rules are given in tlie Tal- mud (lioth in Yoma and Taanith) as to the mode in wliich fasting is to be observed on particular occasions. The fast of the day, according to Josephus (^Ant, iii, 10, 3), was considered to terminate at sunset, and St. Jerome speaks of the f.isting Jew as anxioush' waiting for the rising of the stars. Fasts were not observed on the sabbaths, the new moons, the great festivals, or the feasts of Purim and Dedication (Judith viii, 6 ; Tacmitk, ii, 10).
Those who fasted frequently dressed in sackcloth or rent their clothes, put ashes on tlieir head and went barefoot (1 Kings xxi, 27; comp. Josephus, .In^. viii, 13, 8 ; Neh. ix, 1 ; Psa. xxxv, 13). The ralibinical di- rections for the ceremonies to be oliserved in public fasts, and the praj'ors to be used in them, may be seen in Taanith, ii, 1-4 (see the Col. Talm. '■'■Taanith,'''' c. verss. et notia De Lundii, Traj. ad Rh. 1694, 8vo). Con- sult also Jlaimonides, .Tad lla-Cheztla, Ililchoth Ta-i- nioth, i, 315 sq. ; Lightfoot, Hone Ilehraicce on Luke xviii, 12 ; Schottgen, Hone, EhraicK on Luke xviii, 12 ; Reland, Antiqiiifaies Sacrm Veterum Hehneonmi (1717), p. 538 sq. ; Bloch, in Geiger's Wissenschaftliche Zdt- sckrifi fi'/r jiidisrh" Tkeol.iv, 205 sq. ; Fink, in Ersch und (irul)er's Encyhlopddie, s. v. Fasten ; Jost, Gesch. des Jiidenthums und seiner Secten (Leipzig, 1857), i, 184 sq. ; Bauer, Gottesd. Verf. i, 348 sq. ; Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 233 sq.
1. The sole fast required by Moses was on the great day of annual atonement. This observance seems al- ways to have retained some prominence as "the fast" (Acts xxvii, 9). But wliat the observance of the en- joined duty involved we are nowhere expressly in- formed, and can approximate to a knowledge of precise detiils only so far as later practices among the Jews may le considered as affording a faitiiful picture of this divinely-sanctioned ordinance. In tliese remarks the o|>inion is implied that "the fast," whatever im- portance it may have subsequently acquired, was orig-
FAST
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FAST
inally only an incident, not to say an accident, in the great sdlenuiity of the annual atonement. See Atone- ment, Day of.
There is no mention of any other periodical fast in the O. T. except in Zech. vii, 1-7 ; viii, 19. From these passages it appears that the Jews, during their captiv- ity, observed four annual fasts in the fourth, fifth, sev- enth, and tenth months. When the building of the second Tenijjle had conimenceil, those who remained in Balij'lon sent a mos;<!ige to the priests at Jerusalem to inquire -wliethcr the observance of the fast in the fifth month should not be discontinued. The prophet talves the occasion to rebuke the Jews for the spirit in which they had observed the fast of the seventh month as well as that of the fifth (vii, 5-G) ; and afterwards (viii, 10), giving the subject an evangelical turn, he de- clares that the whole of the four fasts shall be turned to "jo}' and gladness, and cheerful feasts." Zechariah simply distinguishes the fasts by the months in which they were observed ; bnt the Mishna {Tuaniih, iv, C) and St. Jerome (in Zachariam viii) give statements of certain historical events which they were intended to commemorate :