F(e)asting on Erev Pesach
There is an old groaner that goes like this:
A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old laws of the church by hand.
He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."
He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the head monk.
So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.
"We missed the R!
We missed the R!
We missed the R!"
His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the head monk, "What's wrong, father?"
The head monk with tears in his eyes replies, "The word was supposed to be celebrate!"
On to our topic, fasting on erev Pesach. Firstborns do it. Or actually, they don’t. They typically go to a siyum so that they don’t have to fast. My own firstborn didn’t realize this, when a katan, and where I (a non-firstborn) had attended the siyum on his behalf. But he didn’t help out much that year on erev Pesach, and we were uncharitably annoyed with him, until it came out that he had been fasting all day, with great difficulty.
Especially with Zoom, people are wondering if they can attend the siyum remotely, or over the phone. Sometimes expressed as: what if a bechor somehow cannot make the siyum. Must he fast? Can he rely on Zoom in a pinch?
I know of two sources for the fast. We have Yerushalmi Pesachim 10:1.
Rabbi (Yehuda HaNasi ate neither matzah nor chametz on erev Pesach, and it was unclear why.
אָמַר רִבִּי לֵוִי. הָאוֹכֵל מַצָּה בָּעֶרֶב הַפֶּסַח כְּבָא עַל אֲרוּסָתוֹ בְּבֵית חָמִיו. וְהַבָּא עַל אֲרוּסָתוֹ בְּבֵית חָמִיו לוֹקֶה. תַּנֵּי. רִבִּי יוּדָה בֶּן בָּתִירָה אוֹמֵר. בֵּין חָמֵץ בֵּין מַצָּה אָסוּר. רִבִּי סִימוֹן בְּשֵׁם רִבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן לֵוִי. רִבִּי לֹא הָיָה אוֹכֵל לֹא חָמֵץ וְלֹא מַצָּה. לֹא מַצָּה מִן הָדָא דְרִבִּי לֵוִי. לֹא חָמֵץ מִן הָדָא דְרִבִּי יוּדָה בֶּן בָּתִירָה. וְרִבִּי תַלְמִידֵיהּ דְּרִבִּי יוּדָה בֶּן בָּתִירָה הֲוָה. לֹא. תַּלְמִידֵיהּ דְּרִבִּי יַעֲקֻב בַּר קוֹרְשַׁיי הֲוָה. אֶלָּא בְגִין דַּהֲוַה בְכוֹר. אָמַר רִבִּי מָנָא. רִבִּי יוֹנָה אַבָּא הֲוַה בְכוֹר וַהֲוָה אֲכִיל. אָמַר רִבִּי תַּנְחוּמָא. לֹא מִן הָדָא אֶלָּא מִן הָדָא. רִבִּי אַיסִתֶּנֵיס הֲוָה. כַּד הֲוָה אֲכִיל בִּימָמָא לָא הֲוָה אֲכִיל בִּרַמְשָׁא. וְלַמָּה לָא הֲוָה אֲכִיל הָכָא בִימָמָא. כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּיכַּנֵּס לַשַּׁבָּת בְּתַאֲוָה.
Rebbi Levi said, he who eats mazzah on Passover Eve is like one who sleeps with his betrothed in his father-in-law’s house, and he who sleeps with his betrothed in his father-in-law’s house is flogged. It was stated: Rebbi Jehudah ben Bathyra says, both bread and mazzah are forbidden. Rebbi Simon in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: Rebbi ate neither bread nor mazzah. No mazzah because of that of Rebbi Levi, and no bread because of that of Rebbi Jehudah ben Bathyra. Was Rebbi a student of Rebbi Jehudah ben Bathyra? No, he was a student of Rebbi Jacob ben Qorshai. But it was because he was a firstborn. Rebbi Mana said, my father Rebbi Jonah was a firstborn and he ate. Rebbi Tanḥuma said, it is neither for this nor for that reason; Rebbi was asthenic and when he ate during the day, he could not eat in the night. Why did he not eat during this day? To enter the Sabbath with appetite.
One of the suggested answers is that he refrained from eating because of being a bechor. Rabbi Mana rejects this based on his own father’s practice as a bechor, but still, the practice being rejected is fasting. So such an idea exists.
Another source is later, in the post-Talmudic tractate of Soferim, 21:3.
לפיכך אין אומרין תחנונים כל ימי ניסן ואין מתענין עד שיעבור ניסן אלא הבכורות שמתענין בערב הפסח והצנועין בשביל המצה כדי שיכנסו בה בתאוה והתלמידים מתענין בו שני וחמישי מפני חילול השם ומפני כבוד ההיכל שנשרף:
For this reason no supplications are offered on any of the days of Nisan and there is no fasting until Nisan has passed. The only exception is [the fast of] the firstborn who fast on the eve of Passover. The very pious also fast on that day on account of the unleavened bread, in order that they shall begin to eat it with relish. Scholars fast on Mondays and Thursdays [throughout the year] on account of the desecration of the name of God and for the honour of the Temple which was burnt.
There is a suggestion, by Michael Hakohen Braver in Pe’er Yitzchak, explaining why the Zidichover Rebbe, as well as his son R’ Sender Lipa, didn’t fast on erev Pesach despite being firstborns.
Essentially, that in masechet Soferim, a scribal error crept in, and rather than מתענים, it should have read מתענגים, that they rejoice. And one time he say before R’ Menachem Mendel, and the talk turned to this topic, and he said that despite the halacha being brought down in Tur and Shulchan Aruch, we shouldn’t forget just who we’re talking about, who Rabbenu was, for my father considered him on the level of one the Tannaim, etc.
Looking at Masechet Soferim, and especially at I think it is rather difficult to read in f(e)asting instead of fasting, since it is listed as an exception to the general prohibition of fasting in Nissan. And fasting falls in line with the earlier possible practice mentioned in regard to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, even though the conclusion was that that wasn’t what motivated him in his action.
I think the leniency is much easier to arrive at, than any kvetch about a ta’ut sofer. Rather, this isn’t really sourced as definitive and widely adopted halacha in Yerushalmi, and it does in masechet Soferim, which is post-Talmudic. Its binding nature would come from being an accepted minhag.
Yet minhagim come and go. And while there may be some violation in the first generation not following their established community practice, we don’t resurrect old practices.
In this instance, I don’t believe that we really have a minhag to fast. We have a minhag for firstborns to avoid fasting on erev Pesach, by attending a siyum. So the minhag is really to attend a siyum. I don’t think that many firstborns nowadays really practically fast. So, if a bechor can’t fulfill this positive act, at all, or particularly in person in the best way, then they didn’t fulfill it. But that would not turn around to make the bechor actually prohibited to eat!
(There are other halachic arguments I’ve heard, for why minimal connection to the siyum is acceptable, and those may be true, but that is beyond the scope of this post.)