Posted December 21 2007
The Fast of the Ninth of Tevet
a Medieval Jew carrying wine for the Sabbath
The second reason is far more intriguing to me. It seems that with the initial success of the apostles to bring new people into their religion came a lot of fear in the hierarchy of the Jewish community. Within the first few generation it was secretly decided that a knowledgeable Rav should infiltrate the clergy to the highest ranks in order to derail the conversion effort facing the Jews and refocus those efforts towards Pagans. Whether or not this actually happened, it could explain why Pagans were targeted for mass conversion. It was centuries before Jews were targeted all over Europe in the violent way that forced so many of our brethren to convert. When this Rav passed away, on the Ninth of Tevet, a fasting was enacted to mark his achievements in saving our people from possible extinction.
I love finding out random tidbits that I never knew about especially in our Medieval history. [Thanks MB (Jastrow)]
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4 Comments currently posted. 
David Gertler says:
Moshe Glasser says:
I also heard this. Though it is discounted by the majority of serious Jewish historians, it has a lot of hay and is generally considered fact by many in what may be called the “ultra-Orthodox” community. My own rebbe told me that the “Shaul” that Dave mentioned above is the Tannaitic sage Abba Shaul, an oft-quoted rabbi in the Mishna. Apparently, the work telling this story only dates to the 17th or 18th century, so we would have to match up accounts from this man to when the debate of the Tevet fast. Even if it is a myth, the existence of it is fascinating - we would prefer to have some idea of control over the development of Christianity than just staying out of its way (as we have unsuccessfully been trying to do for 2000 years).
Paul A. Edenfield says:
Saul Libermann’s essay “Shkiin: A Few Words on Some Jewish Legends, Customs, and Literary sources Found in Karaite and Christian Works,” has the following notice of interest to this discussion:
“A Karaite author of the ninth century condemns the Jewish custom of burning incense and exchanging gifts on the tenth of Teveth. In another place, the same writer relates that the Jews offer incense and light candles. Although he gives no date for the second custom, it is almost certainly the same day as the first.
“Now according to Jewish tradition, Jesus was born on the ninth of Teveth: that is, the day before these strange ceremonies were performed.”
“We can find confirmation of this unusual custom in a Christian work of the latter half of the sixth century. In Antonini Placentini Itinerarium, par. 30 (Gildemeister edition p. 21), we read that the Jews assembled, burned incense, lit candles and exchanged gifts on the first day after the birthday of Jesus.
“This striking coincidence proved the authenticity of the custom beyond a doubt, for it is inconceivable that two such different sources would invent the same story.”
It is typical to assume historic hostility and incompatibility between Jewish and Christian communities (see Boyarin’s comments about “gatekeeping” in his book Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity), but I wonder if the everyday reality of these communities was more complex than we remember them to be.
— Paul Edenfield
Dave Weinberg says:
Paul,
thank you for bringing these sources to our attention. I appreciate your comments.
Dave
From reports that I’ve heard relating to the second reason, that “knowledgeable Rav” was known among his friends in the Jewish high court as Shaul. When he infiltrated, he changed his name to Paul. The story is recorded as Paul told it in the Christian Bible in the book of Acts of the Apostles. (To just read this story see chapter 9:1-22.)