On the 10th day of the month of Teves, in the year 3336 (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nevuchadnetzar laid siege to Jerusalem.

30 months later, on Tamuz 9 (or 17, the very date the walls would be breached when the Second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed), 3338, the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that year, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, and the Jewish people were exiled.

Unique among Jewish fasts, Asara B’Teves is observed even when it falls on a Friday, though it interferes somewhat with Shabbat preparations.

It is viewed as the beginning of the chain of events that culminated with the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the subsequent exiles, something that we have never fully recovered from, because even when the Second Beis Hamikdash was finally built, it never returned to its full glory.

Asara B’Teves also commemorates two tragic events that occurred close to that date, which were incorporated into the Selichot of Asara B’Teves.

WATCH

The Rebbe recites the Haftarah on Asara B’teves 5748:

The Rebbe leads Selichos on Asara B’teves 5725, narrated by Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi, who was a bochur at the time: