Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ta'anit, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1521

Folio (14 x 9 in.; 355 x 228 mm). collation: 1-4^{8, 55=37 leaves, woodcut initial word panel; title supplied in photocopy, first three leaves with tears mended in gutter margin of which one entering text, some soiling, spotting and dampstaining, lacking final blank leaf. Half vellum.}

Vinograd, Venice 51; Habermann 34

Folio (14 x 9 in.; 355 x 228 mm). collation: 1-48, 55=37 leaves, woodcut initial; lacking title supplied in photocopy, first three leaves with tears mended in gutter margin of which one entering text, some soiling, spotting and dampstaining, lacking final blank leaf. Half vellum.
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In a primarily agricultural society, drought represented a major challenge, one that was often addressed through acts of penitence and piety, foremost amongst which was the institution of communal fasting. The tractate Ta'anit (fast day) in the order Mo'ed discusses: how and when such fast days are decreed, the appropriate prayers for those fasts, who is exempt from fasting, and the days when fasts may not be decreed. The tractate goes on to discuss the permanent fast days of the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av, and the detailed laws of the Ninth of Av and the preceeding days. As it was customary to have a public recital of the priestly blessings on fast days, these laws are also treated here.