Today is Tzom Gedalya, a minor fast day beginning at daybreak and ending at nightfall. The fast is observed on

Like Gedalya, we truly cannot believe this. Not in Israel. Not in our country.

 the day immediately following Rosh HaShanah, the third of Tishrei. In the Prophetic Writings this fast is called "the Fast of the Seventh" in allusion to Tishrei, the seventh month.

Inevitably, I hear the same lame jokes every Tzom Gedalya. One maintains that the reason we fast is because we have been eating non-stop for the two days of Rosh HaShanah, so it makes sense to fast the next day. The other comes in response to the question, "So are you fasting today? It's Tzom Gedalya." To which the respondent generally replies, "Gedalya? Why should I fast for him? What did he ever do for me? When he fasts for me, I'll fast for him."

But all joking aside, Tzom Gedalya commemorates a tragic event in Jewish history.

Gedalya is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah and in Kings II. After Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple and the nation of Israel was exiled to Babylon, a small contingency of Jews remained in the land of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedalya Ben-Achikam as a "governor" over them. When the Jews who were in exile heard that a group of Jews was allowed to remain in Israel and that Gedalya was appointed to oversee them, they were happy, and people started returning to the land to live.

The King of Ammon however - hostile and envious of the Judean remnant - sent a loyal Jew, Yishmael Ben-Netanyah, to assassinate Gedalyah. In the seventh month (Tishrei) Yishmael came to Gedalya in the town of Mitzpa and was received cordially. Gedalyah had been warned of his guest's murderous intent, but refused to believe his informants in the belief that their report was mere slander.

Yishmael murdered Gedalyah, together with most of the Jews who had joined him and numbers of Babylonians whom the Babylonian king had left with Gedalya The remaining Jews feared the vengeance of the Babylonian king and fled to Egypt.

The surviving remnant of Jews was thus dispersed and the land remained desolate. The death of Gedalya effectively ended Jewish independence in Israel for hundreds of years and resulted in thousands of deaths. The added tragedy of Gedalya is that, although he was warned of Yishmael's plot, he could not believe that a fellow Jew would commit so horrible an act.

For many, Tzom Gedalya, which marks a political assassination, suddenly hit very close to home in the wake of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in 1995. Suddenly, Tzom Gedalya had relevance again.

But as time has passed, Tzom Gedalya has returned to relative obscurity, a minor fast day crammed between the High Holidays of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.

Unfortunately, the message of Tzom Gedalya has returned - and with a vengeance. This summer Israel witnessed a record number of senseless murders. A 60-year-old man enjoying a walk near the beach in Tel Aviv with his family was accosted by a gang of youths and beaten to death; two dismembered female bodies were found in seemingly separate incidents; a Jerusalem tenant who had been terrorizing his neighbors for weeks, stabbed and killed his landlord; a soldier on leave was stabbed in a schoolyard near his home. All this without even mentioning the horrific stories of deranged parents who murdered their young children we have been seeing on the news recently.

What's going on here? Like Gedalya, we truly cannot believe this. Not in Israel. Not in our country. But yes, we

What is more important is what happens the day after, when we go back to our 'normal' routine.

 have just witnessed a murderous summer in Israel, the likes of which we have never seen before.

On Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur we are certainly on our best behavior. These are the 'big' days on the Jewish calendar, no doubt. But what is more important is what happens the day after, when we go back to our 'normal' routine.

Any rabbi will tell you that fasting on Tzom Gedalya is simply a means to an end. The purpose of refraining from eating and drinking is to attune oneself, to do some real 'soul searching' - that's what Tzom Gedalya is all about.

Let's take a minute today and think about the value of life. Nothing is worse than murder, the taking of another's life. How can we as Israelis change the course of the terribly violent, murderous acts that we have read about in our local newspapers lately?

Tzom Gedalya? Think about it. It's no joke.