Rav Hershel Schachter shlita issued a p’sak declaring Monday, November 13, the 29th of Cheshvan, to be observed as a Yom Kippur Katan – a fast day to increase our t’filos during this difficult time. All talmidim who were able, were asked to declare in Minchah on Sunday that they were taking this taanis upon themselves, as is customary. For talmidim for whom this was too much, many opted to fast until chatzos.
With a regular day of yeshivah, fasting becomes an additional challenge, but many talmidim took to heart the messages from their rebbeim, of the need for us to be on the “spiritual front lines” and do all we can to increase our learning, our t’filos, and our chesed. Our Beis Midrash Katan, led by Rabbi Tanchum Cohen, had a unique privilege to daven the Yom Kippur Katan t’filos with hundreds of YU talmidim in the YU Glueck Beis Midrash. This was an amazing opportunity that only MTA talmidim are able to take part in. Rav Schachter’s p’sak is below, and we hope our t’filos will be answered l’tovah.