Should We Recite Tachanun on the 29th of Iyar?

The 29th of Iyar falls between two days when Tachanun is not recited – Yom Yerushalayim and Rosh Chodesh Sivan. Does this mean that Tachanun is also not recited on the 29th of Iyar?

A similar discussion exists regarding the 2nd day of Sivan. On the day before it – Rosh Chodesh Sivan – Tachanun is not recited, and even on the days following it (the 3rd through 6th of Sivan), Tachanun is not recited since these are the three days of preparation (shloshet yemei hagbalah) that preceded the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. 

Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (Shu”t Ha’elef Lecha Shlomo, Orach Chaim, Section 331) writes that the custom is that Tachanun is also not recited on the 2nd of Sivan. He explains: “People customarily call it Yom Meyuchas (Distinguished Day) because it falls between two sacred days – Rosh Chodesh and the days of preparation. This reasoning makes sense… since it falls between two days when fasting and Tachanun are not observed, they treat it as if it were one of these special days, neither reciting Tachanun nor observing fasts.”

In other words, when a certain day falls between two sacred days – this is a “Yom Meyuchas,” a day that is influenced by the days surrounding it and receives from them a certain sanctity that results in Tachanun not being recited and fasting not being observed on it. Rabbi Shlomo Kluger brings proof for his words: The Talmud (Ta’anit 18a) discusses the holidays listed in Megillat Ta’anit and states that a day falling between two holidays is itself treated as a holiday: “since it falls between two holidays, they made it like a holiday itself.” From this principle, we can infer that when a day falls between two days on which Tachanun is not recited, Tachanun should not be recited on that intermediate day either.

However, most authorities (Magen Avraham 494:4; Mishnah Berurah 494:8) write that the reason Tachanun is not recited on the 2nd of Sivan is that the preparations for the giving of the Torah already began on this day. From their words, it appears that they do not accept the reasoning of Yom Meyuchas, and from this it follows that on a day that falls between two days when Tachanun is not recited (and on this day itself Tachanun should be recited) – Tachanun is, in fact, recited.

In practice, since most authorities do not accept the reasoning of Yom Meyuchas, Tachanun should be recited on the 29th of Iyar, and especially since this is the day before Rosh Chodesh, when some have the custom to fast due to Ta’anit Yom Kippur Katan, which is an additional reason not to cancel the recitation of Tachanun on this day.

Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon is the Nasi of World Mizrachi. He is the Founder and Chairman of Sulamot and La’Ofek, and serves as the Chief Rabbi of Gush Etzion, and Rosh Yeshivah of the Jerusalem College of Technology.