Rav Hershel Schachter, shlita, issued a psak declaring Monday, November 13, the 29th of Cheshvan is being observed as a Yom Kippur Katan—a fast day to increase our tefillos during this difficult time. All talmidim who were able, were asked to declare in Mincha on Sunday that they were taking this taanis (fast) upon themselves, as is customary. For talmidim for whom this was too much, many opted to fast until chatzos.

With a regular day of yeshiva, 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 learning, tefilos and chesed. Beis Medrash Katan led by Rabbi Tanchum Cohen had a unique privilege to daven the Yom Kippur Katan tefillos with hundreds of YU talmdim in the YU Glueck Beis Medrash. This was an amazing opportunity that was only afforded to MTA talmidim. Rav Schachter’s psak is below, and iy”H, may all the tefillos will be answered l’tova.