Talmud for Taanit 54:9

It was stated¹⁵²Babli 27b.: The people of the watch¹⁵³Meaning the bystanders who do not work in this week. are fasting every day. On Monday they were fasting for travellers at sea; God commanded, there shall be a spread in midst of the water¹⁵⁴Gen. 1:6.. On Tuesday they are fasting for road travellers; God commanded, the waters under the sky shall congregate¹⁵⁵Gen. 1:9.. On Wednesday they are fasting for children that diphteria should not develop in their mouths; God commanded, there shall be lights¹⁵⁶Gen. 1:14.. “Curses” is written¹⁵⁷Reading מְאֹרוֹת as מְאֵרוֹת.. On Thursday they are fasting that pregnant women should not miscarry and that the children of nursing women should not die; God commanded, let the waters teem with living creepers¹⁵⁸Gen. 1:20.. They fasted neither on Friday nor on Sunday in order to honor the Sabbath. It was stated: The Great Synhedrion was fasting with them. Can the Synhedrion fast every day? They split themselves into clans. “One does not fast for two reasons simultaneously¹⁵⁹Babli 8b., from the following: we rose and asked of our God for this¹⁶⁰Ezra 8:23, misquoted. The same misquote is in the Munich ms. of the Babli (Diqduqe Soferim Ta`anit p. 38, Note ס). Therefore the misquote is a Midrash, not a scribal error. Editors of the printed Babli corrected the quote..” Rebbi Tanḥuma said, not because of this but because of the following, to ask for mercy from the God of Heaven for this secret¹⁶¹Dan. 2:18.. For if there were two reasons, such as a drought and locusts, one blows the shofar about them. When Rebbi Ḥaggai went for a fast, he said before them: Our brothers, even though in our hearts are many worries, this is for what we came.