Origins
The origins of the Fast of the Firstborn are found in the Talmud, and the custom may have existed even prior to Talmudic times. The primary Talmudic source quoted for this custom is found in Tractate Soferim (21:3), where it is stated that firstborns fast "in commemoration of the miracle that they were saved from the Plague of the Firstborn." Rabbeinu Asher, in his comprehensive halakhic commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 10:19), as well as Rabbeinu Aharon HaKohein in his Orchot Chayyim (p. 76, ยง13), quote the Jerusalem Talmud (Pesachim 68a) as an additional source for the fast.
The Chatam Sofer suggests that the firstborn Israelites fasted in trepidation in advance of the Plague of the Firstborn; despite a divine guarantee of safety, they felt a need to fast in repentance to achieve greater divine protection. The Chatam Sofer thus posits that this was the precedent for the Fast of the Firstborn.
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