If these [fasts] passed and they were not answered [with rain], Beis Din decrees [a series of] three more fasts upon the [entire] community. They may eat and drink [only] while it is still daytime, and they are forbidden to work, bathe, anoint [themselves with oil], wear shoes, and have marital relations. Also, they must lock the [public] bathhouses.  [If] these [fasts] passed and they were not answered [with rain], Beis Din decrees [a series of] seven more [fasts] upon them —- totaling thirteen fasts upon the [entire] community.  These [latter seven fasts] are more stringent than the earlier ones, for on these they sound the shofar and lock the stores; on Monday they may open [the store doors] partially toward evening, but on Thursday they are permitted [to keep the doors open] in honor of the Sabbath.

[If] these [fasts] passed and they were not answered [with rain], they must decrease commerce, construction, planting, betrothals, marriages, and greeting one another —- as [befits] people censured by the Omnipresent.  The [distinguished] individuals resume their fasting until Nissan is over. If after Nissan ended rain fell, it is a symptom of curse; as it says: Is today not the wheat harvest ...?

What is the order [of service] for fast days? They would bring out the Ark to the town square and place ashes upon the Ark, the head of the Nassi, and the head of the Chief of the Court, and everyone [else] places [ashes] upon his [own] head.  The eldest among them would preach words of inspiration before them: “Our brethren, it is not stated regarding the people of Nineveh: And God saw their sackcloth and their fasting, but [rather]: And God saw their deeds, that they repented their evil ways. And in the admonition he states: Now rend your hearts and not your clothing.”

They [then] began to pray.  They send before the Ark a well-versed elder, who has children and whose house is empty, so that his heart should be fully [devoted] in prayer. He recites before them twenty-four blessings: the eighteen which are [recited] every day, and six more which are added.