Why is it called a fast…

Posted By: Kathleen DavidPosted On:

…when it seems to go so frickin’ slow?

At any rate, Yom Kippur is done (well do I remember several years ago when it fell smack on my birthday. “So what are you doing for your birthday?” “Not eating and going to synagogue.”

Still, I had a lot to think about this year, and a lot to be thankful for. Hope everyone else who observed Yom Kippuer this year had an easy fast.

PAD

52 comments on “Why is it called a fast…”

  2. You know what else? I think there’s a plot amongst food companies to purposely ramp up their advertising on Yom Kippur so that when you get home from shul and you put on the TV, all you see is food commercials! AARRRGGHHHH!
    All the best to you and yours.
    Incidentally, we held our traditional “breaking the fast” dinner at our home this year. We are the proud great aunt and uncle to a new niece, Ella Hechter, who came into the world one week ago today. Barb outdid herself tonight, as we had everyone over. The year is already off to a great start!

  3. Ðámņ. I totally ate today. Though to be fair there was a stretch between 2pm and 11:30pm where I didn’t eat. And I slept for eight hours, so there’s only seven hours unaccounted for. So one could say that I fasted for most of the day. In other words, I’m a bad Jew, but a good Sophist.

  4. I always try to fast and I always cheat around 3pm, with only 2-3 hours to go. This year I said I was definitely going to make it. My wife isn’t Jewish but she respects my religion (as I do hers) and we are raising the boys Jewish. I don’t know why but she’s been full of great ideas about things to eat in this past 24 hours that I could kill her (which would throw a bit of a monkey wrench into that whole attoning for my sins thing).

    Right after dinner on Friday: Let’s go for ice cream.
    Later that night: Let’s wake up in the morning and walk to get bagels.
    Even later that night: We need to get cookies for the boys.

    I was waiting for her to suggest French toast for breakfast.

    (By the way, I made it to 2:30 this time. The boys needed lunch and the KFC strips and bisquit called out to me “Be a bad Jew…eat me!” I am so ashamed. Sorry, God)

  5. And if that isn’t bad enough, who do you think is up now with the baby at 2-frickin-30 inthe morning and thinking of FRENCH TOAST?????

  6. Well, another Starvation day–err, Day of Atonement over, and, with luck, a happy new year during which we shall all be written into the Book of Life to come …

    Me, I got through the fast okay (of course, because of my meds, I get a loophole; I’m allowed to drink water.), helped not at all by the fact that Burger King sent me a whole mess of coupons on Friday. It MUST be a plot.

    (resists urge to tie a conspiracy in to Colonel Sanders, KFC, and some sort of Protocols of the Elder of Fryin’ …)

  7. Belated greetings for a Happy New Year and Birthday to you, Peter. Let’s hope that we’ve all been inscribed in the Book of Life by the Other Writer of Stuff (or perhaps Writer of All Stuff).
    And I can sympahtize about having a birthday fall on Yom Kippur. It’s happened to me twice in the past 18 years.

  8. Anyone see Woody Allen’s “Radio Days”? I love the scene where the uncle goes over to confront the communist neighbors about grilling while they fast. Then comes back speaking about the struggle of the urban prolitarite, too funny! The Jewish folks have more moxie then me. I couldn’t make it. But then again, I am hyperglycemic. All my best on the holiday…

  9. Another one over – I can’t be the only one that looks forward to it a little less each year…

    However, as I wrote on my blog:

    Once upon a time, there was a man who, once a year, put on a shoe with a stone sewed into the inner sole. The whole day, he walked around wearing the shoe. Just when he thought he’d gotten used to it, he’d step on a bump in the road, and the uncomfortable impediment inside his shoe would remind him just how obvious the stone was. Even when he thought he was thinking about other things, the thought of the stone crept in. And then, at the end of the day, he took the shoe off – oh, what pleasure he got from it…

    And now you know what fasting for 25 hours is like, and how much I enjoyed the first meal afterwards.

  10. Have a good year, y’all.

    My sister had a birthday on Yom Kippur this year. It’s quite a miserable concept.

    Me, I have a birthday like 2 days after Rabin got assasinated, so if I’m in Israel, believe me, a happy birthday it isn’t. Everybody’s sort of quiet that week (rightly so… not often can you actually pinpoint the precise moment your country went to hëll).

    Anyway, to make your fast easier next year, here’s a couple good tricks my bar-mitzvah rabbi tought me (I don’t fast, but it worked back then on the one time I bothered): after the ‘last meal’, so right before the fast, have about half a liter of strong black coffee, COLD, no sugar. You won’t get thirsty for the entire fast.

    As for the hunger, well, the best thing is 3-4 days before the fast just eat slightly less than you usually would, and eliminate snacking. And on that last meal, eat slightly less than that. Reason is that most snacking is a psychological need, so get it out of your routine and you’ll miss it less; and eating MORE than usual expands your stomach making you hungry much earlier the next day, while eating less contracts it; you will actually need less food during those 24 hours.

    This way, you won’t waste the entire atonement day thinking about food while you’re supposed to be praying and feeling all guilty towards the lord and your fellow man – and thus actually ADDING to your ‘sins’ by concentrating on the earthly and not the divine…

  11. And how does not eating get you closer to “god”?

    Only if you you fast long enough to starve to death…

  12. Ya know if you stop watching the Food Network it is easier. I tend to not eat in front of Peter on Yom Kippur. He did feed Caroline lunch while I went off and saw Sky Captain. We broke his fast with pizza and garlic knots.

  13. Please say Peter wasn’t there while you watched Food Network during his fast… that’s just MEAN

  14. It’s a lot less fun when you’re trying to fast and wait out a hurricane at the same time. The worst part? Two pounds of very good, very expensive lox waiting until I can make it over to my parents.

  15. Pizza and garlic knots, Kath? Amateurs. For me it was Haagen-Dasz Bananas Foster ice cream. Okay, to tell the truth that came later, we had an “English breakfast” so I fear I’m already inscribed in the book of “pig meat does not automatically become kosher just because you cook it, young lady.” And Rob was very tolerant of my fast, he was kind enough to eat marmite in front of me which effectively put me off food for just that little while longer…

  17. No. I didn’t watch the food network yesterday. I was making a snarky comment to all the people who wondered why there seemed to be more food commericals than usual on Yom Kippur.

    We watched Finding Nemo 3 times in a row and the Sox Yankees game. It must take some intestinal foritude to be a Sox fan.

  19. I’ve often wondered: Would you call a competition between hunger strikers a race to see who’s the faster?

  20. How long does the fasting last? Is it 24 hours, or just sun-up to sun-down? And how is this adhered to with a baby like Caroline who needs to eaty? Is it only practiced among adults of consenting age?

  21. How long does the fasting last? Is it 24 hours, or just sun-up to sun-down?

    It’s near as dammit 25 hours. In London, it was from 6:39 on Friday evening until 7:40 Saturday night.

    And how is this adhered to with a baby like Caroline who needs to eaty? Is it only practiced among adults of consenting age?

    Only those regarded as adults in Judaism are obliged to fast, i.e. females once they reach the age of twelve and guys from the age of thirteen. (Of course, when I say ‘obliged’, I’m limiting that obligation to strict adherance to Jewish Law – I’m not about to criticise anyone Jewish who chose not to fast for whatever reason.)

  22. I’m not a Jew, I’m a Methodist, which is, as more than one comedian has noted, as close to being Jewish as you can get…I did not fast, but have the ultimate compassion for those who feel it is appropriate. My husband, who is Jewish, taunts G-d on the holy days and thus far has not been hit by lightning or any other such “punishment”. So I’m waiting and keeping my distance for when G-d decides to prove He/She is real to my DH… 🙂

  23. As I understand it
    You are not allowed to fast if it would adversely affect your health (ie: pregancy). If you have a medical conditon that would be effected by a fast then by jewish law you may not fast. Children don’t fast until they have been bar/bat mitzvah(ed) around the age of 12 or 13. Children are to be feed as usual. It is from sun down on one day until sun down the next day.

  24. While the fast is technically from sundown to sundown, those whose [I]shul[/I] begins services before sundown (including the afternoon service called [I]Minchah[/I]) begin fasting before leaving for services. Then, when services end at sundown, marking the beginning of the next day, immediately [I]Maariv[/I], or evening services, take place. So the fast is often observed for longer periods of time. For example, I ended eating and drinking at around 5 on Friday night, and did not eat again until Saturday night around 8 (it takes aobut 20 minutes for me to get to/from [I]shul[/I], and I like to get there early for better seating).

  25. Ah, Yom Kippur. Just one of many reasons I forsook all religion over a decade ago. I respect the reasons others have for following it, but it’s just not for me.

    …To be fair, I forsook all religion back when my rabbi riped off his robe to reveal a Michael Jackson Thriller outfit, then began having the chorus sing one of his kid friendly songs while he moonwalked.

    I swear, I’m not making this up.

  26. Well, on the note of losing one’s religion, I lost mine around the age of twelve. My parents had raised me Roman Catholic. We’d been having a pretty lousy time of things, as my dad had been laid off from the Steel Mill where he worked for almost a full year. My mom was working at a local diner, and my dad had been doing some mechanic work under the table for a local garage. We weren’t starving (though more than one meal consisted of a box of Macaroni and Cheese), and we were able to keep up on the bills, but it was a dámņ near thing. So then we get a letter from the pastor of our parish. He said that we were going to be kicked out of the church if we didn’t start giving more money in the Sunday collection plate.
    That was it for me, ladies and gentlemen.

  27. My fast didn’t go too badly this year. Fortunately, we made a point of watching lots of HBO, which has no food commercials. I felt bad for my poor dad who always insists on going to the evening services, even though they extend well past the end of the holiday, and this time got stuck driving a friend’s son home before coming back to break the fast.

    Hope all of you have a very happy and a healthy new year.

  28. I’m a non-religious Catholic & my wife’s a Reform / formerly Conservative Jew. She spends all day at shul so she doesn’t cheat on her fast, and I spend most of the afternoon cooking her a “break-the-fast” meal. It seems to work rather well for us…

  29. I’m not the most religious of jews, suffice it to say I’m not the kind that will simply sit in my seat and do as I am told by a person who doesn’t know me, based on what he read in a scroll that is somewhere around 5800 years old. But to keep the peace in the family I do go to shul on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and I at least make the attempt of fasting on the latter.

    However, diabetes and other similar disorders, where fasting would not be a good idea, run in the family so I’m the only person left in the house who is even physically capable of fasting if I actually want to. Most years I only make it to the late afternoon before I am forced to eat upon fear of fainting though. Strangely, I don’t find myself feeling any less sinful after YK then I do beforehand. If anything, I feel more so because the various prayers include lists of sins that I hadn’t even though about until before I read them!

  30. For me, Yom Kippur was not the worst. It was Passover. Peter comments that occasionally Yom Kippur falls on his birthday. For me, Passover screwed up my birthday every other year. This year was probably my last time attending (my dad passed away four weeks ago), but I still broke the fast the same way I celebrate Passover: with a Bacon Cheeseburger with mayo (three-and-a-half sins!)

  31. Wow. This all makes me glad I’m not Jewish, and not really religious in general. My father’s family is largely Presbyterian. My mother’s family is Catholic. However, by the time it all trickled down to my generation, we just ended up being sort of casually Christian. It all boils down to: 1) Celebrate the more marketable holidays, 2) Go to the candlelight service at my Grandma’s church on Christmas Eve and 3) Try not to make too many wisecracks in bad taste about Church, God or Jesus in front of Grandma.

    But, man! I would never have the willpower to fast. I have a newfound respect for you guys. All in all though, better you than me.

  32. Um, where did the concept that being a Methodist is as close to Jewish as you can get? I was raised Methodist, and from what I know of Judaism from various SOs, friends, my own reading, etc., I’m not seeing any particular similarities. Heck, Harlan once disparged my deli judgement by wrapping up a rant on the concept of a worldclass deli in the Midwest with “And you’re a WASP from North Carolina, how do you know from worldclass deli?”. Admittedly, around an hour later, after he’d actually eaten at said deli, he did admit I was right, so there might be something to it. 🙂

  33. CLOSER TO GOD: No… Yom Kippur is a day where you’re supposed to concentrate on your ‘sins’ against ‘your lord’ and fellow man. You apologize to whomever you think you might have hurt, and pray apologetically to Mr. G. To enhance the experience, punish yourself and differentiate this day from others, you deny yourself food.

    CHILDREN: While yeah, you’d only HAVE to fast once you’ve reached Mitzvah age, kids (in Israel, anyway) just fûçkìņg LOVE fasting for some reason. Many do it enthusiastically from as early as the age of 5… simply refuse to eat.

  34. Me, I never was the type of person to swear blind allegiance to any authority without questioning stuff, even throughout my upbringing as a Catholic, but the thing that began me on the road to agnosticism several years ago was Michael Shermer’s [i]Why People Believe Weird Things[/i], and other subsequent books and writings by people like Carl Sagan, James Randi, Robert Park, etc.

  36. Only those regarded as adults in Judaism are obliged to fast, i.e. females once they reach the age of twelve and guys from the age of thirteen. (Of course, when I say ‘obliged’, I’m limiting that obligation to strict adherance to Jewish Law – I’m not about to criticise anyone Jewish who chose not to fast for whatever reason.)

    Which brings up my question. My ex-girlfriend/best friend/I don’t know really know how to explain it without overly complicating things… converted to Athesism when she left for college six years ago. Now she’s back living with her folks and they try to force her (a twenty three year old woman) to participate in Holiday against her will. Sick of the dietary restrictions during Passover, she snuck out to visit me as much as she could so she could have access to my mom’s cooking. This year she asked me (her only friend with no sort of religous background) to go the store and get her snacks and stuff Friday afternoon and bringing them back before sunset so she could hide them in her room. Only she wasn’t there when I got there. The question is: if she HAD been there, would it have been morally wrong to do so?

  37. ITEM: As Rabbi explained it to us this year, one fasts because it is easy to just write off one’s sins when one is full of strength and energy. After 24 hours, when one gets a bit weaker, it’s a little more impressive on asking to be forgiven, and to make a promise that one will remember.

    ITEM: As long as I have known, fasts and other such religious requirements have always been subject to conditions. The very young and elderly are not required to fast, and those on medication may take it (along with whatever is required to make it work – drinking water, and sometimes some food is necessary for medication.) Likewise, a Jew is NOT required to observe religious restrictions, or even services, under threatening conditions – so any number of Jews in Florida weren’t going to be doing anything wrong by being out of state on Friday and Saturday.

    They CAN observe if they wish, despite the conditions – but G-D doesn’t require more of us than we can give.

    And a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to my fellow MoTs on the blog!

  38. “The question is: if she HAD been there, would it have been morally wrong to do so?”

    Well, yeah, it’s morally wrong because she’s actively dishonoring her parents, and I seem to recall there’s a commandment about that (plus I question the terminology of “converting to atheism,” but that’s another discussion.) She’s 23 years old, for crying out loud. If she doesn’t want to adhere to Jewish law, then she’s gotta square it with her parents. Either she respects their wishes or she doesn’t respect their wishes, but the sneaking around thing is deceitful.

    During Passover it may well mean she’s gotta keep her own stuff separate (if her parents clean out the pantry of all leavened stuff). And if she’s going to eat on Yom Kippur, I think it would certainly be appropriate to eat out or in her room, rather than–say–ordering in a pizza and consuming it in the living room while her parents look on and glower.

    Her parents are adults and she’s an adult. Time to start dealing like adults instead of her acting like a guilty teenager.

    Just my opinion.

    PAD

  39. Yeah, “converting to aethiesm” does sound weird. I suggest the more accurate “Waking up and facing reality” 🙂

  41. Yeah, “converting to aethiesm” does sound weird. I suggest the more accurate “Waking up and facing reality” 🙂

    Yes, Atheisism is a faith. A faith that there is nothing greater than the human mind and that this life is the only one we get. No eternal rewards, no do overs, no gaurenttee that anything we do even matters. A belief that we must make the best life we can while we still have one and not waste a single second.

    It has, in fact, at least two different sects.

    There is the flat out No God and No Need for a god line of thinking. Essentially complete nihilism. Which is what I was prior to the late 90s.

    Then there is the line of thinking that people like Joeseph Campbell talked about. Where all Gods, Demons, Werewolves, Jedis and Sith are are metaphor for traits within in people and that religous traditions are was to reinvent the self and learn to create connections to our past and to others. Even without religon of people develop little habits and quirks that they feel will cleanse themselves. It’s all about finding your bliss. That line of thinking is something that you can convert to. Not counting myself, I know two people who’ve done it.

  42. Being goyim (yes I read too much), I hope your Yom Kippur was a good one.
    There’s an interesting book by Chaim Potok called The Promise, which was the sequel to The Chosen. In it, a character was an athiest, but believed in the traditions of Judaism. In fact, he believed in celebrating his jewish heritage, he just didn’t believe in God.
    And he had one of my most favorite quotes, and believe me, this is paraphrased:
    “I wish I did believe in God, so I could have someone to yell at.”
    Anyway, my 2 cents.

    Travis

  44. Didn’t fast…didn’t go to temple…to be honest, forgot about it entirely until after the fact….I knew it was coming, I knew it was going..just didn’t realize it was there. Granted I wasn’t able to really wake up all day..just exhausted…

    I suppose I could feel bad..but I don’t think I will..not over that anyway.

  45. Try fasting and getting ready for a hurricaine 🙂

    David, who’s had a few Passover birthdays himself

  47. Some of your interpretation of what Yom Kippur is about disagrees with what I was taught.

    Simply, on Rosh Hashanah, the decree for the next year of your life is laid down. Yom Kippur is the final appeal process, after which the judgement is sealed. The fasting and the extra praying is part of that.

    The Big G, Mr. G, or the other euphemisms used earlier, as often mentioned in multiple Judeo-Christian texts, is very lenient on people. Look at the story of Jonah, read on Yom Kippur. You can be horrible, but if you repent, He will forgive you.

    So on Yom Kippur, if not any other time(if any other time, at least Rosh Hashanah), the idea is to give everything up. To go as far as you can, to prove you at least serious enough to do that.

    So the question people should ask themselves, after all this debating, boils down to: Can you devote one day a year at least to Him?

    I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard. But it is something to think about, isn’t it?

  48. “Yes, Atheisism is a faith. A faith that there is nothing greater than the human mind and that this life is the only one we get. No eternal rewards, no do overs, no gaurenttee that anything we do even matters. A belief that we must make the best life we can while we still have one and not waste a single second.”

    Actually, most of what you just said is basic Judaism. It only diverges in two places. The first is Judiasm would teach that God put us here, whereas an atheist would say that’s not the case. And saying there’s “no guarnatee that anything we do even matters” is just nonsense. Everything we do matters if for no other reason than that it impacts on our fellow man.

    Oh, and Travis…you’re not a goyim. Goyim is plural. One goy. Two goyim.

    PAD

  50. Actually, most of what you just said is basic Judaism. It only diverges in two places. The first is Judiasm would teach that God put us here, whereas an atheist would say that’s not the case. And saying there’s “no guarnatee that anything we do even matters” is just nonsense. Everything we do matters if for no other reason than that it impacts on our fellow man.

    I went through the first two decades of my life thinking that what I did, getting up in the morning, going to school (or summer camp or work or whatever) eating, sleeping, reading and generally filling up space and that nothing I did really had to be done by me specifically. That if I weren’t born somebody else would have been and to be quite honest their life probably wouldn’t have been much different than mine. Maybe they’d be hearing impaired like me. Maybe they wouldn’t be. Maybe they’d have some other problem. That the details of who were are don’t really matter much. I wasn’t necessarily a happy a person during those times, but that is a whole other story.

    This best friend/ex-girlfriend/Overly Complicated mess? I think part of the reason it IS an overly complicated mess is because she makes me care about what happens to people– to her and yes even to me. Despite the fact that she drives me crazy sometimes… it’s the right kind of crazy. I’m actually happy. Anyway, I’m not sure that makes things really matter or not. It makes things matter to me and maybe that’s enough. It is a case where I’d rather be WRONG and happy, then be RIGHT and an emotional wreck.

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