It\u2019s always interesting to see how different people can read the same text so very differently, and it is often enlightening to read a text through another\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
Years ago, I was teaching an adult education class designed for beginner students, from all backgrounds and streams of Judaism, to build skills in learning halachic texts. I chose to focus on the various holidays, and in the course of our study of Purim, we read the the Rema\u2019s guidelines for determining whether or not to fast on Taanit Esther:<\/p>\n
This fast is not obligatory; therefore, one may be lenient about it in a time of need, such as a pregnant or nursing woman\u2026and even those whose eyes pain them, if they are suffering greatly, they should not fast but will repay [the fast] afterwards. But other healthy individuals should not separate from the tzibbur (community).<\/strong> (Orach Chaim 686:2)<\/em><\/p>\n One student perked up at that last line and said \u201cSo he\u2019s saying that as long as you\u2019re a part of the community, it doesn\u2019t matter if you fast?\u201d While this reading made sense within her religious philosophy and approach to halachic observance, it was the furthest possibility from my mind when I read the Rema! Her question, though, got me thinking: Why did he say it in that awkward, confusing way? Why not just say \u201ca healthy person must fast,\u201d or even more concisely, say nothing at all? Once he elaborated on who may eat, the reader could reasonably assume that everyone else must fast!<\/p>\n As soon as I recovered from my surprise, I told her I was sure that on the contrary, the Rema was emphasizing the importance of fasting if one is healthy enough to do so. Why, then, the awkward phrasing? It seemed my student did have a point, in part. The Rema\u2019s wording indeed places heavy emphasis on \u201cbeing part of the community.\u201d Not instead<\/strong> of fasting, but by<\/strong> fasting; in other words, he describes the fast as a method by which to join the community. Like she said, community is the goal; fasting is secondary, a means to that end.<\/p>\n Which seemed a little weird. We tend to think of fast days as a cry to G-d, an opportunity for introspection and repentence, or a time of mourning – not as a social occasion! While we do add to our prayers on Taanit Esther, somehow this one is different.<\/p>\n The Rema opens his comment with the statement that \u201cthis fast is not obligatory\u201d yet he is strongly encouraging us to fast. What is this fast, if not an obligation? According to some Rishonim<\/em>, it is a memorial to the fast Esther called for in Shushan; to understand the unique nature of this day, we have to look at the original.<\/p>\n When Esther first heard what Mordechai wanted her to do and balked at the suggestion, Mordechai responded, \u201cDon\u2019t imagine that you will escape, in the royal palace, \u05de\u05db\u05dc \u05d4\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d3\u05d9\u05dd (4:13).\u05de\u05db\u05dc \u05d4\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d3\u05d9\u05dd \u2013 \u201cout of all the Jews,\u201d or maybe \u201cfrom all the Jews\u201d \u2013 perhaps, \u201caway<\/strong> from all the Jews.\u201d Esther, stuck in the palace and married to the Persian king, was disconnected from the rest of the Jewish community; she hadn\u2019t even heard the news of the decree that had the rest of her people crying in the streets. Mordechai reminded her that her isolation was an illusion: she was bound up with this nation even if she hadn\u2019t been feeling it.<\/p>\n So that when Esther responded, telling Mordechai to get the people to fast, it wasn\u2019t just a way to pray for divine help; in fact, like the rest of the Megillah, Esther\u2019s instructions don\u2019t explicitly mention G-d or prayer. Instead, she tells him \u201cGo, and gather all the Jews in Shushan<\/strong>, and fast \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u2026 and my \u05e0\u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05ea (servants) and I will thus fast, and with this I will go to the king<\/strong>.\u201d (v. 16) As it happens, the Jews were already fasting (v. 3), so what exactly was Esther adding? She wanted them to \u201cgather,\u201d and she wanted them to fast \u201c\u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u201d \u2013 which we usually think of as simply \u201con my behalf,\u201d but perhaps could be understood as \u201cupon me,\u201d or even \u201calong with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps her goal in \u201cgathering\u201d the people for this fast wasn\u2019t simply gathering them<\/em> together, but gathering them to her<\/em>, creating a way for her to feel connected again. Only \u201cwith this\u201d could she possibly overcome her sense of isolation and find the strength to risk her life and plan effective action to save her people.<\/p>\n Somehow, fasting as a community has a special power to unite, to create a sense of connection. When I had to drink and eat \u201cshiurim<\/em>\u201d on Yom Kippur a few years ago, I remember being first excited at the prospect of feeling good enough to go to shul for Neilah and maybe even focus, and then disappointed to discover that Neilah just wasn\u2019t the same. There I was, surrounded by the same community as every Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and I didn\u2019t feel the connection I always loved, that was always so inspiring. Everyone else had been in it together, and I hadn\u2019t. Everyone else could join in a powerful \u201cHashem Hu Ha\u2019Elokim<\/em>,\u201d and I felt like an interloper. I observed the day in accordance with halacha; of that I had no doubt. But I hadn\u2019t experienced the fast with my community.<\/p>\n This power of a shared experience, in particular that of fasting, of \u201cmaking it through\u201d together, doesn\u2019t even require physical proximity. The Rema\u2019s wording \u00a0actually comes from an earlier source, recorded by the Beit Yosef in the name of Rashi. He tells us that a woman who was going to have to travel on Taanit Esther asked whether she could eat that day and make up the fast a different day; it was in response to her question that the answer was given, \u201cThis fast is not from the Torah and not Rabbinic, rather only a minhag\u2026and even so, it is forbidden for a person to separate from the community.\u201d She wasn\u2019t going to be with her community; on the contrary, she would be isolated on the road! But perhaps that was all the more reason for her to fast on the same day as everyone else. Just like Esther came up with the strategy of \u201cgathering\u201d through fasting to create connection, this traveler could \u2013 and must \u2013 \u201cgather\u201d with her people to fast, wherever she might be.<\/p>\n Like what I learned about Yom Kippurim, the day that is \u201ck\u2019Purim,\u201d like Purim \u2013 we have the opportunity on Taanit Esther to unite, wherever we are, through a shared experience. And perhaps that serves a particularly important purpose as a preface to the day of Purim itself, when we have the opportunity to rejoice specifically as a community, with so many mitzvos designed to bring us closer together but that come with a risk of deteriorating into empty frivolity. If we drink, is it to enjoy ourselves, or to connect with each other and the joy of the day? If we choose to put hours into creative or fancy mishloach manot<\/em>, is that to show off what we can do or to create a sense of community with those to whom we give? Is matanot l\u2019evyonim<\/em> a chore to be checked off, or an opportunity to remember our connection with every Jew, in every place, in every kind of circumstance?<\/p>\n We all fast together, wherever we are, and that shared experience has the potential to bring us into the day of Purim in the spirit of connection and community. It is<\/strong> a social occasion, if we make it so. Like Esther, though hopefully not with the same stakes, we can be inspired by that connection to act for each other as one, on Purim and beyond.<\/p>\n We might even remember our connection and see what we can learn by looking through each other\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s always interesting to see how different people can read the same text so very differently, and it is often enlightening to read a text through another\u2019s eyes. Years ago, I was teaching an adult education class designed for beginner students, from all backgrounds and streams of Judaism, to build skills in learning halachic texts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133565,"featured_media":45178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fast-of-esther"],"yoast_head":"\n