{"id":33005,"date":"2013-07-08T17:31:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T17:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=33005"},"modified":"2013-10-21T16:09:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T16:09:59","slug":"fasting-excersise-in-righteousness-or-just-hunger-pangs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/fasting-excersise-in-righteousness-or-just-hunger-pangs\/","title":{"rendered":"Fasting: Exercise in Righteousness or, Just Hunger Pangs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rabbi-Eliyahu-Safran_avatar\"<\/a>Our calendar is dotted with a number of fast days, days when we are called upon to deny ourselves the deep and satisfying pleasure of food and drink.\u00a0 Some of these fasts, like Tsom Gedaliah<\/i>, Asarah beTevet<\/i>, Shiva Asar B\u2019Tamuz <\/i>and Tisha B\u2019Av<\/i>, are public and recall dark events in our history.\u00a0 Others, like Ta\u2019anit Esther<\/i>, remind us of moments of agony coupled with ultimate salvation.<\/p>\n

And, of course, there is our fast <\/i>on Yom Kippur<\/i> at the conclusion of the awe-filled Days of Repentance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>These fasts demand that we bring \u201csuffering\u201d upon ourselves.\u00a0 But why?\u00a0 And perhaps most importantly, do our fasts accomplish what the mitzvah demands?\u00a0 After all, the events that these fasts commemorate happened long, long ago.\u00a0 How could we possibly identify with those times.\u00a0 And how does giving up our Starbucks help us do so?<\/p>\n

We know that the purpose of our fasts are to motivate us toward repentance, reflection and introspection. \u00a0But, really, are hunger pangs, deprivation and caffeine-loss headaches the best way to accomplish this?<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure.\u00a0 So I polled a number of good, observant Jews and asked them, \u201cHow\/what\u00a0 do you feel when you fast?\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of the responses were a variation of, \u201cWe Jews love to suffer.\u00a0 Our fasts prove it.\u201d\u00a0 Some fasted for no other reason than the obligation to fast.\u00a0 \u201cIt is suffering without purpose or context,\u201d they complained.\u00a0 Some felt put out by the need to fast.\u00a0 Others showed flashes of humor in their responses.\u00a0 \u201cWould Gedaliah have fasted for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost every person assessed the minor fasts differently than they did Yom Kippur <\/i>or Tisha B\u2019Av <\/i>where the power of the moment combined with the demands of the fast to create a sense of holiness. \u00a0For them, the minor fasts seemed more like transitory obstacles rather than moments of holy introspection.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast days make me feel as though there is a dark cloud hanging over me.\u00a0 I feel weak.\u00a0 Anxious.\u00a0 And hungry.\u00a0 Very hungry!\u201d<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t our focus on repentance, reflection and the significance of these tragedies be more powerful if we were not depleted and distracted by our interest in \u201cHow much longer?\u201d<\/p>\n

For those of us who live to eat (versus eat to live!) few things have the potential to break us down and put us out of sorts as taking away our pleasure.\u00a0 However, there is another way to view fasting, a way that was articulated by a dear friend of mine who had a passion for his chosen profession, medicine.\u00a0 His zeal and determination to become the very best doctor he could be was a blessing to his patients.<\/p>\n

When he was an intern, he actually resented <\/i>the time that eating took away from his experience of learning.\u00a0 Consequently, he got into the habit of not eating during the day.\u00a0 By not eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, he could focus on his responsibilities and actually get home an hour or two earlier than some of his colleagues.<\/p>\n

He laughed as he related his experience to me.\u00a0 \u201cAll those years of not eating during the day.\u00a0 I almost never feel hunger during the day but when I get home at night\u2026 I am like Pavlov\u2019s dog.\u00a0 I am practically starving <\/i>by the time I walk through the door.\u201d\u00a0 Which brought him to my question.\u00a0 \u201cDuring a fast of only one daylight, I hardly recognize that I\u2019m fasting.\u00a0 As a consequence, it requires a conscious effort for me to remember that it is a fast day and why, and what I should be doing or thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast days that begin at night\u2026 well, remember, I tend to be hungry at night<\/i> when the fast begins, as I am when I return home from shul.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, during ta\u2019anit <\/i>like Yom Kippur <\/i>that begin the night before I don\u2019t need \u2018reminders\u2019 to focus me on the fast and what it means.\u00a0 Of course, my awareness might also have a lot to do with being in shul most of the day\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It is only during fasts that challenge his \u201cPavlovian response\u201d that the actual fasting impresses itself upon him.\u00a0 But the act of fasting itself <\/i>does not seem to focus his thoughts more surely on the message and meaning of the commemoration.<\/p>\n

If fasting seems not to accomplish its purpose either with those for whom the physical deprivation is easy or difficult, why do we persist in engaging in fasts?\u00a0 Certainly because it is commanded.\u00a0 That is reason enough.\u00a0 But when called upon to observe a mitzvah <\/i>aren\u2019t we better off for finding meaning in the doing of <\/i>that mitzvah, as well as in the rationale for doing it?<\/p>\n

I think that, to truly grasp the power of fasting, we have to confront the power of what it is that we are giving up.\u00a0 What is more essential, more basic, to our physical existence than eating and drinking?\u00a0 In our need to eat and drink, we are no different than any other beast of the field.<\/p>\n

The demand for repentance is a demand that we become \u201cother\u201d, that we step outside our basic selves.\u00a0 Certainly, that means that we leave behind our more base selves and embrace our more holy selves.<\/p>\n

What better way to accomplish that than to abstain from the act that makes us thoroughly and completely basic?<\/p>\n

Strip away our physical need and what is left?\u00a0 Neshama<\/i>.\u00a0 The soul.\u00a0 It is true that God created us as physical beings but not only <\/i>physical beings.\u00a0 There are times when we must test what it means to leave our physical selves behind.\u00a0 It is not easy.\u00a0 Our physical selves cry out in discomfort.\u00a0 We must allow our souls to raise themselves above that discomfort.\u00a0 When we walk home after Neilah<\/i>, our thoughts should not be, \u201cBoy, am I am hungry!\u201d but rather, \u201cI am purified!\u201d<\/p>\n

By afflicting our bodies, we afflict our souls \u2013 the true goal of the fast.\u00a0 Jewish values do not embrace physical affliction.\u00a0 Rather, the Torah teaches us to \u201cafflict your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cV’inisem es nafshoseichem<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Afflict your soul so your physical existence has meaning.\u00a0\u00a0 We fast to awaken ourselves from a deep slumber; from the numbness of apathy and egotism; from the superficiality of our physical existence.\u00a0 We fast to wake up! <\/em><\/p>\n

We know intellectually that there will be a day when we shirk off our physical selves forever.\u00a0 We will die.\u00a0 We know <\/i>it in our heads but in our hearts we believe we will live forever.\u00a0 This is the reason an eighty year old man can stare at his wrinkled reflection in the mirror and be astonished that the smooth face of a young boy is not looking back at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere did the time go?\u201d<\/p>\n

The moments seem to slip by so slowly and imperceptibly\u2026 when can we actually feel <\/i>the passage of time?\u00a0 The sands slip through so gently.\u00a0 It is only the tzom, <\/i>the rare moment that demands that we discard the temporal, that we shirk, if only for a few, short hours, the comfort of our physical selves.\u00a0 It is only then that we have the chance to glimpse the person we are beyond our bodies.<\/p>\n

Only through those long hours, coming to their magnificent conclusion at neilah<\/i>, do we finally begin to get to a place where our awareness is not merely intellectual, but deeper and therefore more frightening.<\/p>\n

Our end is nigh.<\/p>\n

We know it because we can feel it during our fasts.\u00a0 And, feeling it, we have the opportunity to move forward from our fasts by making our lives more holy and meaningful.<\/p>\n

The psalmist wings, \u201cSo teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even for those who are \u201cobservant\u201d, mitzvot <\/i>often lose power because they are done almost by reflex.\u00a0 We mumble brachot <\/i>so fast so that the words have no sound or meaning.\u00a0 We speed through the Amidah <\/i>so perfunctorily that we sometimes cannot remember if we\u2019ve said, Ya\u2019aleh v\u2019Yavo<\/i>.\u00a0 We cover the challah before Kiddush<\/i> so as \u201cnot to embarrass the challah or hurt its feelings\u201d but then go on to say things at the dinner table that embarrass someone.<\/p>\n

Many engage in ritual but never emerge from it with an increase in holiness or meaning.\u00a0 Like fasting, it is so often \u201ca drag\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suffering without meaning or purpose.<\/p>\n

For Rabbi Dov Fischer, it is just the opposite.\u00a0 It is the backwards ticking clock, teaching us the urgency of holiness and meaning.<\/p>\n

It is taught that in the days of the Messiah, the commemorative fast days will be abolished.\u00a0 \u201cAll of these fast days,\u201d the Rambam writes, \u201cwill be nullified\u2026 Moreover, they will all become days of sason v\u2019simcha <\/i>\u2013 of rejoicing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is difficult to fast.\u00a0 Demanding.\u00a0 It is not meant to be easy or enjoyable.\u00a0 But, until Messianic times we must do it, because the job is not yet done. \u00a0During the Messianic days, we will be truly holy.\u00a0 Until then, we focus on our bodies rather than our souls. \u00a0And so we need to stop and separate ourselves from our basic bodily needs. \u00a0We need to fast so that we can know, truly know, that we will, indeed, one day \u201cshuffle off this mortal coil.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran serves as OU Kosher\u2019s vice president of communications and marketing.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These fasts demand that we bring \u201csuffering\u201d upon ourselves. But why? do our fasts accomplish what the mitzvah demands? After all, the events that these fasts commemorate happened long, long ago. How could we possibly identify with those times. And how does giving up our Starbucks help us do so?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":32468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nFasting: Exercise in Righteousness or, Just Hunger Pangs? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/fasting-excersise-in-righteousness-or-just-hunger-pangs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fasting: Exercise in Righteousness or, Just Hunger Pangs? - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These fasts demand that we bring \u201csuffering\u201d upon ourselves. 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