yom kippur
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34 October 2 • 2014
Yom Kippur from page 33
to bring ourselves down enough to sin-
cerely ask for forgiveness, increase our
awareness of God in our life and our
commitment to hands-on Judaism, the
religion of action"
The idea is that the prayers and
spiritual and emotional tasks of the day
are so compelling that they wipe food
(more or less) out of our minds. Rabbi
David Aaron of the Jewish education
organization Isralight likes to tell the
story of the old-country rabbi who was
asked by his students how many times
a year he fasts. When he answered
that he never fasts, they were shocked,
asking, "You mean you eat on Yom
Kippur?
"Eat on Yom Kippur? Of course not!"
the rabbi shot back. "On Yom Kippur, I
am far too busy doing teshuvah to even
have an appetite!" The point, Aaron
tells JNS.org, is that "when we are truly
in the spirit of these days, the desire for
food just falls away"
Who Should Fast?
But who exactly should fast?
Youngsters start fasting for real at
bar/bat mitzvah age, but also begin-
ning as young as age 9, Jewish tradi-
tion encourages children to postpone
their meals a bit and skip the candy
and ice cream treats.
Besides little kids, who shouldn't fast
on the holiest day of the year? Women
in their first 72 hours after birth, cer-
tainly, and even those during the first
week should work closely with their
rabbi and doctor to determine how
much fasting they should do. As for
pregnant women, all those except for
the ones having high-risk pregnancies
are expected to fast. The others need to
again coordinate with their rabbi, doc-
tor or midwife.
Judaism insists that life comes first
and gives guidelines for the sick to take
in needed sustenance while respecting
the spirit of the fast. After checking in
with their rabbi and doctor, they typi-
cally restrain themselves to one ounce
of water or food every 10 minutes or so
to prevent dehydration and weakness.
It's usually suggested that they focus
on simple high-protein foods that have
more power to strengthen than empty
calories. In the case of required medi-
cations, rabbis and doctors make provi-
sions on a case-by-case basis.
In fact, Jewish tradition is ready for
them. An ancient High Holiday prayer
book provides this blessing for some-
one sick before eating on Yom Kippur:
"Behold I am prepared to fulfill the
mitzvah of eating and drinking on Yom
Kippur, as You have written in Your
Torah: 'You shall observe My statutes
and My ordinances, which a man shall
do and live with them. I am God. In
the merit of fulfilling this mitzvah,
seal [my fate], and [that of] all the ill
of Your nation Israel, for a complete
recovery. May I merit next Yom Kippur
to once again fulfill [the mitzvah of]
`you shall afflict yourselves [on Yom
Kippur]: May this be Your will. Amen"
But with the vast majority of Jews
fasting, there is another, less spiritual
benefit to hosts and hostesses every-
where: the break-fast, when the most
humble hard-boiled egg is lauded for
its luscious perfection. You will never
have such appreciative guests at any
other time during the year.
❑
Fasting Can Bring Babies Prematurely
Women in an advanced state of preg-
nancy who fast on Yom Kippur (or
for any other reason) are at higher
risk for a premature birth, according
to researchers at Soroka University
Medical Center and Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev in Beersheva.
The study by BGU's Natal Shalit
and Prof. Eyal Sheiner, deputy head
of Soroka and director of the obstet-
rics department at the hospital, was
published recently in the Journal
of Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal
Medicine. The team studied the
records of thousands of pregnant
Jewish women over a period of 23
years to determine the effect of the
25-hour fast.
Premature birth is one of the most
difficult complications as childbirth
and is defined as delivering a baby
before it reaches the gestational age
of 37 weeks. The researchers theo-
rized that dehydration and a fast are
liable to create early labor pains and
increase the risk of premature deliv-
ery.
It did not include observant
Muslim women who fasted from the
early morning until nightfall for a
month during Ramadan. But they
did compare the results with Bedouin
women who don't fast on Yom Kippur
(unless Ramadan falls on the Jewish
holy day) and with Jewish women a
week before Yom Kippur.
The sample was controlled to
eliminate women with a history of
premature deliveries.
Sheiner explained that there was
no doubt that Jewish women who
fasted on Yom Kippur were twice as
likely to deliver prematurely than
those who didn't.
❑