Fasting

Q: What is the Jewish attitude to fasting?

A: There are three types of fasting in our faith.  The first is a universally observed public fast.  This universal kind of fast is limited to two days, Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av.  Smaller, more limited but still universal fasts are the 17^th of Tammuz , the Fast of Esther and Tzom Gedaliah.  They are lesser known and limited to fasting only during the daylight hours.   These days of fasting are for the purpose of remembering terrible events of our past with the hope that we will modify our behavior in the present.

The second type of communal fast (taanit tzibbut) is one that is called when a community is threatened by some calamity.  In the past when the Jewish community was confronted by enemies or some natural disaster, the entire community would refrain form eating in order to avert the evil decree.  In England, years ago, there was a series of terrible events  in a small town.  Fear gripped the community.  The rabbis then declared a public fast to assuage any negative judgment from on High.

The third and final type of fast involves a single person (taanit yahid). Some people have the custom of fasting on the yahrzeit of a parent’s death.  The reason for this act of self denial is to repent for sinfulness. Instead of dwelling on feelings of guilt, the person seeks to rid himself of the negative behavior through the fast. There are yet others will deny themselves food and drink as an aesthetic exercise. Those who follow this rationale, do so to gain greater self mastery. 

All the self-appointed fasts can never fall on holy days or the Sabbath when eating and drinking is a mitzvah. As  Yehudah Ha-Levi wrote, “ to enjoy good food and drink on the Sabbath and festivals is as pleasing to God as to deny oneself them on a fast day.”