Every year I tell my friends that I will be fasting for a day. Every time I say it people ask me why? What is the purpose of going without food and spending the day at services?
Sometimes my friends make my life harder when they say don’t look at the food that is sitting in front of me because I don’t notice it until they say something about it.
Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement to the Jewish people. This means that we wear white and we think of all the things that we have done wrong in the past year. Then we repent for the sins we have committed and think about how we can make sure that we will not do those things again.
It is a very hard task for some people to go without eating and in some cases drinking. We never realize just how hard it is to resist the urge to eat and drink but fasting for 25 hours can be very rewarding. In my case, I am very tired. I am drinking a little bit because I work and when I am running around a mailroom it is easy to run out of energy and be on the verge of passing out.
One of the biggest lessons that I learn from doing this is how people that can’t afford to buy food on a daily basis feel. It makes me think about all of the times that I take advantage of the fact that I have a job and have a way to buy food for myself when I need it.
The best thing that I can do is fill my day with tasks so that I am not spending the time thinking about my growling stomach while I am in class or at work.
Fasting is something I do because it is part of my religion and because it means more than just thinking about the wrongdoings that I have committed in the last year. If you don’t have a valid reason for doing it then don’t do it. Just because you can fast does not mean that you should. I know people that don’t fast and I know people that do fast. In years past I didn’t last until sundown but this year I am really pushing myself to fast for longer than I need to.
The best thing is that when I tell people I am fasting they are quick to understand that it means they should try not to eat in front of me so that I can make sure that I don’t get tempted.
Yom Kippur is about doing what you can to think about the sins that you have committed over the course of the year and how you can better yourself. If you can’t fast, don’t feel bad about it.