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The High Holy Day Feast

by Sabena Stark

In second grade, when we children arrived at the steps of the shul on the morning of Yom Kippur, we would stick out our tongues to show each other that we hadn't eaten breakfast. A white-coated tongue meant you were fasting. A red one meant you weren't. There was no way to fake it.

The reality was that at seven years old I couldn't fast through the whole day. But I felt guilty when I ate something at home after the morning service. I thought I would be judged as bad by the other children and adults and by HaShem. That same feeling stayed with me into adulthood, even as I learned more about the meaning of the High Holy Days.

For many of us, the Yom Kippur fast is the one time during the year we willingly refrain from eating and drinking, in the service of a deeper spiritual experience. This is the only fast prescribed in the Torah. Yet, in Judaism it is the sustenance and celebration of life, rather than the imposition of suffering, which is at the heart of our spiritual practices.

A Last Meal

In the Talmudic writings that outline our High Holy Day traditions, the feast on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Seudah Mafseket, carries as much sacred weight as does giving up food and drink on the day that follows. This meal, typically of starchy, filling and low-salt foods, is meant to ease the fast.

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg writes in The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays that the pre-Yom Kippur dinner is "…a festive and rich repast meant to offset the torment of the Day of Atonement… [It] balances the inherent asceticism of the sacred day." The Seudah Mafseket also "has overtones of the prisoner's last meal," because traditionally on this night the Viddui, the death-bed confession, is said before eating. With this final physical and spiritual preparation we are better able to enter into the state of humility called for on Yom Kippur.

If You Can't Fast, Help the Hungry. Or Help Them Anyway.

There are times we shouldn’t fast. If it would injure our health in any way or if we are pregnant or nursing a baby, the omission of food or drink is prohibited. There’s no debate on this. Greenberg states, “…there is no intrinsic religious superiority in deprivation. Denial is only a technique for concentration on spiritual matters.” We can express our spiritual desire in other ways, like contributing to Mazon, A Jewish Response to Hunger, or our annual High Holy Days food drive for Food for Lane County.

Let us enjoy a feast of gratitude for life and a fast of meaning. And may we all strengthen our relationship with the Eternal, with our loved ones and with the community around us.