The Flaming Chef | Fasting: A humbling experience in any religion

Craig Libman Columnist

In this weekly food column, I usually discuss the joys of eating and tasting the foods around us. This week, however, seeing as Yom Kippur is coming up in a couple of days, I thought I would discuss the importance of not eating at times.

Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement, a holiday in which people confess and repent for their sins of the past year. Part of this holiday tradition involves fasting for a day, putting food and material wants aside in order to pray and contemplate our wrong doings. While Yom Kippur traditions vary from community to community, fasting is a universal Jewish custom, an important part in seeking forgiveness.

Fasting is not solely a Jewish phenomenon, as almost every religion has a holiday in which participants must fast or give up certain pleasures in their lives in order to find forgiveness or self-discipline. Muslims fast for a full month in observance of Ramadan, while Christians refrain from eating during Lent. Fasting is also part of Confucianist, Hindu, Taoist, and certain Buddhist religious traditions. While I am no expert on religions, it is easy to see that fasting has important symbolic meanings that transcend each individual religion. It is an act that tests one’s self-discipline and strength in a powerful way.

As you can imagine, Yom Kippur fasting is torture to a foodie like myself. For some reason, I feel that I’m always hungry, planning on what, where, and when my next meal will be. For the past three years, I’ve skipped the Yom Kippur fast, part of my apathy towards Judaism and organized religion (how Vassar of me!).

Yet, this year I want to try fasting again, not for religious purposes, but to gain a new perspective on the world. To me, fasting is a humbling experience: it is an act that reminds us of people who regularly struggle to feed themselves. Lost in our sphere of incredible gustatory abundance, how often we forget that people are still starving in the world. Perhaps I’m hoping that a fast will make me more appreciative of the food on my plate, regardless of culinary merit.

As a culture, fewer and fewer Americans say “grace” or some sort of prayer over what they eat. Food is something so abundant in our culture that we often forget what a privilege it is to be able to have such a wide variety of foods, cuisines, and dining options. Praying over a meal seems old-fashioned, even hokey to a large majority of people today. In doing so, we overlook the amazing amount of labor and resources that allow us to eat three meals a day. Giving thanks for a meal need not have anything to do with concepts of God or any other religious deity. What about giving thanks to the poor migrant farmer who toils in the sun amongst pesticides to bring strawberries to our table? Or those who constantly risk their limbs and lives to provide us with meat? In thinking about the entire system of food production, it becomes apparent that there is much to be appreciated and thankful for at every meal.

This Yom Kippur, I want to fast not only to repent my sins, but to notice all I have to be grateful for. As a food critic, it is so easy to become jaded about food quality that I often completely forget how great it is to be able to eat and enjoy freely. At this year’s fast, instead of thinking about how hungry I feel, I seek to be empathetic towards those who are consistently hungry.

While I encourage people to try fasting at some point in their lives, I do want to emphasize that it can be a physically unhealthy practice and should not be attempted if one has medical concerns, is on medication, and so forth. To me, what’s more important than not eating, is simply sacrificing something for a period of time in order to better appreciate it in your life.

While doing without may be a difficult task, the rewards at the end are great. After all, what is a Yom Kippur fast without “break fast” blintzes, bagels, and lox?