From now through Yom Kippur, each of our Daily Kavanot will feature a piece written by our clergy on the themes and traditions of the High Holy Days. Each of these pieces can be found in Days of Awe, our High Holy Day Machzor supplement.

The Yom Kippur Fast

By Rabbi Josh Knobel

Perhaps the most recognizable tradition associated with Yom Kippur is the fast. In compliance with the command in Leviticus to “afflict our life-forces,” we neither eat nor drink for 25 hours. The Torah reveals little about the actual purpose of our affliction, but other references to fasts within the Bible provide some clues.The Israelite prophet Joel calls upon the priests to declare a fast to beseech God for relief from famine. By fasting, the prophet seems to suggest, the Israelites physically embody their state of hopelessness and privation, beckoning the compassionate God to respond to their supplications. Similarly, in the Book of Samuel, Hannah deprives herself of food and drink to beseech God for a child, hoping that her tangible expression of suffering will demand Divine attentiveness to her needs.Our fast on Yom Kippur, then, represents a means of drawing out God’s compassion. By exposing our corporeal limitations, we hope to inspire forgiveness for our spiritual limitations.This ritual, however, has its limits, as suggested by the prophet Isaiah in the haftarah for Yom Kippur morning:

“Is such the fast I desire, a day for people to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush and lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, a day when Adonai is favorable? No, this is the fast I desire: To unlock fetters of wickedness and untie the cords of lawlessness; to let the oppressed go free; to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry and to take the wretched poor into your home. When you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own kin. Then shall your light burst through like the dawn …”

—Isaiah 58:5-8

Here, the prophet expresses disdain for the hypocrisy of beseeching God to respond mercifully to our corporeal sufferings when we refuse to respond mercifully to the suffering of our fellow human beings. If we wish to be the recipients of Divine mercy, the prophet suggests, then we must also become emissaries of human mercy, by seeking to eliminate the suffering within our midst.Traditionally, we wish one another a tzom kal—an easy fast—on Yom Kippur. However, if we are to heed the words of our tradition, perhaps we should wish one another a tzom kasheh—a difficult fast—one that inspires God’s lasting compassion toward us, as well as our lasting compassion toward our fellow human beings.