Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A Yom Kippur Thought and Story

Ahhh, the day after Yom Kippur. Has there ever been a day of eating and drinking that's been as wonderful as this one? Forget elaborate meals, just being able to take a sip of water when the thought comes to your mind - what a privilege.

That's actually not the thought I wanted to blog about. I want to mention a thought I had yesterday on the topic of fasting. There are a great many reasons why Jews don't eat and drink on Yom Kippur. I'd like to add one more (which of course, may not be an original thought).

Yom Kippur is a time when you examine the last year and look for behaviors you need to change. It may be tempting to simply write off these bad habits as necessary and part of our basic makeup. At the same time we're doing this introspection, we're resisting the very real temptation to eat and drink. One result of fasting, then, is to concretely demonstrate to ourselves that our minds - not our bodies - are the ones in control. Need proof that you can take on your bad habits? Well, there you go.

Now for the story.

During services our rabbit told us the story of Max Fuchs. I won't risk watering it down here - just watch the 6 minute clip:

Amazing story, eh?

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