Saturday, September 26, 2009

Fasting Safely and Easily

Before the 25 hour Yom Kippur Fast:

Fasting safely-
Follow doctor's orders.  If you're on medications, you must check with a doctor if fasting is permitted at all.  Give that information to a rabbi qualified to make those sorts of decisions.  Some people are required to drink small quantities throughout the day.  For them, that's fasting.  We're not supposed to kill ourselves or endanger our health.

Don't overdo any physical strain.  If you live far from your synagogue, try to arrange to sleep closer by.  At least spend the "break" near the synagogue, maybe even in the synagogue itself.  The first year we were in Shiloh, the only synagogue was a mile away.  The neighbors who lived in that neighborhood invited all of us who lived further away to to rest in their homes.

There's a very fine line between "safe" and "easy" when it comes to fasting.  If the fast becomes too hard, it may not be safe.

Fasting Easily
Start a few days ahead to drink more water than usual.  Spread the drinking out over the day, because if you drink too much at one time, it won't stay in the body.  Cut down on salty and spicy foods.  Eat simply, especially, complex carbohydrates which take longer to break down into sugars. 

Make a nice rich and hearty vegetable, lentil or pea soup, lots of it, because it has complex carbohydrates for before the fast and is filling and easy on the stomach after the fast. 

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