“. . . that which is decisive is not the performance of rituals at distinguished occasions but how they affect the climate of the entire life.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1907—1972)
Throw most hungry animals a morsel of food and they will fight to get it first. They don’t pause to say thank-you. They don’t offer to share the morsel with the others, and the morsel is quickly wolfed down. Flavor matters little and one morsel doesn’t satisfy.
Endowed with a capacity for choice, humans are unique among animals. We can decide to share bread together and to pause for a moment to say thanks. We can refrain from eating, until we are sure that everyone has been served. We can choose to eat unhurried, aware of our food, tasting and enjoying each bite. We can eat with restraint and moderation, rejecting gluttony.
Many religions have rules to eat by. One purpose of the rules is to foster self-control, and it is through self-control that we distinguish ourselves from the animals. Beginning as instinct-driven we learn to become self-disciplined. From reflexive we become reflective. When no longer captive to our impulses and appetites we acquire the power to freely choose.
Yom Kippur is approaching, and as I have done every year of my adult life, I will again choose to observe a 24-hour fast. In contrast to daily need-gratifying behavior, during the fast I choose to live with my hunger. I am reminded, when fasting, that I am not enslaved by appetite. I am reminded to feel compassion for those who have no choice but to go hungry, and to feel grateful that I may choose. During the fast of Yom Kippur, on the day of atonement, I am asked to look deep within myself, to acknowledge the hurts I have caused, and to seek forgiveness. No animals, only humans, can abstain from physical nourishment in pursuit of spiritual nourishment.
Weakened by fasting, I become stronger.
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