Elicia Brown is correct when she says she is not alone in finding the fast challenging (“Fast, But Not Furious,” All She Wrote, Sept. 17). I am hard pressed to believe that there is anyone who loves fasting. But to highlight cases of people who have made exceptions for themselves instead of focusing on those people who make an extra effort to travel out of their comfort zone on Yom Kippur is disheartening and misses the point.
I have friends and family members who are traditional Jews and religiously spend their entire day in synagogue fasting. Somehow, they make it to noon focusing on prayer and introspection, not fantasizing about bagels. For almost a decade now, I have spent Yom Kippur at Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, L.I. The race to the finish line in that synagogue is not one about food, but so the congregants can spend another full 15 minutes after the fast joyously singing and dancing so hard the floors shake. All for the sole purpose of ensuring that God will accept their prayers. There is hardly a soul that rushes home to break their fast.
Bergenfield, N.J.
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
