A version of this article originally appeared in New Voices. Throughout college, I struggled with an eating disorder. In many ways, it first manifested itself during Yom Kippur freshman year. From there, it was a downward spiral into self-hatred, an obsession with calories, and compensatory cardio. Four Yom Kippurs in a row, I fasted too…
When Rabbi Edward Feld was a teenager, he decided to buy a seat for High Holidays services in a synagogue where no one knew his name. Feld was raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and he says that there were always old synagogues that weren’t completely full even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. By…
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. It’s the day when we become like angels: We pray all day and night and we don’t eat as we beg God for forgiveness; for Him to grant us a good year. But that doesn’t mean we always succeed. At least we don’t always succeed at…
Yom Kippur Eve And Teshuva (Repentance) • The guiding rule in observing Yom Kippur is maintaining a balance between respecting the sanctity of the day and one’s physical health. • According to Shulhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law), the practice of doing Kapparot with chickens should be eliminated. • We must ask for forgiveness and reconcile with…
I grew up in a semi-religious household. My father was Orthodox; my mother was resentful. It wasn’t that she rejected Jewish beliefs, but she didn’t exactly respect them either. Nowhere was this more evident than in the small kitchen of our Lower East Side apartment. Keeping kosher was a constant source of conflict. Jewish food…
Until not too long ago, Tisha B’Av was an “eating day” for me. Every mouthful was a bid for God’s attention. “Look God! I’m drinking coffee! Over here — these blueberry waffles are delicious!” On Yom Kippur I fasted like a champ, but Tisha B’Av was my “un-fast.” “Look God, I’m eating!” It was an…
Jews fast on Yom Kippur, the annual day of atonement — but not only then. The tradition includes age-old and modern instances of fasts called to plead for rain, and one still on the calendar that mourns the assassination of a righteous government official about 2,500 years ago. Rabbi Burt Visotzky of the Jewish Theological…
If you’ve been following the news or social media recently, you’re probably familiar with the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). If not, here’s a run down. Energy Transfer Patterns, a privately held company, is attempting to build a $3.7 billion dollar pipeline from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to a refinery…
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