Is Fasting Passe?

Fasting - is it too modern? Are we too weak? The following was a "prepent" posting from Amichai Lau-Lavie that I believe is a great argument for why we need to master our appetites to gain spiritual heights.
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I’m starting a week-long raw food cleanse today, along with my friend and collaborator Shira Kline. it’s our second time doing this during the week leading from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. With lots of juices and fresh fruits and vegetables, we approach atonement with a focus on discipline and an energetic shift. 

It’s not a religious thing, but is it? 

It so happens that today is a minor Jewish fast day, the Fast of Gedalya, which is usually observed the day after Rosh Hashanah, but since this year the day after Rosh Hashanah was Shabbat, the fast was postponed a day. 

For me, the cleansing of the mind and the soul begins with the body. Many religions incorporate ritual fasting, but regardless of what God you pray to, the human body is the same. Fasting is an exercise in willpower, a way to balance brain and body. Fasting today is also great practice for Yom Kippur. 

Prepent Day 32: Focus on the spiritual, and on my relationship to faith and with God. These days remind me that God is in the body, that the temple is within, and that the ancient rites of sacrifice are a practice in learning limits and cultivating greater intimacy with the self. The spiritual work is in the simple daily acts. 

Emerson wrote, ”My days are made up of the irregular succession of a very few different tones of feeling. These are my feasts & fasts.” 

In that spirit, I dedicate today to increasing consciousness about eating and drinking. Even if you don’t fast today (many don’t), take a few minutes to think about your diet, when and how you eat, and one doable goal for this coming year that will nourish both the body and soul.

Were Your Services Dull?

How often did you look at your watch during shul or count the pages to the end?  Here is a nice article from Tablet Mag on "High Holiday Services Are Boring. Here’s How We Can Fix Them" by Abigail Pogrebin.

Why Do You Go to Shul?

Quote from the TabletMag article on the appointment of Jack Lew as the new US Secretary of Treasury:

‘If I wanted to work on Saturday, I have this 24/7 job. I come to shul to pray.’

Davening with 40,000

I watched and read from afar about the NY Rally at Citi Field on the dangers of the Internet.  In one article reviewing the event on Tablet, author Michah Stein slipped in the following comment:

The event kicked off (45 minutes late) with a communal reading of psalms and a stadium-wide mincha service. For all the hype and hoopla surrounding the event, the sight of 40,000 people praying together was undeniably moving.

I can only say that this is an interestingly kind observation in otherwise skeptical review. 

Prayer By Proxy

The idea of a 'shaliach' is common in Jewish literature; this is the notion of having someone represent you, or to literally be your 'messenger' in certain situations. In prayer, the leader is called the shaliach tzibur - the community messenger - and leads the group in communal prayer and holy repetitions that cannot be side as sole individuals.

What about hiring someone to do the praying for you? Today I read on Tablet Magazine - in "Pay to Pray" by Tamar Fox - a critique of the growing industry of services offered for those who pay people to daven on behalf of others; here is the link: http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/73355/pay-to-pray/

I think Fox's piece is well thought out and cites both anecdotal and textual sources to highlight her point that paying people to pray on one's behalf is a perplexing and perhaps unproductive trend (unless you are the ones profiting off of the payments). As educators, I think it is important to have in mind Fox's notion of "farmed out prayer" as a natural byproduct of a listless prayer experience. The paradox of Tefilla for many young Jewish adults is that they have internalized the message of the ritual need and great importance of prayer but struggle to actually practice the spiritual experience. The performance regularly is a disappointment but there remains a faith that someone else can deliver their prayer and achieve results that they were not worthy of reaching.

This, I believe, is the same feeling that propels many more people to go to synagogues for the High Holy Days or draws them to the Kotel. This feeling is a need that someone else can bring them higher - which again is a kosher notion to Jewish philosophy. The danger o this approach is in believing that only the shaliach has the true connection. In essence this is an issue of insiders and outsiders. Insiders feel ownership, know the rules and are familiar with the territory of the experience. Outsiders are strangers, need direction to function appropriately, and lack the terminology to fit it and figure the best way to fast track their goal is to hire (farm out to) an insider. Our goal as educators is to make our students passionate and dynamic insiders.