Feasting and Fasting
Everything possesses spiritual energy. But, G-d deliberately hid much of this energy so that we, the human beings, utilizing our intelligence and choice to do good, can discover that energy and then unleash it. Where does G-d hide this spiritual energy? In levels of existence that are lower than the human being. By making us depend on food, we have the ability to “find” the hidden “sparks of holiness” contained in the food.
Which does G-d Desire?
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement is characterized by the obligation to fast from sundown of the eve of Yom Kippur until after dark of the next day. It is obvious that fasting is considered to be a powerful medium for repentance and change.
Ironically, there is also an obligation to feast the day before Yom Kippur. As our Talmudic sages comment:
“One who eats and drinks the day before Yom Kippur is regarded as if they had fasted two days.”
How do we explain this dichotomous approach to fasting and feasting? Which one is the desirable approach to returning to G-d? Granted, there is a need to eat before the fast to enable us to fast, but if fasting is such an ideal, why does the Talmud make such a fuss about feasting before the fast?
Fasting and Feasting are Two Sides of the Same Coin.
In truth, from a spiritual perspective, fasting and feasting are two sides of the same coin.
And since the feasting precedes the fasting, let us try to understand first the dynamics of feasting, from a spiritual vantage point, and then the dynamics of fasting.
On the surface, it would seem that feasting is the more “normal” state of existence. After all, a human being cannot survive without eating. Upon deeper reflection, however, the entire process of eating flies in the face of plain logic. How is it that a human being, the highest form of creation, needs to be nourished by eating other lower forms of life, such as animals, plants and even minerals?
Hide and Seek
To answer this question we ought to reach a better understanding of why we are here in the first place? Why did G-d create us? What does He expect of us?
The answer to this fundamental question is that G-d created an imperfect and unbalanced world, so that we can become His partners in perfecting it and straightening it out.
For example: While G-d provides much of the raw material we use for existence, only humans can transform it into useful material.
Another example closer to home: Everything possesses spiritual energy. But, G-d deliberately hid much of this energy so that we, the human beings, utilizing our intelligence and choice to do good, can discover that energy and then unleash it.
Where does G-d hide this spiritual energy? In levels of existence that are lower than the human being. By making us depend on food, we have the ability to “find” the hidden “sparks of holiness” contained in the food.
Accessing the Energy
How do we access this energy?
By following G-d’s rules about the manner in which we eat (following the kosher laws, reciting a blessing before eating, utilizing the energy that we derive from the food for good purposes etc.) we restore the hidden G-dly energy to where it belongs — within the grasp of a human being and not “confined” to the plant or animal that has no capability of using that positive energy.
From this perspective it is clear that eating is more than just a biological exercise; it is a process of reversing the imbalance G-d created in this world.
Restoring the Imbalance
Seen in this light, we can understand why there is Mitzvah to feast on the day before Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is all about restoring the imbalance in our own lives. G-d has given us so much talent, energy and ability. Yet, so often we misuse our resources, by utilizing them for the wrong goals. Occasionally we neglect to use our talents for anything at all.
One way of dramatizing the process of redirecting misplaced energy is by engaging in eating as a prelude to the fasting of Yom Kippur. This pre-Yom Kippur feasting serves as a paradigm for the unleashing of the G-dly energy that has been misplaced and prepares us for the redirection of all our positive energies.
Once our energies are restored to their rightful place, we are ready for the next step — Yom Kippur. After having restored balance to our souls and by extension to our world, we take this processed energy and use it to soar to higher levels — we become like angels. We no longer need to get our nourishment from “other” sources;” we are able to live off the energy that we have restored to ourselves.
Yom Kippur is thus the time when we are capable of living in an ideal world where there is no need to forage for our spiritual nourishment outside of ourselves; we get all the nourishment we need from our own spiritual existence.
Reminiscent of the World-to-Come, Yom Kippur is therefore reminiscent of the description our Sages gave us concerning the ultimate stage in the World-to-Come, “Where there is no eating and drinking.” At that advanced spiritual time, there will be no need to eat and drink, because we will no longer have to rectify and reverse imbalances in nature. Our entire focus will be to thrive on the Divinity that is contained within ourselves for our sustenance. While we cannot do that presently, Yom Kippur gives us one day during which we get a “taste” of the future.
From the book Light from the Future: Yom Kippur by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
