What are the spiritual benefits of fasting on yom kippur ?
First fasting teaches compassion. It is easy to talk about the world’s hunger problem. We can feel sorry that millions of people go to bed hungry each day. But it isn’t until one can really feel it in one’s own body that the impact is truly there. Compassion based on empathy is much stronger and more consistent than compassion based on pity. This feeling must lead to action. Fasting is never an end in itself; that’s why it has so many different outcomes. But all the other outcomes are amoral if compassion is not enlarged and extended through fasting. As the prophet Isaiah said: “The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress workers. Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. The kind of fasting I want is this: remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor.” When people exercise their will power and fast, they are a
