Tips for an easy Yom Kippur fast

Get The AJN Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

DALIA SABLE

COFFEE cups are being set aside and water bottles emptied in preparation for the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, on Monday September 28.

With the exception of the elderly, pregnant and those younger than bar or bat mitzvah age, Jews are commanded to refrain from eating for a 25-hour period, with many spending time in shul focusing on prayer and atoning for bad deeds from the past year.

In the lead-up to Yom Kippur, dietician Arlene Normand has some tips to make fasting easier.

Normand suggests avoiding salty or spicy foods and ensuring fasters consume ample amounts of fluid prior to the fast.

“You must eat protein, something like boiled or roast chicken, but without too many spices, and some carbohydrates like potato or rice. Finish the meal with some fruit for dessert,” she said.

Normand also suggests breaking the fast with fluid and then not eating for 20 minutes.

“Your body shuts down when you are fasting, so it’s important not to eat too much straight after,” she said.

Spiritgrow’s Rabbi Menachem Wolf said that if someone is required to break the fast, a small quantity of food or fluid is permitted within a certain time period.

For those who do need to eat or drink for medical reasons, he said, the moment that person resumes fasting, it is as if they have been fasting all along.

“It’s comforting for those who are weak to know that it doesn’t mean they are second-rate fasters,” he said.

“Some people get weak and need a small sugar hit, but that doesn’t mean they have had a half-baked fast.”

For details regarding breaking the fast for medical reasons, a rabbi should be consulted.

The weather will not pose any issues for fasters, with mild days forecast in both Sydney and Melbourne on Yom Kippur.

The 25-hour fast commences at 5.36pm in Sydney and ends at 6.32pm, while in Melbourne it begins at 6.02pm and ends at 7pm, a half-hour later than in Sydney.