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Sept. 5, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: What does 'doing the right thing' entail?

Caroline B. Glick: The master strategist

Sept. 4, 2008

Ron Kampeas: Biden, Palin take lead in clash on Mideast issues

Bruce Dancis: With humor as their weapon, the Three Stooges took on Hitler

Sept. 3, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: Productive school years don't just happen

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India

Sept. 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Costly Advice

Caroline B. Glick: Calling Israel's bluff

JWisdom: Wandering in Wonder by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 15, 2003 /19 Tishrei, 5764

Passing on fasting

By Jane Eisner


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According to The New York Times, fasting is becoming chic. So will America and the Western world be embracing the message of Yom Kippur?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | (KRT) Here's what I did when I fasted for about 25.5 hours last week:

I let myself settle into a rhythm that moved from prayer to rest to prayer again.

I fasted for myself, and I fasted as part of a community. The fasting focused my mind on what I am, on what we are together. The fast was a constant reminder of individual and communal identity.

And I also fasted for other people; those throughout the world for whom hunger and thirst are features of everyday life.

True, there was a moment or two during services on the morning of Yom Kippur when I wished for a large skim latte, hot, frothy, slightly sweetened. Even a cup of joe from the convenience store would have been welcome.

But enveloped by the prayerfulness and contemplation that defines this holiday, I rarely thought about food and drink. After pushing through the breakfast-time rumbling of my stomach, I found that the preoccupation with physical nourishment does move offstage as the search for spiritual nourishment takes hold.

Once a year, it's actually a pleasure to forgo the individual worry about the next meal and join in a communal act of contrition. Everything about Yom Kippur is in the plural, and that turns fasting into a joint exercise of discipline and bonding.

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We don't do this to lose weight, or "detox" the body of all sort of imagined, invisible intrusions. We don't pay thousands of dollars to expensive spas to eat virtually nothing at all, or to nutritional consultants who promise to coach their clients in the "art" of prolonged self-denial. We're not living on nut butter and apple-chard juice and pretending to be healthy.

Some folks do fast that way. Fasting is the newest, hippest diet trend. As the New York Times reported recently, "while millions of high-fat, low-carb devotees are gorging themselves on steak and butter, a small group of the body-conscious have opted to eat nothing at all."

I won't tar all such fasters with the same brush. Fasting can be done in moderation and for fairly good reasons outside of religion.

But the recent fasting craze is more than a little vain and vacuous.

While the rest of America wrestles with an obesity epidemic, a growing number of fashionable fasters are convinced they can become thinner and healthier by indulging in the kind of self-involved act that only a culture of privilege could support.

Two-thirds of the country is in denial about "how much they consume; a growing minority is in denial about what they "need to consume."

Fasting has been around since we foraged through forests, and not the grocery store, for sustenance. But the voluntary fast has usually been in service of something larger - as a regular religious ritual, or as specific penance for sin and wrongdoing. These fasts are meant to lift up the body, not to harm or change it, which is why they don't last forever and often end in communal celebration.

There's little communal about the latest fasting fad; it is, as the Times noted, an example of individualism gone haywire.

"Feeling out of shape, self-conscious, low on energy, or downright unhealthy? Do you want to improve your physical health, while heightening your clarity of consciousness and your spirituality, as well?" asks Fasting Center International (www.fasting.com), one of a zillion Web sites devoted to the cause. "Know that scientific juice-fasting enables you to accomplish all of these goals, and very quickly, without any interruption of your work, life, exercise or study routines."

And there are no dishes to wash!

This narcissistic trend assumes that our bodies are dirty, in need of detoxification and flushing, like a filthy toilet desperate for a good scrub. Biology is, in fact, much kinder, granting us bodies that generally work intelligently and efficiently, if we treat them with respect. Drinking only vegetable juice and sesame seed oil while continuing to smoke five cigarettes a day — as one New York model did for her "fast" — is not respectful. It's dangerous. Or stupid.

Our bodies aren't dirty organisms needing purification, although we'd all be better off if we drank water instead of Mountain Dew and ate portions smaller than the state of Montana.

When did moderation become so elusive?

About the time starvation became chic.

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Jane Eisner, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, is also a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. To comment, please click here.

© 2003, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services