The Purpose Of Fasting In Judaism

you uh see that some people still want to have a connection with uh and do what most of us did growing up which is uh you do whatever you want during the year without really two considerations about it but then you figure you're going to fix all your mistakes in one or two days you go to on but for sure you're going to go and fast on uh Yipool. If you think you saw a lot of people on wait till you see in a few days and Yokipool, everybody shows up. Especially in the last hour and a half, two hours. Last two hours when there's everybody thinks that the is blown, it fixes all their problems. So they go just for the sha. They sleep all day because they're fasting. like everybody was supposed to do today was supposed to fast today tell some people you have to fast. Why? Cuz uh they gala died. He goes, "Yeah, but I don't know him." It's like, "Yeah, you don't know either. You don't know, but you have to fast." Goes, "Yeah, but it was a long time ago." Okay. It was a long time ago. Moshe was also a long time ago. Goes, "Yeah, but u I'm hungry." So, it didn't happen yet. Tomorrow is the fast. No, no, I'm already Today I'm hungry, but tomorrow. So, today was a fast. Today was an obligatory fast. And trust me when I tell you, nobody likes to fast. Even the people that do it like do at times that you don't need to do it, which we'll talk about a little bit today. There are times that you don't need to fast, but if you want to be a sadik, maybe you should, but like anything else, before you do anything, you have to ask your rabbi because your rabbi is the one that knows if you're capable of doing it or not. Not physically capable of doing it, spiritually capable of doing it. Because sometimes people jump too fast and they do things that they're not capable of doing and they end up breaking because of it. It actually happens very often in the chuva world where people get really zealous very quickly. All of a sudden they want to rebuke the entire neighborhood. They just learned the first three of Shabbat. Don't light fire. Don't uh you know uh murder anybody because the blood is also it's not good to murder and it's also not good to make uh the blood everywhere and uh have kush they already think oh no they'reuhenu start rebuking people and in reality they're walking so your rabbi knows where you stand whether you can or you can't do it and if you do things based on your own assessment of yourself you're guaranteed to become with your going to become a rash. Why? That's says in first a person who's fasting by choice in essence to do sins certain sins that a person did it's not enough to just stop sinning. It's not enough to just stop sinning. Sometimes you have to fast to repent for those sins. Sometimes you have to pay money. Sometimes both. But says someone who's fasting by choice to do chuva and can sustain it. He is at a level that he can keep a fast. He's called kadosh. He's a holy person. Holy person. He comes to your house says honey somebody kadosh is coming to the house. Why this person fat? But if he's not, if he can't sustain it, if he's not at that level, if he becomes uh weak and sick, abuse of Kaw says he can't really function, he's called what? A sinner. He's called Why? But he's fasting. There's not a mitzvah. Everybody's complaining about fasting for yam kipu. This guy's fasting Mondays and Thursdays. How come says because the the purpose of fasting is to do chuva. Purpose of fasting is to do chuva. It's not to just stop eating. If you just stop eating, that's called a diet. It's called a diet. It's no meat for dieting. You don't go to Gan for be being on a diet. You go to Jenny Craig, maybe be on a commercial that you dieted, maybe they'll pay you some money, but as far as grened, you don't get ged for for doing Jenny Craig. You don't get ganed in for being on Slim Fast. You don't get Geden for not eating all day. All you get is a maybe a stomach ache. That's it. Why? Because the whole point of of fasting, we learned from the tells to the prophet, tell the nation, I'm not interested in them ripping their clothes and putting sacks on and putting ashes on their head as a form of repentance. I'm interested in them ripping their hearts. Meaning, change your actions. be sorry for what you did and do something about it. Some people are really really busy about the sorry but they don't do anything about it. The key is to do something about it. Now the commentary on the by the uh called by Moshe says that a person who's in the middle of eating and stops himself right before he takes a certain bite that he wants to eat. If you ever noticed the last bite is usually the best one. Last bite is usually the best one. has like all the flavors. It's the one you always want. So the BV says if he stops himself before he eats it for a few seconds like he wants to eat it but he said hold on a second and then he eats it that's a form of tan that's a form of small suffering like you just fasted a little bit without actually fasting showing that what what do we learn from here it's not about your diet that a really cares you eat you don't eat it's showing that you taught yourself how to control yourself. You're no longer an animal. You're not like a dog that's untrained where as soon as he sees food, he runs. He goes through the closet, jumps through the wall, you know, through the window, doesn't know. He sees food, he jumps after it. No, you're like a trained person. Well, you know, there's a time to eat, there's a time not to eat because even withholding something delicious from yourself for a few seconds, eventually you ate it though. a few seconds is actually a form of tan. We call that it's tan by the raad. The raad is the one that came up with this is a form of tani. This is a form of uh fasting. Obviously, it's not a full fast. It's not to the same level as a full fast, but you guys get the idea. Now, now who's doing these fasts? somebody that used to be somebody that used to sin, used to make all types of sins and he realizes that okay I got to fix myself there and certain sins that I made that okay I have to do the steps of chuva first step of chuva is stop it's first step first step is stop the sin if you're addicted to any type of food intimacy uh television, all types of things that take your time, attention, money, and so on. Remove you from Hashem. Stop. First, stop. You don't need to drive on Shabbat. You could drive on Sunday. You could drive on Monday. You could drive on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. You can drive any other day. Don't drive on Shabbat. Yeah, but I want to go to Shu. Walk to Shul. Yeah, but it's too far. 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