Easy fast? צום קל

KosherVitamins.com is offering "Easy Fast" pills to aid people on Yom Kippur. Now, some of these are specifically for pregnant and nursing women, who perhaps should not be fasting anyway [one relevant discussion can be found at A Mother in Israel]. But there are also pills for everyone that are designed to "curb appetite" and "control thirst." Does this make sense? Should one even want or wish others an "easy" fast? Isn't the whole point of fasting that it can be one way of humbling or afflicting the soul (תְּעַנּוּ אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם, וְעִנִּיתֶם אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם, Lev. 16:29 & 16:31, Num. 29:7)?

On a related note, is the rabbinic prohibition of bathing and oils contradicted by Matt. 6:16-18 ("when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face")?

For those who like parody, see the Schmelvian rules about Yom Kippur from Voices on the Hasidic Fringe.

Why we need another way

Recently I received two pieces of writing on the topic of which foods are permissible for Jews to eat. One author, calling himself a Messianic Jew, argued that we can eat "anything" and that it would be wrong to make any restrictive rules, since this is what "Paul's writings" say. The other, an Orthodox Jew, discussed the intricacies of different (contradictory) rulings concerning whether one is allowed to eat a certain kind of vegetable if there is a possibility that a Gentile might have touched it at some point. He concluded that in some cases it is ok.

Right now I don't want to get into all the reasons why each of these "authoritative" and widely accepted opinions is (in my own humble opinion, of course) wrong, unbiblical, illogical, and offensive. I hear these two kinds of opinions over and over and over from these two camps, and I simply don't have the energy to keep responding to them every time. I just want to point out that we desperately need a different way. A true way. A way that is based on what Torah actually says -- about food and everything else in life.

Why has nothing changed in 2,000 years?!

This week brings us more from the wild and wacky world of kosher certification. We've had cows going on kosher for Pesach diets in advance of the holiday; we've heard about endemic corruption and scandals (some of them quite appalling); and of course the whole rabbinic idea of "kashrut" is very different from the guidelines in Torah anyway.

Now, apparently, only hydroponic lettuce is "kosher" (because, of course, that's what Moshe and those guys ate way back when). Some Jerusalem restaurants are revolting against the ignorant and oppressive kashrut commissars.

Meanwhile, the same kosher certifiers will not only work on shabbat, but do so in order to sanction the mass violation of one of the most important commandments our God gave us.

It's not really difficult for us modern Israelis to understand what Yeshua meant 2,000 years ago when he said: "Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" [Matt. 23:24]