An Easy Fast

Today is the Fast of Esther which heralds Purim. The fast is not too terrible compared to Yom Kippur or Tisha b'Av. The wife and I originally planned to wake up at 4:30 and eat something but then we changed our mind and decided to stay up late the night before and eat a meal before going to bed, so at least we'd get some sleep. Much better decision in retrospect.

Sitting around at work is hard. First, everyone seems to have brought a delicious smelling lunch today. Second, there are a bunch of non-observant Jews around who are not fasting and when you are hungry and have a headache, it is hard not to be judgemental. But I know that's just my low blood sugar talking.

I am pretty ashamed of myself for even mentioning this mean and petty stuff. I started thinking about how spoiled we all are that we don't experience hunger every day and so we complain when we have to fast. A few months back I read a short story by Sholom Aleichem called "An Easy Fast", where the main character loves to fast - because he is so poor that he gives all his food to his family. Usually his family fights with him so that he'd eat something and not give all his food away, but on the fast days - on Tisha b'Av, on Yom Kippur, he is elated because they can't tell him to eat. The story ends with the man starving himself to death on Tisha b'Av.