What The Torah Says About Intermittent Fasting

What The Torah Says About Intermittent Fasting

By Esther Mandella

Have you heard of Intermittent Fasting? This type of fasting draws the spiritual seeker as well as the person with a desire to be fit.  Judaism has many ta’anitot, fasts, so I was curious to see what I could find out about intermittent fasting and if it truly is something that fits into a Torah lifestyle.  What I found opened my eyes!  Come along on the journey!

Let’s begin talking about what intermittent fasting is and what it is not.  You might not realize it, but you are already practicing it!  Every night you go to sleep you are actually fasting from food.  That is unless you wake up in the middle of the night for that midnight nosh!  When you arise in the morning, you sit down for breakfast, where you literally break your fast!  The simplest form of intermittent fasting simply takes this up a notch!

Instead of breaking your fast in the morning, you hold off your eating until noon.  Next, you stop eating in the evening, giving yourself plenty of time for your body to restore itself between meals.  In Judaism, when we fast, we don’t drink any fluids.  However, with intermittent fasting, liquids such as water or tea are allowed and even welcomed!

Overeating is a common phenomenon that we have all fall prey too.  You are not alone with having devoured that half gallon of ice cream without a single helper!  Nevertheless, Hashem can help us feast on His D’varim, word of Torah, and we can be full!

Yechezkel, Chapter 16 says in possuk 49:

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease were in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(Jewish_Publication_Society_1917)/Ezekiel

When we are full of bread, stuffed to overflow, we can be careless with the things that will be most satisfying, like serving Hashem.   Can we be helping the needy?  Perhaps the next great idea will come from you on how to truly help those around you!  Is there someone in need of a friend, someone stuck in a corner with no one noticing their need?

Intermittent fasting can encourage us to do other things like using our hands l’chaim, to spread life.  Perhaps a new hobby can be learned during those down times, away from the stove, and the table.  I recently began painting wooden signs with Scriptures on them.  Each time someone enters my home they are enveloped with Hashem’s word.  What will you use your hands upon?  What dream awaits you that you can discover when you fast from decadence, and fill yourself with His abundance.  

May you be filled with His Ruach and be satisfied!