Spirituality (3)

Once a year I fast.  I go without eating at times, but the fast of Yom Kippur is set on the calendar for me.  Since the age of 13, I have observed this fast.  There are other fast days on the Jewish calendar, but they are minor fasts, and are not part of my usual observance.  Fasting is in fulfillment of the command "to inflict our souls" in Leviticus 16:19..  Of the two Hebrew words, the first, תענות, tih-ah-nu, inflict, is the same verb that describes Sarah's actions against Hagar that caused her to run away.  So the verb seems to imply a painful, physical blow.  The next work, "your souls", is ambiguous, obviously.  

The word for soul, נפש, ne-fesh,is not the same word that was used to describe the breath of life in Genesis .  That words is נשמה, nih-sha-mahm which means breathing.  As a result of God breathing a נשמה, the man became a נפש, a "souled" being.  The rabbis distinguish the two.  A נפש is shared by all animals, and is its life force.  Only humans have a נשמה, and that individual נשמה makes us unique.  In the command to inflict our souls, we are dealing with both the physical and spiritual.  

There are a number of assumptions to look at.  The first is our duality.  We are physical and spiritual.  The majority of our conscious attention is on the physical.  To placate the spiritual, the physical apparently must be quieted.  The rabbis divide our duality into two impulses, or drives in Freudian terms, as good and bad.  The good is obviously associated with the spiritual, and the bad with the physical.  To suppress our physical desires in order to achieve spirituality, must we pound them into submission?  I never understood the association of pain with suppression.  The prophets of the Canaanite god Ba'al cut themselves with swords and spears in a contest with Elijah to prove which god was the true god.  This is a story that I will discuss in Friday Humor.

The rabbis did not consider pain as a part of the infliction of the soul.  They asked for suppression of the physical drives to create a transformation, for us to become angels.  Angels are spiritual beings, even though they can assume physical shape and form, for those who believe in them.  We aspire to be angels through the suppression of our physical desires.  We are to let go of the physical, look at it from the outside, and try to acknowledge all the mistakes we are making.   The ultimate goal is to correct those mistakes.  For the rabbis, the mistakes are the breaking of rabbinic law.  If we go through the process of repentance, the 24 hour period of spiritual existence, God might consider giving us another year to live.

Those are a lot of assumptions to accept, especially if you don't believe in the world of the spirit.  For those Jews who don't believe it, why is Yom Kippur still so important?  What other assumptions do those who do not believe make about the day?  In my study of Judaism, I have wondered why the major biblical holidays of Shavuoth, The Feast of Weeks, and Succot, Tabernacles, have become minor to us, awhile the minor biblical holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have bcecome the two holidays that synagogues are filled.  For a non-believer who comes to the service, it is just a psychological release of guilt feelings, without any theological implications?  Is that enough to draw all these people?

I like to think that people come to the services to develop empathy.  There is a part of the service for sympathy, the יזכר, yizkor, remembrance, where we express our sympathy for our lost friends and relatives.  Empathy is different. The goal is to create harmony among those living together.  Communities function better when we have empathy for each other.  When you have empathy, you cannot oppress.  Isaiah explains why we fast--to know hunger and to feel for those who are.  According to this, we are not simplifying our lives with no food, simple clothing, no perfumes or ointments, and no sex, to be like angels.  it is to be like those who are hungry, naked, and uncared for, so we know firsthand what it is like.

Are we better people after we go through the ritual?  I would like to think so.