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Fasts Can Be Good for You; Were the Jewish People Ahead of Their Time?
Reading from a Torah scroll in accordance with Sephardi tradition. Photo: Sagie Maoz via Wikimedia Commons.
In The Economist on June 20, there was an interesting article under the heading “Do longevity drugs work.” The subtitle was that animal studies suggest that certain drugs are no more effective than long-term fasting. The article was comparing a series of pharmaceutical drugs that are being touted as guaranteeing longevity.
I found this particularly relevant now as we have entered the three-weeks between the 17th day of Tamuz and the 9th Day of Av, a period of mourning for the destruction of both temples and Jerusalem, which starts and ends with fasts.
Fasts don’t seem to have been such a big thing in the Torah. Not one mention. Even Yom Kippur is not described as a fast but rather a “Day of Affliction.” But the catastrophes of our self-destruction (helped by Babylonians and Romans) resulted in many more.
A whole Tractate of the Talmud is devoted to fasts — not just for atonement, but for all kinds of catastrophes of which the most common was failure of the rains and even bad dreams. But medieval persecutions, particularly the Crusades, led to many different local fasts commemorating massacres. Excessive penance and self-denial in celibate Christianity had an influence on us too. We added optional fasts (BeHab) after festivals to make up for too much gluttony on the festivals themselves.
But the fasts over the loss of the temples and Jerusalem came to dominate, because the events affected every corner of Jewish life. We have just had the Seventeenth of Tamuz. The Mishna (Taanit 4:6) gives various reasons for the fast of the Seventeenth of Tamuz ranging from when Moses broke the two Tablets of Stone, to the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And one may wonder why we don’t add one for the Holocaust — a matter I shall return to nearer the Ninth of Av.
My magnificent father who was in general strict on matters of ritual, would say that if a minor fast gets in the way of studying Torah or if it becomes merely an endurance test to see what a good person you are, one should rather prioritize by doing something positive rather than negative and minor fasts could be treated leniently. And he said such opinions were common in the yeshivas of Lithuania. Of course, in our day and age you will not get any Orthodox rabbinic leader who would take such a lenient point of view in public.
I have always had a problem fasting. Some people seem to be able to take to it like ducks to water and it has very little effect. But not me. It affects my concentration and ability to use time more productively. The strange thing is that when it comes to Yom Kippur, which is a 25 hour fast, I seem to be able to manage it without too much trouble. Yet when it comes to minor fasts, I have great difficulty.
But now having read that fasting is good for you, I’m inclined to take the minor fasts much more seriously than I ever did before. And not only that, but as at this particular moment, with the dysfunctionality, hatred, violence, and ignorance that seems to be on display everywhere, I want to make a plea for taking the minor fasts a little more seriously and it might even add a few more years to our lives, to boot.
The author is a rabbi based in New York.
The post Fasts Can Be Good for You; Were the Jewish People Ahead of Their Time? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.