Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Rav Kalman Meir Ber, has issued detailed halachic guidance ahead of Yom Kippur, addressing some of the most common practical questions surrounding the fast, including when an ill person must eat or drink, the proper amounts for eating and drinking in shiurim, when staying home from shul takes precedence over attending tefillah, how children should be trained to fast, and the special importance of Neilah.
In his letter, Rav Ber begins not with the technical laws of fasting, but with the deeper meaning of Yom Kippur as the day on which Klal Yisroel is granted forgiveness and the opportunity to renew its relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam.
Quoting Chazal, Rav Ber notes that Yom Kippur was described as one of the greatest Yomim Tovim given to Klal Yisroel because it contains forgiveness and atonement.
He then cites the famous words of Rav Akiva: “Fortunate are you, Israel. Before Whom are you purified, and Who purifies you? Your Father in Heaven.”
Rav Ber explains that the joy of Yom Kippur is not merely that sins can be forgiven. It is the opportunity for a Jew to once again stand before his Father in Heaven and experience the purification that comes directly from Him.
The relationship between Klal Yisroel and Hashem, he explains, is not an ordinary relationship, but that of a father and his children — a bond that is deep and cannot be severed.
That understanding also reveals the true seriousness of aveirah. A sin is not simply a violation of Hashem’s command; it creates distance between a child and his Father. The deeper the relationship, the greater the pain caused when that relationship is damaged.
Teshuvah on Yom Kippur, therefore, means more than regretting individual sins. It means recognizing the pain of having become distant from Hashem and developing a genuine desire to return to Him.
At the same time, Rav Ber writes, therein lies the tremendous hope of teshuvah. A father continues waiting for his child even when that child has wandered away. Hashem, Who desires teshuvah, similarly waits for His children to return.
That, he explains, is the extraordinary gift of Yom Kippur: Hashem opens the road back, purifies Klal Yisroel and lovingly accepts His children when they return.
Rav Ber then turns to the practical halachos of the day.
Regarding eating and drinking, he writes that one who eats the volume of a koseves hagasah or drinks a melo lugmav on Yom Kippur has violated the Torah prohibition at its full measure.
For practical purposes, Rav Ber places the food measurement at approximately 30 cubic centimeters. The measurement for drinking varies according to the individual because melo lugmav depends upon the size of a person’s mouth and body. For an average-sized adult, approximately 40 milliliters of liquid is below the full shiur. A particularly small or large individual may require a personalized measurement.
Rav Ber stresses that consuming less than a full shiur does not make eating or drinking ordinarily permissible on Yom Kippur. Even less than the full amount remains prohibited by the Torah. The concept of shiurim applies when a person is medically required to consume food or liquid but is able to do so in smaller amounts.
When food or drink is consumed repeatedly within the relevant halachic time period, the amounts can combine. Rav Ber writes that for Yom Kippur one should be stringent and use nine minutes as the interval for kedei achilas pras.
A person who is dangerously ill is exempt from fasting, Rav Ber rules. If the patient’s medical needs can be met by drinking without eating, the patient should drink and not eat. Similarly, if the person’s condition permits eating or drinking in shiurim, he should not consume ordinary quantities unnecessarily.
Someone who medically must eat or drink on Yom Kippur, and has received appropriate guidance from a rav, should therefore consume less than the relevant shiur whenever medically possible, waiting nine minutes from the conclusion of one portion until beginning the next.
If the patient’s condition does not allow a nine-minute interval, the waiting period should be extended for as long as medically feasible. Depending upon the patient’s needs and the instructions of a rav, the interval can be shortened to four minutes and, when necessary, to two minutes.
When a patient must drink more frequently for medical reasons, the required quantity should be consumed in several smaller swallows rather than one large drink when circumstances permit.
Rav Ber emphasizes an important practical principle for people who find the fast difficult: fasting takes precedence over going to shul.
A man or woman who can either fast while remaining in bed at home or attend shul but then need to eat or drink should remain home and fast. There is no permission to eat or drink — even in shiurim — merely in order to have the strength to attend shul.
Rav Ber goes even further: if someone who is already required to drink less than a shiur can eliminate even one of those drinks by staying home and resting, it is preferable for the person to remain in bed and daven alone rather than attend shul and require the additional drink.
On the other hand, Rav Ber warns that a genuinely ill person who is medically required to eat or drink may not decide to be stringent and fast anyway.
He cites the posuk, “But your blood of your lives I will demand,” stressing that protecting one’s life is itself a Torah obligation. A sick person who is permitted or required to eat needs no atonement for doing so, because the Torah itself exempts a person in such circumstances.
Rav Ber relates a striking account involving the Sar Shalom of Belz. His son, Rav Yehoshua of Belz, described the family’s concern during a Yom Kippur when his father was ill: “We were confused, fearing that he would not want to eat on Yom Kippur. However, he, of blessed memory, in his great righteousness, was diligent in the matter, and immediately after Kol Nidrei hurried and instructed that he be given to eat according to what he needed, and said in these words: ‘I am hereby ready and prepared to fulfill the commandment of my Creator as Chazal instructed,’ and he ate with extraordinary joy. We almost never saw such joy except when eating matzah and taking the lulav.”
Rav Ber specifically urges diabetics, people who regularly take medications — including psychiatric medications — as well as pregnant women, women who have recently given birth and nursing mothers, when there is a relevant medical concern, to consult their treating physician before Yom Kippur and then ask a rav how they should conduct themselves during the fast.
The Chief Rabbi also addresses the laws governing someone who must eat on Yom Kippur.
An ill person who needs to eat does not make Kiddush, either over wine or bread, and does not require lechem mishneh. If eating an ordinary meal requiring netilas yadayim, the person washes in the usual manner and recites the bracha. Someone eating less than a shiur, however, does not recite the bracha over netilas yadayim.
After a meal, mayim acharonim is performed as usual. In Birkas Hamazon, the person adds Yaaleh Veyavo with the reference to Yom Kippur. If it was forgotten and the person has already completed the bracha of Boneh Yerushalayim, he does not go back.
Someone reciting Al Hamichyah should likewise add the appropriate reference to Yom Kippur.
A person who was required because of illness to eat normally on Yom Kippur may receive an aliyah during Shacharis, but not during Mincha. However, Rav Ber writes that someone who consumed only less than a shiur at each interval may receive an aliyah even at Mincha.
Turning to children, Rav Ber writes that young children are permitted to eat and drink on Yom Kippur, and adults may feed them directly.
Healthy boys and girls from age nine should begin being trained in a partial fast by delaying their regular eating time for an hour or more according to their strength. Rav Ber writes that weaker children begin this training from age ten.
Children younger than nine should not be made to fast at all. Even if such a child independently wants to fast, adults should prevent the child from doing so.
From age eleven until bar or bas mitzvah, Rav Ber writes that the contemporary practice is generally not to train children to complete the entire fast because of the physical weakness prevalent today, unless a particular child is known to be healthy and strong enough to do so.
A girl who has reached twelve years and one day and a boy who has reached thirteen years and one day are obligated to complete the fast.
Rav Ber also discusses the other Yom Kippur restrictions as they apply to children.
Babies are technically permitted to be washed and anointed. Nevertheless, under contemporary circumstances, one should not wash or anoint them unnecessarily, even through a non-Jew. If a child becomes significantly dirty, the child may be washed as necessary for cleanliness, even if the adult’s hands inevitably become wet in the process.
Once a child has reached the age at which he or she is being trained to fast for several hours, the child should also be educated to refrain from unnecessary washing and anointing.
Children should not wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur, Rav Ber writes, because refraining from leather footwear does not impose the same type of hardship on a child as fasting.
The Chief Rabbi concludes his guidance with the final moments of Yom Kippur and the unique significance of Neilah.
Neilah, he writes, represents the sealing of the judgment written on Rosh Hashanah. A person should therefore make an exceptional effort to strengthen his tefillah during these final moments.
The culmination of the entire Aseres Yemei Teshuvah is Yom Kippur, Rav Ber writes, and the culmination of Yom Kippur itself is Neilah, because everything ultimately follows the sealing.
Even a person weakened by the fast should gather whatever strength remains to daven with clear and pure concentration and undertake genuine commitments toward teshuvah. Chazal teach that one who comes to purify himself receives assistance from Above, and a person should use those final moments to plead to be sealed in the Book of a good life.
Rav Ber cites Rav Meir Simcha Hakohen of Dvinsk, who writes in the Meshech Chochmah that during Neilah, Hashem, so to speak, judges each person individually.
For that reason, Rav Meir Simcha explains, Neilah possesses an exceptional power for teshuvah and kapparah, even regarding the grave sin of chillul Hashem, for which Yom Kippur alone ordinarily does not provide complete atonement. At that moment, Hashem can forgive an affront to His own honor.
Every moment of Neilah, Rav Ber writes, should therefore be utilized for heartfelt tefillah, tears and genuine regret, while beseeching Hashem to accept our teshuvah and seal us in the Book of a good life.
Finally, Rav Ber addresses Birchas Kohanim during Neilah. Birchas Kohanim is recited during Neilah, although the Ashkenazic custom outside Eretz Yisroel is generally not to perform it, while in Eretz Yisroel the Kohanim do so.
The Birchas Kohanim should take place before nightfall. Once it is fully dark, the Kohanim may no longer perform it.
If time is running short, Rav Ber writes that the piyutim may be recited after the tefillah so that Birchas Kohanim can take place while it is still daytime. If bein hashmashos has already begun, there is a halachic question as to whether it may still be performed; bedieved, there are opinions permitting reliance on the period extending until approximately thirteen and a half minutes after sunset.
Ideally, however, if Neilah is running late, some of the piyutim during Chazaras Hashatz should be omitted in order to reach Birchas Kohanim before sunset, although Rav Ber notes that some communities have a custom not to rush the tefillah for that purpose.
The comprehensive guidance carries a single theme throughout: Yom Kippur demands seriousness both in observing the fast and in protecting life according to halachah. For the healthy, the fast takes precedence even over attending shul when the two conflict. For someone who medically needs to eat or drink, following the requirements of halachah is itself the proper fulfillment of Hashem’s will.
And as the long day reaches its final moments, Rav Ber urges every Jew to gather his remaining strength for Neilah — the closing moments of a day whose ultimate purpose is not merely fasting, but returning to the embrace of our Father in Heaven.
{Matzav.com}
