Fasting

[Rachel Rachel]

Knowing that there's a special fast coming up, I'm thinking about how others might handle this situation. I am type II diabetic and I know I'm "excused" from doing a total fast, but what I always do when I'm fasting for any reason is to eat bread and olive oil every few hours during the day to keep my blood sugar from dropping too low. Since yom Kippur is all about sin, maybe I should do my homemade roti with oil.
Does anyone else have experience with this situation?

 

[visionary]

I do, thus water and a couple of bites to keep my blood sugar from dropping too low also.

 

[Dave-W]

Yeah. I am in the same boat.

I just eat very light meals. No meat, no sweet.

 

[JohnC2]

Fasting can be quite beneficial to a type II diabetic. You just have to do it carefully and adjust medication lower to compensate for the lack of food intake. It’s probably a good conversation for an endocrinologist.

Yom Kippur is a fantastic time to fast and reflect on how we need God’s covering (atonement) to get through life. That we err falling into the ditch on the right or on the left - we can’t perfectly traverse the center.

So for example - consider the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Priest and the Levite were constrained by statute to maintain their ceremonial cleanliness - and were only permitted to violate that in the case of a father, brother, or son... And in the case of Aaron loosing his two sons in the profane fire episode - he was not even permitted to mourn them or to even attend to their burials. Did they know there was a man in need of help - of course they did.... But they were bound by their vows and their office.

The Samaritan on the other hand was not bound by any of this - so he could simply accept the potential physical consequences of contact with blood and fluids in the process of healing the man.... And so God used him to do what the other two could not do....

The point is you have to choose. There are no perfect solutions in life because we are fallen - only God has those. And that’s why we need God’s covering on us more than ever - even today.