Breaking the Fast (of Yom Kippur)

Just curious. If you’re fasting today, how do you plan to break your fast tonight? It’s just a few more minutes here. Do you have any traditions? Just get something at home? Normally we go to Golden Corral but the one near us closed during the pandemic. We’re going to go to Bob Evans here in a little while. Best dinner of the year LOL

I had eggs for breakfast this morning, if that’s what you’re asking.

Nope. I meant people that are fasting today in observance of Yom Kippur. Egg sounds good though

Ah, sorry. Totally not clear that you were referring to Yom Kippur.

Steak and Scotch!

My wife fasts… I picked up fresh bagels, tofuti, and lox for dinner tonight at her request (regular cream cheese for me though).

Nothing special.

We usually go to my brother’s, as we did this year. It’s always a dairy meal, my wife made smoked macaroni and cheese and an apple upside down cake.

My wife is Jewish. I am not. Except for morning coffee, I intended to fast with her, just to show her I cared. I made it to around 2 o’clock and had to eat something. (Sorry, honey.) She watched the temple services on Zoom, and at the end of the last one, had a yogurt drink, coffee, and then whipped up packaged cabbage rolls with rice.

Usually we go to my brother’s but went to a local gathering tonight. Host provided lox bagels fixings coffee and wine. Otherwise different people brought stuff. Poached and grilled salmon. Chick pea salad. Other salad. A quinoa dish. Tuna salad. I brought grilled vegetables. Fruit. A host of desserts. Forget what else.

Nice catching up with people we haven’t seen in a bit.

Going without food 24 hours is not a big deal. I break fast with two cups of coffee black and then wait for the crowd to thin. No coffee 24 is tough.

First of all, we have dried fruit, cookies and ice tea immediately when the fast is over, so that we can make it to the meal. Then we all toast with a shot of whiskey, a family tradition, followed by a dairy dinner. As my mom passed away a few years ago, my wife made her post-fast specialty - a sweet noodle kugel with white raisins. That, with some pan-fried salmon and string beans, added up to a delicious dinner.

My mom was Jewish and made us kugel as a dessert every so often. Although we lived in a Jewish neighborhood, we didn’t observe their holidays or go to shul. We had a xmas tree and Santa came to our house.

Not till I was a young adult did I even realize kugel was related to Jewishness. Same thing with lox, chopped liver, etc.

Kugel I knew. Lox I knew.

Chopped liver is news to me today.

Enough already!

Cooked chicken liver, hard boiled eggs, onion all minced and mixed together. Some people add fat (chicken fat), but I use a bit of mayo. Served with matzos or crackers. My gf doesn’t like it, so I make a single serving.

No, I know; I’m saying I grew up with the stuff, but never knew it had a Jewish connotation. Ignorance fought, I guess.

When I first converted, there were boiled eggs and onions at the Temple. I took my Wife to a barbecue joint.

We just had our regular dinner. We regularly fast between dinner around 2 and breakfast, so we decided that a 24 hour fast was good enough and we could have dinner around 4. We did have coffee (my wife) and tea (me) in the morning, but otherwise nothing till 4. The fast seemed very easy.

We are not religious at all, so I spent the day working on my computer. Since I no longer have a coal-fired computer, I figure there is no fire involved.

Some of our families used beef liver rather than chicken liver, and I still prefer the beef version. Of course, that means no dairy the rest of the meal but hey, that’s the sort of thing you deal with if someone keeps kosher (we didn’t, but the Jewish side of the family did. We just did not mention that one of them occasionally indulged in braunschweiger. 'Cause no one’s perfect, you know?).

I was generously given an invitation to the full High Holy days at the local reform synagogue this year and since I’m still on medical leave and not working taking the time wasn’t a problem. I didn’t fast, and doing so was far from universal among the rest of the folks there. A few folks were. At sundown the synagogue had a spread. As best I remember:

Bagels, cream cheese (two types), lox, toppings for same (capers, etc.), pickled herring, fruit trays, vegetable trays, six different kugels, and a dessert tray with a variety of cookies. Beverages were coffee, tea, lemonade, and water.

Some years ago I was in Israel during Yom Kippur. I’m not religious myself, and this was pure coincidence, I wasn’t even aware to expect it. Managed to stock up on some basics like bread & cheese to keep me fed for the day, before all the stores closed.

It was spooky: walking round the deserted town (Beersheeba) was like being in a post-apocalyptic movie. I especially remember the ticking of the traffic lights in the empty streets…