While many high school students skip breakfast most days, on Wednesday the 23rd break-fast will be the highlight of many Staples students’ day. While not in the morning, but on Wednesday night after sundown, Yom Kippur, which begins before sundown Tuesday ,comes to an end, and so does fasting (not eating or drinking).
“Fasting is not a punishment but a way to help you focus in on our prayers,” Brooke Adelmann ’18 explained.
While fasting is a very important part of the holiday, it can also be very difficult. To help those who will be fasting, here are some tips.

First, make sure you can fast. To start off, you aren’t supposed to fast until after your bar or bat mitzvah. Also, someone with a medical condition who needs to eat or drink is permitted to do so. Since Yom Kippur is a day of repent, if you decide for any reason not to fast, don’t worry too much about it. Fasting for Yom Kippur means not eating or drinking for almost 26 hours, so make sure you can handle that.

Eat the right kinds of food before. Eating the right kinds of food will help immensely. Easy to digest foods, complex carbohydrates and proteins are great. It can be tempting to eat as much of those as you can the day before and on Yom Kippur eve but overeating won’t help, Adelmann said. Zoe Samuels disagree, saying, “During the day we just eat as much as possible.” Either way, choose your last meal wisely.

Don’t think about food during the day! Distracting yourself mentally is super important in being able to not break fast. Going to synagogue for most of the day and focusing on prayers is what many students do.

“To distract myself from the temptation of eating, I occupy myself by doing regular activities for long periods of time,” Seth McCoy ’19 said. Although activities are great distractions, sports or physically intensive activities may make it difficult or even dangerous to continue fasting, so try to avoid any hard labour.

Overall, fasting is a great way to focus on amending for sins and starting a new year. While difficult at times, “It feels more worth it when you think about the big feast you have during the break-fast,” McCoy says.

So prepare ahead of time, submerge yourself in prayer and busywork, and look forward to the bagels, lox, and most importantly, kugel, at the break-fast feast.