Tisha B'av fast

[Gypsymama22girls]

I am soooo not looking forward to it. I HATE fasting it makes me so sick. Anyone have any tips on making it through the LONG fasts?

[Magelet]

no tips really. commiseration I guess. I find it's *slightly* easier when I'm distracted in prayer, but the last few hours are always crappy.

[merpk]

Have found that a lot of it is in my head.

Keeping in mind why we fast: We've been fasting on Yom Kippur since Biblical times, because G!d said to. We've been fasting on 9Av for 2,000 years because Jerusalem was taken from us and destroyed.

So it made a huge difference when my rebbe z'l taught us this about the long fasts ... on 9Av, the heartbreak over Jerusalem is so deep that who can bear to eat? And on Yom Kippur, we've done such t'shuva (repentence), we're so sure of G!d's forgiveness, we're so high on that and feeling so pure like the angels ... so who needs to eat? I mean, do angels have to eat? Naah, of course not. Right?





But if that won't help ...




On Yom Kippur it helps if you're in shul all day. If you're not, being in bed helps. 9Av is much less shul time, so there's more prone-time (ie., hanging out in bed). A perfect day for the kids to play 'caves' with the pillows and blankets in your bed. While you lay there to supervise, naturally. (That's if you've got little ones, that is.)




On 9Av it's harder in khu'l (if you're not in Israel) because no one's heard of the day and they can't understand (and often won't approve) a day off of work.



But practically, it's also easier if you're not even in a room with food. If you've got little ones you've got to feed, it helps to prepare in advance whatever they're going to eat, so that the time involved in feeding them is that much less.




I also find that the anticipation of the fast is often worse than the reality of it.

[Gypsymama22girls]

I do fine with half the day for the fast then in the afternoon I become obsessed with food...when we had cable I would watch the food network WHILE FASTING!!!! What's wrong with me...lol. It's just so hard to think about the spiritual meaning behind things when I am so self centered on my being hungry. ~sigh~ Maybe I just haven't reached "that" level yet. More prayer would probably help me but that's also hard with an active 11 yr old and and a 3 yr old.

[Gypsymama22girls]

Oh and thank you for the tips