[Avodah] Tzom Kal

Akiva Miller via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Wed Oct 5 20:00:10 PDT 2016


Cantor Wolberg posted:

: An elderly Jewish man, Sam Cohen, 87 years of age...
: ... [The Rabbi] said, "Sam, you're an idolater," to which Sam angrily
: replied,"What do you mean, rabbi?! I'm willing to sacrifice my life for
: Yom Kippur!" "Exactly," said the rabbi. You're worshipping Yom Kippur,
: not the Almighty, Who has commanded you not fast if there is a danger
: to your health."

I've heard many versions of this same idea, and it is well worth repeating.
Thank you.

R' Micha Berger gave a similar story from R' Meisels:

> An ill person was advised not to fact on Yom Kippur, both by his
> doctor and by the venerable R Yaakov Kamenecki. He chose to fast
> anyway, thereby causing his condition to deteriorate until it
> led to his death. Rav Yaakov then refused to eulogize the
> deceased, stating that he had committed suicide.

Here is yet another, one of my favorites about that same Rav Yaakov
Kamenecki, from the biography "Making of a Gadol", written by his son, R'
Nathan Kamenetsky (pages 1111-1112):

> An action - or better said, inaction - by my father when he
> assumed his rabbinical post in Toronto in 5698 (1938) will
> reveal his attitude toward a revocation of the fast in an
> analogous situation. He was asked prior to his first Yom Kippur
> as a major rav in the city to publish an announcement in the
> daily Yiddish newspaper that the fast was not over till a
> certain hour. When he asked why such an announcement was
> necessary, he was told that there were many shuls in the city
> which had no rabbis to guide their congregants, and they usually
> completed Services early and broke the fast too soon. My father,
> however, refused to publicize such a proclamation. He explained
> that among the thousands of Jews who davent in such places there
> was surely at least one who was not permitted to fast altogether.
> It is precisely because such a person did not have a rav to turn
> to personally that he would endanger his life during the few
> extra minutes by which the suggested public announcement would
> delay the close of Yom Kippur. Therefore, the only way to keep
> that individual for fasting those extra few minutes was by
> letting all the other, healthy Jews break the fast early. He
> gave the example of someone in mortal danger who refuses to eat
> unless a minyan of Jews eats along with him. In this situation
> the entire minyan is allowed to eat.

Akiva Miller
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