(27) The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: you shall practice self-denial, and you shall bring an offering by fire to Adonai; (28) you shall do no work throughout that day. For it is a Day of Atonement, on which expiation is made on your behalf before Adonai your God. (29) Indeed, any person who does not practice self-denial throughout that day shall be cut off from their kin; (30) and whoever does any work throughout that day, I will cause that person to perish from among their people.
מתני׳ חולה מאכילין אותו ע"פ בקיאין ואם אין שם בקיאין מאכילין אותו על פי עצמו עד שיאמר די
MISHNA: If a sick person (choleh) requires food, one feeds the choleh according to the advice of experts who determine that the choleh requires food. And if there are no experts present, one feeds the choleh according to the choleh's own instructions, until the choleh says enough.
- Who decides if a choleh can eat on Yom Kippur?
אמר ר' ינאי חולה אומר צריך ורופא אומר אינו צריך שומעין לחולה מ"ט (משלי יד, י) לב יודע מרת נפשו
Rabbi Yannai said: If a choleh says they need to eat, and a doctor says they do not need to eat, one listens to the choleh. Why is this? It is because the verse states: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul” (Proverbs 14:10).
- Under what circumstances can a choleh eat on Yom Kippur? Who decides?
- What does it mean that the heart knows the bitterness of its soul?
If a doctor says that the choleh needs to eat, but the choleh says they do not need to eat, one listens to the doctor. Why is this? It is because stupor/incompetency/ rigidness has taken hold of the choleh [on account of their illness, and their judgment is impaired].
- Under what circumstances can a choleh eat on Yom Kippur? Who decides?
- Why might a choleh be seized by stupor or incompetency or rigidness?
Mar bar Rav Ashi said: Any instance where a choleh says "I need to eat," even if there are one hundred doctors who say that the choleh does not need to eat, we listen to the choleh and feed them, as it is stated: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul” (Proverbs 14:10).
- Under what circumstances can a choleh can eat on Yom Kippur? Who decides?
Questions to ponder:
- What does it mean to be a choleh? Or put another way, what is a choleh? What kinds of conditions might make someone qualify as a choleh? Who decides if someone is a choleh?
- Overall, who does the Talmud prioritize when it comes to deciding if someone can fast on Yom Kippur? Why?
- What strategies does the Talmud employ to make it possible for there to be exceptions to fasting?
- What power structures is the Talmud most concerned with upholding or subverting?
- How might we expand the lesson of these texts to other elements of Jewish practice or our own lives?