Ta'anit 11 Self-harm through fasting: then and now

We learn about a few main ideas today:

• When the community faces a famine, should individuals be compelled to fast?  If most others are fasting, should we not share the distress of our community?
• We are not supposed to cause ourselves distress.  So should we fast on all fast days?
• Can individual fasts be very short; a few hours?

These conversations remind me of a larger issue: self-harm as a form of devotion.  Most religions encourage ritualized self-harm as a form of intensive prayer.  Judaism is often taught as a religion that does not condone self-harming behaviour.  Indeed we are told specifically to care for our bodies, for they are modelled after G-d.  But fasts are a notable part of Jewish ritual, and fasts are a form of self-harming behaviour.  Of note - a person who is too ill to participate in a fast is not permitted to fast. Today's daf shows us an argument between those rabbis who believe that fasting can be a sin (as we are practicing self-harm) and those who believe that fasting is a reasonable way to be in relationship with G-d.  Ultimately, we know that it is meritorious to fast.  In our modern times, we know that those who are devout will do whatever they can to fast, often against medical and rabbinic recommendation.

Many women struggle with eating disorders.  In particular, the Orthodox Jewish community has rising numbers of young women who struggle with food and size preoccupation.  Some suggest that this tragedy has much to do with the combination of two factors: the increased pressure to present well (i.e. thin) in the shidduch process, and the structured, food-preoccupied, ritualistic nature of traditional Jewish life.  Today's daf brings all of this to the forefront.

We are allowed to take on our own individual vows.  Traditionally, fasting is a reasonable way to express one's vow.  Our rabbis note that people should not say that they are behaving righteously when they are doing otherwise in private.  In fact, the stones and beams of one's house will act as witness to our behaviour.   It is amazing to me that the rabbis struggled in the past with the same questions that we face today.  Perhaps they weren't concerned with young women's body image, but they knew that there is a fuzzy line between righteous and self-harming behaviour.