How Was the Fast?

Slow.

Not fast.

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Spacious. Long enough to think many thoughts. Long enough to see a big picture.

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That opposites are the only truth, and contradictions create the world.

That Yom Kippur is the most solemn day, and the happiest.

Most solemn, because we ponder, examine, wonder why we missed the mark in so many ways this past year. If we have the courage, we talk out loud to the people we are close with, and repair our connections. But I also value the purity of the brief exchange with so many dear people this year, that simply affirmed that we are clear and clean and fine in our relationship, no need to bring out or reexamine this or that small hurt. An assurance that any smudges in our page are wiped clean now, that we can proceed from here fresh.

And so here were are! The happiest day in the year! A day that declares loud and clear that change is possible, that we can be new. No need to say, "That's the way I am. That's the way this world is." Yom Kippur says, "Imagine yourself. Imagine a world."
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On Yom Kippur we are more angel than physical being. We wear white, fast, don't touch the ground. Eating and drinking and driving and working tie us to the physical world. On Yom Kippur we're all spirit. Hmmmmm. On Yom Kippur we are so physical. The last bites of food before the fast are so very delicious, so grateful, so beloved, so important, so noticed, so savoured. The last sip of tea. And then, well into the fast, how we fixate on that longed for gulp of cool water, the sweet first spoonful of cinnamon rice pudding, the feel of hot tea in our mug and on our tongue. How physical this body feels, all longing, all need, all thirst, all hunger.
Yes, opposites are the truth.
Happiness and longing
Spiritual beings in a physical world, physical beings in a world of ideas, concepts, natural laws, feelings, words, poems and air.
Opposites are the only truth. Before opposites, was to-u va vo-u, the void before creation.
And ceaseless creativity said, Let there be Light and Darkness!
Let there be opposites.
Let there be a world.
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How was the fast?
Slow.
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Rosh Hashanah, Head of the Year. Rosh Hashana is all in your head. But now the Yom Kippur fast, that most solemn and most happy of days. that day of envisioning how whole we can be, is done. Now we can eat and drive and get out our hammers and nails and schach and build a sukka. And a good world