Q&A: Should females fast?
Should females fast?
Question
I grew up in Hasidic communities (not in Jerusalem), and I never saw or heard of females fasting for anything beyond Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av.
Except for endless dieting all year.
Not young women and not old women, not single girls and not married women.
Afterward, when I got married (maybe a bit before that), I heard that there are females who fast. At first I thought it was a joke or some weird custom…
But it turned out that there really are some who have the practice of fasting, and they aren’t trying to joke around or be weird, but apparently at some point they started practicing this. I don’t know based on whose authority 🙉
Boys also don’t fast on the Fast of Gedaliah.
I learned and saw that the Council of the Four Lands instituted regarding some of the fasts that only from age 18, not 13, should people fast, and all of us are basically a continuation of the communities of the Council of the Four Lands, and originally the custom to fast was only from an older age.
What should be done?
Answer
First, my condolences. Not for the Temple, but for the environment you were raised in. Second, the term “females” is fairly crude and is used mainly with respect to animals. It’s better to say “women.” Third, the custom that women do not fast is the strange one and is what requires explanation. Why shouldn’t they fast? If you live in Poland, then follow the enactment of the Four Lands. If not—I do not see what relevance that enactment has for us. Why not also follow the enactment of Beijing from the seventh century?!
Discussion on Answer
I heard it as a joke that women don’t fast because if they’re not pregnant or nursing, then they’re sick.
Legumes I can’t eat because some people sat on the Council of the Four Lands and decided not to eat them,
but when it comes to fasting I’m supposed to ignore them?
Why?
The exact opposite.
As for legumes, I’ll check whether they also ratified their enactment in Beijing in the 7th century,
and specifically regarding the fast I’ll eat, just to be safe, and afterward I’ll investigate what was going on in Beijing in the… what century?
A night of clanging on a fast day.
Women from age 12 to 💯—the custom is that they don’t fast.
Single, married, widowed, after childbirth, nursing, showing pictures of the great-grandchildren—it doesn’t matter.
Women don’t fast, that’s the custom.
Since when did you suddenly become a snowflake and develop sensitivity to non-refined expressions?
I thought you were in favor of sharp and blunt language.