Q&A: Breaking a Fast
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Breaking a Fast
Question
On Yom Kippur, when there is permission to eat and drink, then it is only in measured amounts so as not to incur karet, but even a drop of water or a small amount of bread is forbidden by Torah law. What about the other fasts? Does an incomplete fast also have significance here?
Answer
A quantity smaller than the formal measure is forbidden by Torah law, and straightforwardly this is said even regarding rabbinic prohibitions as well, although I seem to recall that there is a dispute about this. For fasts that are based on custom, there may be more room to be lenient, although there too it seems that the custom is to conduct oneself as though it were a binding law.