Two Stories for Yom Kippur: When You Cannot Fast

BS"D

I just read these two stories in the Hamodia. I know few people read email this close to Shabbos, but they are too important to hold until after Yom Kippur. Read them on Motzei Shabbos, or on Erev Yom Kippur.

Preparing for Yom Kippur

Rabbi Tzvi Meir Zilberberg shlit"a relates (Maamarei Chizuk, Vayechi 5780):

One year, the Gaon Rabbi Baruch Ber zt"l was very weak before Yom Kippur and was worried that he would not be able to fast. He asked the doctor to tell him now, before Yom Kippur, whether he would be able to fast or not. He did not want to wait until Yom Kippur itself to be told. He explained: for every mitzvah he prepares himself, so he needed to know which mitzvah to prepare for – the mitzvah of fasting, or the mitzvah of guarding his health.

When the Doctors Forbid Fasting

The Stropkover Rebbe shlit"a related about his father, the Rebbe zt"l (Halichos Kodesh, Tishrei 5768):

In 5753 the doctors did not permit my father zt"l to fast on Yom Kippur. He was in his beis medrash in Meah Shearim, and a curtain was set up around his place so that he could eat in measured amounts. When the time came to eat, they closed the curtain. My father asked why they were closing it. They told him it was so the people would not see him eating. My father answered: "V'nishmartem me'od l'nafshoseichem" – guarding your life – is also a mitzvah from the Torah. He had the curtain opened, and said that on the contrary, let the whole congregation see that when it is forbidden to fast, you must listen to the doctors and eat. And in fact, several people whose doctors had forbidden them to fast, and who had been ashamed of it, said that this strengthened them greatly.

It was the same in his last year, 5758: he ate the measured amounts in the beis medrash and did not want to go into his home, which was nearby.

– Rabbi Hirsch Meisels