"Afflict your souls" - Yom ha'Kippurim

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"Afflict your souls" - Yom ha'Kippurim
Photograph of various fruits

Torah tells us that we are to afflict our souls. We do this during special times of the sacred year. Some individuals have taken the verses that mention afflicting the soul and have twisted them into a dangerous doctrine whereby they literally abuse their bodies. Let us examine a few passages from the Holy Scriptures on this concept to get a better understanding of this Jewish idiom.

"I afflicted my soul", "And I wept with my soul", etc. (Psalm 35:13; 69:11 - see also Isaiah 58:3)

The Hebrew word used in the above passages for "soul" is "nefesh" and is used here as an idiom. When one afflicts the soul he is curbing his appetite. Let us take a closer look for clarification on this by examining the following passagtes:

Psalm 107:9 says: "he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness" The word "soul" is translated in both instances from the Hebrew "nefesh". (See also Proverbs 23:2-3; 27:7; Isa. 56:11).

Notice also in the context of Isaiah 58:3-7

3 'Wherefore have we fasted, and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge?'--Behold, in the day of your fast ye pursue your business, and exact all your labours. 4 Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

We curb our appetite or fast during Yom ha'Kippurim. That is precisly what these passages indicate - fasting - not physically abusing the body in some ritualistic torture.

Scriptures quotes from the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (JPS Tanakh), 1917 ed.

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