In Praise of Fasting

Economists at the World Bank predicted on Sunday that the global economy and the volume of global trade would both shrink this year for the first time since World War II.

There are seven fast days scattered throughout the year commemorating different events in the Jewish calendar; today is the fast of Esther just prior to the holiday Purim. As the economy shrinks and the Jewish People fast is a good time to remember the positive attributes of having less. It is not really necessary to make the economy grow, but to stabilize the economy.

The Torah commands that the Land of Israel needs to rest every seven years and the Talmud-Book of Law says the First Temple was destroyed and the Jewish People exiled to Babylon because they did not sufficiently rest the land. The seventy years of exile which ended in Persia as celebrated by reading the story of Purim from the Book of Esther.

The Midrash-Book of Metaphor says eventually the entire world will rest the land for seven years, but before we can rest the land first we must rest the economy.

Everyone should know by now, more is not better.