In the early Christian work The Shepherd of Hermas, a person fasting is told to calculate what they would have spent on food and give the money to someone in need. The instruction turns a skipped meal into a transfer of resources. Other religious texts make different connections between going without food and how people treat one another. Isaiah addresses the treatment of workers and people who are hungry. Jain accounts of Paryushan place fasting alongside the work of recognizing harm and asking forgiveness.
Isaiah asks how people behave while they fast
Isaiah 58 begins with people asking why God has taken no notice of their fast. The prophetic reply points to what is happening around them. They are pursuing their own interests, pressing their workers and quarreling. The passage then describes the fast God wants in terms of freeing people who are oppressed, sharing bread, offering shelter and clothing people who need it. Its examples range from an immediate act of giving to changes in how people exercise power over others. The argument concerns what people do on and beyond the day they go without food. Read Isaiah 58.
The chapter is read in the traditional Yom Kippur morning service. The Union for Reform Judaism’s social action guide uses that reading to connect the day’s self-examination with hunger relief. It describes some families donating what they would have spent on food during the fast. It also gives examples of work that extends beyond the day, such as volunteering with a food pantry or a meal delivery program. Those are examples from one contemporary Jewish organization, grounded in its reading of the passage. See the Union for Reform Judaism’s guide.
Hermas gives the saving a recipient
In the fifth Similitude, or parable, of The Shepherd of Hermas, the narrator tells the shepherd that he is fasting as he usually does. The shepherd first speaks about keeping God’s commandments and restraining harmful conduct. He then describes a fast on bread and water. The person is to estimate the cost of the food they would have eaten and set that amount aside for a widow, an orphan or another person in need. That calculation is part of the story’s instruction, giving the household a concrete way to connect fasting with giving. Read The Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5, chapters 1 and 3.
The text also gives the recipient a role. The person who receives the gift may pray for the one who fasted. The account makes the encounter part of the religious act. Its procedure is one early Christian example. The contemporary Yom Kippur guide describes a similar way of calculating a gift within a different religious setting.
Fasting and asking forgiveness in Jain Paryushan
During the Śvetāmbara Jain observance of Paryushan, fasting is one form of discipline alongside scriptural study, self-examination and forgiveness. The educational manual English Pratikraman describes participants undertaking fasts of different lengths and identifies Samvatsari, the final day, with a communal practice of repentance. The manual also describes the related Digambara observance of Das Lakshana as a ten-day festival organized around a series of virtues. The calendar and practices vary across these Jain traditions. Read the manual’s section on Paryushan and Das Lakshana.
The Samvatsari pratikraman, a rite of reflection and repentance, gives the self-examination specific subjects. An English ritual text issued through JAINA includes reflection on harm that might have been caused to living beings even in the course of walking. It also considers actions, speech and thoughts, and wrongs done knowingly or unknowingly. In this setting, fasting accompanies a practice that asks participants to notice harm they might otherwise overlook and to seek forgiveness. Read the Samvatsari Pratikraman text.
Conclusion
The practices give fasting different meanings. Isaiah asks whether people change the conditions that burden others. Hermas asks the person who fasts to put the savings in someone else’s hands. Samvatsari asks participants to examine their actions and seek forgiveness for harm they may have caused. Each example tells us something that a timetable of meals alone cannot show about the purpose of the fast.
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