Eating on Yom Kippur

You report the welcome return to services at the Liverpool

Princes Road Synagogue (Mersey shul’s tour plans after resuming services, 20 August).

The Shul is my spiritual home and I am delighted, as are my coreligionists on Merseyside, to be back in its midst, seated comfortably in her pews.

I must however correct the assertion that last year I wrote that Jews should not fast on Yom Kippur as it would lower their immunity to Covid-19.

I wrote that during a plague the Jewish view has been that, “At the very, very, least small quantities of food should be consumed throughout the day. These are known as “shiurim”, or “amounts” of food and liquid. If, medically, one sensibly assesses these cannot be considered to really keep up one’s immune system, then one should eat normally. In the past, our rabbis did not withhold giving such advice .... ” and that “even Jews who are currently healthy should not fast before at least consulting with a competent GP who knows them and their medical history very well, and then follow their advice stringently, even if “erring” to eat on the side of caution.”

You did not mention that the comments were obiter to a specific question regarding an elderly lady recently hospitalised with Covid, nor the qualifications regarding shiurim, which does not cancel out the fast in the appropriate circumstances, nor that one should consult their GP. I follow Halacha, not blanket liberalism.

I am aware of other orthodox/ United Synagogue rabbis who have followed the advice of consulting one’s GP about fasting, which is not at all surprising as it is in line entirely with the rulings of Maimonides and mainstream Jewish practice and respects the Torah’s commandment of guarding one’s life and the consequent rabbinic teachings on pikuach nefesh.

Rabbi Ariel Abel

Liverpool