\”Not eating is not suffering,\” he said, \”it\’s elevating ourselves to a state of transcendence. The fast, on Yom Kippur, reminds us how little material we really need; that we can do with less meat, with less bread, with less of everything.\”
\”I\’m pretty much your classic disaffected Gen-X kind of gal. I have too many shoes, I work too hard, I\’m cynical, I\’m broke. So when it came time for me to immerse before my wedding, I figured I\’d bring some friends, we\’d hang out, I\’d get wet, we\’d go eat, and that would be the end of it.\”
The upfsherin (hair cutting ceremony) took place on the last day of Shevat — an auspicious time for a healing ritual. The day before Rosh Chodesh (first day of the month) is observed, in the medieval mystical practice of Yom Kippur katan (little Yom Kippur) — a day for cleansing, purification, and preparation — just what shaving my head represented, as I began my fifth week of chemotherapy.
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