The Qur’an (2:183) says “Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint.” What self-restraint discipline is Hinduism, Islam and Judaism trying to teach us? What spiritual benefits can humans attain when we fast?

For Hindus, Krishna says in The Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 17: 8–10: “Foods in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such nourishing foods are sweet, juicy, fattening and palatable. Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot, are liked by people in the modes of passion. Such foods cause pain, distress, and disease. Food cooked more than three hours before being eaten, which is tasteless, stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean, is food liked by people in the mode of ignorance.”

For Jews, fasting should be combined with the study of Torah (the five books of Moses specifically or Jewish Scriptural texts in general). Indeed, the more one studies, the less one needs to fast. A medieval text states, “Better to eat a little and study twice as much, for the study of Torah is superior to fasting.”

Nevertheless, fasting is a very personal, experiential offering that one makes from one’s own body. Study is also a personal experience, but it takes place with a text and/or a teacher and the Divine is often more readily and truly experienced in dialogue with others than in solitary meditation. But, fasting by itself does have many spiritual benefits.

The sacred scriptures of the Vedas in Hinduism and the Torah in Judaism begin with centuries of extensive oral transmission of both dramatic narratives and complex priestly details. 

Everyone who has read the Book of Exodus in the Torah, has noted the major change that takes place after chapter 24; from dramatic narratives of escape from........

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