Eating without Eating (was Re: The title "rabbi")

On 2005-07-26, Larisa <purple_bovine@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Lisa wrote:
<snip>
>> There are loopholes and workarounds for all sorts of things. But there
>> are also boundaries that cannot be crossed. No loophole can make it
>> permissible to eat on Yom Kippur, for instance. A sick person may be
>> required to eat on Yom Kippur, but I suspect that's not the kind of
>> thing you're looking for.
>
> True. I'm specifically looking for loopholes - for example, while it
> is never permissible to eat on Yom Kippur, is it permissible to take in
> nourishment through an intravenous tube? To inhale a mist that
> contains a nutritious mixture that can be absorbed through the lungs?
> To have a photosynthetic element implanted in your head so that your
> skin generates nourishment for your blood cells when you expose your
> head to sunlight? (I'm assuming that none of these would be acceptable,
> but you get the idea)

I've wondered about this as well in the past, and since you brought it
up, I thought I'd spawn a new thread off of it and hope one of our
experts can answer. Not that it'll help with this coming Tisha b'Av
being too near to the present, but I can dream.

Pig products can be, say, implanted or injected and we can benefit from
them, because they're not being eaten and that seems to be the deciding
factor. So, in Larisa's examples above, what constitutes eating and
what doesn't? What WOULD be wrong with getting an IV of saline solution
to keep hydrated? Aside from the problem of rolling the bottle on a pole
to shul, that is. Or the other examples, of gaining nourishment in ways
other than eating. For example, while my hunger is usually manageable,
I tend to spend most of my time noticing how thirsty I am, plus I get
dehydration headaches easily (I sometimes try Josh's technique of pulling
on the scalp which works for a bit, but I'm always afraid of yanking hair
out, and given family history, that's not a chance I'm willing to take).
Just getting enough fluid through an IV to keep from having those
effects would be helpful.

I kind of presume that, even if humans could get nutrients in other
ways, we'd still get hungry on Yom Kippur, since our bellys would still
be empty and an empty belly is what triggers the brain to eat. Maybe
someone could clarify that one, too. :-)

Thanks,
Tim

--
Timothy A. Meushaw
meushaw@xxxxxxxxx

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Eating without Eating (was Re: The title "rabbi")
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