148 SHOLOM-ALECHEM
"For instance, take the Day of Atonement fast! It is written, 'And you shall mortify your bodies.' What for ? To get a clean bill and a good year.
"It doesn't say that you are to fast on the Ninth of Ab, but you fast of your own accord, because how could you eat on the day when the Temple was wrecked, and Jews were killed, women ripped up, and children dashed to pieces?
"It doesn't say that you are to weep on the Ninth of Ab, but you do weep. How could anyone restrain his tears when he thinks of what we lost that day ?"
"The pity is, there should be only one Ninth of Ab !" says Chayyim 'Chaikin.
"Well, and the Seventeenth of Tammuz!" suggests some one.
"And there is only one Seventeenth of Tammuz!" answers Chayyim Chaikin, with a sigh.
"Well, and the Fast of Gedaliah? and the Fast of Esther?" continues the same person.
"Only one of each!" and Chayyim Chaikin sighs again.
E, Eeb Chayyim, you are greedy for fasts, are you?"
"More fasts, more fasts!" says Chayyim Chaikin, and he takes upon himself to fast on the eve of the Ninth of Ab as well, two days at a stretch.
What do you think of fasting two days in succession ? Isn't that a treat? It is hard enough to have to break one's fast after the Ninth of Ab, without eating on the eve thereof as well.
One forgets that one has insides, that such a thing exists as the necessity to eat, and one is free of the habit that drags one down to the level of the beast.
