daf bit: Yoma chapter 9

Yesterday at our Yom Kippur beit midrash (afternoon study session, to fill time between services so we can just stay there all day), our new associate rabbi taught sources related to the fast. I'm repeating something I learned there instead of returning to the regular cycle (which is at Nazir 33).

The mishna lists the restrictions on Yom Kippur: we may not eat or drink, wash, anoint, wear (leather) shoes,¹ or have intimate relations. Rabbi Elazar says that a king and a bride may wash their faces and a pregnant woman may wear shoes, but the sages forbid these. What are the exact parameters of "may not eat or drink"? Whoever eats food to the size of a large date or drinks a mouthful is guilty. All kinds of food are counted to the size of the date and all liquids are counted to the size of the mouthful -- we're talking totals here, not saying that you can eat up to the size of a date and then do it again if you wait long enough.

The g'mara discusses the "date" measure, looking to other cases where there is a minimum amount of food to count. (Surely the maximum you can eat on a fast day must be less than the minimum needed to count as "eating" for another purpose.) The g'mara talks about how much you need to eat in order to qualify for grace after meals, though the first case that came to my mind was how much matzah you have to eat at the seder to fulfill your obligation. These minimums are the volume of an egg, and there's discussion in the g'mara here about whether a large date is larger or smaller than an egg. I think for this reasoning to work it must be smaller, so we have a continuum from "no food" to "limit for a fast" to "minimum to fulfill a positive food obligation" to "plenty".

Finally, I note that today serious questions are raised about taking pills on Yom Kippur, though a pill is certainly (I hope!) smaller than a date. So these size rules have probably been refined since the talmud. (Also, this is for pills that are in some sense optional, like your daily vitamin or aspirin for your caffeine headache. If it's medically necessary you not only can but must take it regardless of the fast.)

¹ The mishna here says "lace on shoes" and doesn't mention leather, though leather is discussed elsewhere in this tractate. Since it says "lace" this raises the question of slip-on shoes; the answer is that all leather shoes are forbidden whether laced, slip-in, sandals, or other, but I don't know where this is resolved.