Cross-posted at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and at davka.org

The prophet Isaiah asks (58:6-7):

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover them, and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?

If we are to “loose the fetters of wickedness”, what might our fasting have to do with Darfur?

Slush. Snow. Wind. Cold. It’s been that kind of weekend around here in Brooklyn and – so I’ve heard – in pretty much the rest of the country. Aside from a brief foray outside en route to the gym, and two neighborhood Chanukah parties this evening (including one in my building, to which I didn’t even have to put on a coat!), I spent the entire day in the living room, staring at the gray day out my window and at my gray computer screen while I worked on some writing deadlines. Pretty dreary.

The only thing Yosh and I had stacked in our favor on a day like today was breakfast: cardamom scented oatmeal and organic coffee made in our new pot which, glory of glories, has a timer on it (hello, brewed coffee on Shabbat!). It turns out a warm, hearty, and very affordable, breakfast can really warm up an otherwise gloomy day. It also makes you want to take a nap, which doesn’t help much with the deadlines, but what can you do?

What do you eat on cold, gray winter days?

Recipe below the jump…

(Originally posted on Express Night Out, a new online segment of the Washington Post).

If Jews properly atone for their sins (no short and sweet confessions a la the Catholics), they are written into the “Book of Life,” which means they will live to see the next Yom Kippur. But once the sun sets and the starving is over, it’s time for the break-the-fast meal — a day of atonement followed by a night of binge eating.

Leah Koenig is editor of “The Jew and the Carrot,” a blog dedicated to the “New Jewish Food Movement”: sustainable food within a Jewish paradigm. Think local, organic, humanely raised food in a yarmulke — that tastes delicious. Koenig will help you navigate the world of forgiveness, fasting and food

(Ideas and recipes below the jump)

The credit for this philosophical question goes to David, who rightly asked “If we don’t eat meat during the Nine Days, ” the nine-day period between Rosh Chodesh Av and Tisha B’Av commemorating the fall of Jerusalem, “then what do vegetarians not eat? Do they become vegans?” And then, what do vegans eat? Do they fast?