“Self-awareness can be hard to come by. We may believe ourselves entirely sincere. Yet the prophet [Isaiah] has his doubts, so he offers a kind of test: if our fasting comes coupled with a passion for justice and a heart full of kindness, then our religious lives have integrity. If, on the other hand, our fasting convinces us that God is in our pocket, then our religious lives are a scam and God wants no part of them.”
Rabbi Shai Held, president, dean, and chair of Jewish thought at Mechon Hadar, from “Reflections on the Lectionary” in the August 14, 2019 Christian Century magazine