"A Jewish guy calls his mother and says, 'Mom! How are you?' And the mother says, 'Terrible. I haven't eaten in 38 days.' And he says, 'Why haven't you eaten in 38 days?' And the mother says, 'I didn't want my mouth full in case you should call."
According to Chassidic teachings, Yom Kippur doesn’t “deprive” us of the pleasures of eating, drinking etc. The holy nature of Yom Kippur satiates us in a higher, more spiritual manner.
King David says, “Behold, G‑d’s eye is directed towards those who fear Him, to those who hope for His kindness, to rescue their soul from death and to sustain them in famine.” The Hebrew words for “to sustain them in famine”, להחיותם ברעב, can also be translated as “to sustain them with hunger”.
Spiritually, famine refers to the soul’s yearning for closeness to G‑d. A yearning which derives from the fact that the soul is a part of G‑d and, like a flame, desires to reunite with its Source.
On Yom Kippur, when the soul and its needs and wants are bared, this hunger alone, the quest for spirituality, is sufficient to satiate and satisfy a person.
We are in a body yet sustained from a non-body energy.
On the holiest day of the year we are fueled, not by bread or vitamins, but by the revelation of our very essence and its intrinsic relationship with G‑d.
The rest of the year we are also sustained in famine, להחיותם ברעב, in a completely different way. When we don't indulge in inappropriate talk, when we don't eat a non-kosher food, when we don't violate a shabbos rule (even if not fully shabbat observant), when we work on using nice words, when we withhold a negative thought, speech or action, we are also "hungry". We want/are hungry to indulge. However, we "starve" ourselves, and this withholding satiates us just as it does on Yom Kippur.
The word for hunger in hebrew is רעב. The word for sweetness is ערב.
When we make ourselves hungry throughout the year, G-d sends us sweetness.
May you be sealed for a good and sweet year,
Rabbi Kushi Schusterman