A break-fast is a meal eaten after fasting.
In Judaism, a break fast is the meal eaten after Ta'anit (religious days of fasting), such as Yom Kippur. During a Jewish fast, no food or drink is consumed, including bread and water. The two major fasts of Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av last about 25 hours, from before sundown on the previous night until after sundown on the day of the fast. Other shorter fasts during the year begin at dawn and end after sunset - this includes four almost universally observed fasts, as well fasts practiced by some such as Fast of Behav, Yom Kippur Katan, Shovevim, and fasts declared by a local community.
Customs for the first food eaten after the Yom Kippur fast differ. Iranian Jews often eat a mixture of shredded apples mixed with rose water called "faloodeh seeb." Polish and Russian Jews will have tea and cake. Syrian Jews and Iraqi Jews eat round sesame crackers that look like mini-. Turkish and Greek Jews sip a sweet drink made from melon seeds. Some people start with herring to replace the salt lost during fasting.Ethel G. Hofman, "International Yom Kippur break-fast dishes," Jewish World Review, October 11, 2005. North African Jews prepare butter cookies known as ghribi/qurabiya ("ribo" among Moroccan Jews) for the meal after the Yom Kippur fast.Gil Marks“Thepage=158date=2000 Among North American Ashkenazi Jews, the custom is to break the Yom Kippur fast with bagels, cream cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes, and lox or whitefish, often followed by coffee and smetene kuchen (trans. "coffee cake").
Orthodox Jews generally do not eat meat or drink wine at the break-fast after Tisha B'Av because the burning of the Temple on the 9th of Av is said to have continued until noon on the 10th of Av. Even when the 9th of Av falls on Shabbat and Tisha B'Av is observed on the 10th, wine and meat are customarily still not consumed at the break fast, although in such a case all other Nine Days restrictions end with the fast.
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