What Is The Fast That God Demands Of Us All?

The Prophetic Reading for the Fast of Yom Kippur

Isaiah 57:14-58:14
[Slightly midrashic translation, with commentary below, after the text]
Translated by Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow

And God said:
Open up, open up, Clear a path!
Clear away all obstacles
From the path of My People!
For so says the One
Who high aloft forever dwells,
Whose Name is Holy:

I dwell on high, in holiness,
And therefore with the lowly and humiliated,
To breathe new breath into the humble,
To give new heart to the broken-hearted.

For your sin of greed
I grew angry and smashed you,
I even hid My face.

Yet I will not do battle against you forever,
I will not be angry with you forever.
For from Me comes the breath that floats out to make all worlds.