Every morsel of bread is a bit of their health and strength—he drinks his children's blood! No, the thought is too dreadful!
"Tatinke, why don't you eat?" ask the children.
"To-day is a fast day with me," answers Chayyim Chaikin.
"Another fast? How many fasts have you?"
"Not so many as there are days in the week."
And Chayyim Chaikin speaks the truth when he says that he has many fasts, and yet there are days on which he eats.
But he likes the days on which he fasts better.
First, they are pleasing to God, and it means a little bit more of the world-to-come, the interest grows, and the capital grows with it.
"Secondly" (he thinks), "no money is wasted on me. Of course, I am accountable to no one, and nobody ever questions me as to how I spend it, but what do I want money for, when I can get along without it?
"And what is the good of feeling one's self a little higher than a beast? A beast eats every day, but I can go without food for one or two days. A man should be above a beast!