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In the past month, there were two fast days on the Jewish calendar, but on Joey Maron's calendar, there were 28.

The Jewish Toms River native, a senior at Drew University, Madison, fasted for Ramadan, the month-long Muslim holiday that restricts eating and drinking from sunup to sundown.

"I really just wanted to try out something different, a different religious practice than my own," Maron told The Jewish State. "I'm a big fan of religion in general, not just my own, and I wanted to find out more about what Ramadan is and give it a try for myself."

Maron was inspired to try Ramadan after speaking with his roommate, who is a Pakistani Muslim, and his friends in the Muslim Student Association at Drew, about wanting to walk in another religion's shoes.

"My roommate at school is Pakistani and I actually spoke to him and his sister," Maron said. "They explained what to do and I asked why -- she helped me with many of the 'whats,' and my own reading helped me figure out the 'whys'... It wasn't the fact that I was looking at [other religions] and picking and choosing [a holiday] -- and I was talking to friends who observed Ramadan and asked them the questions. I didn't exclusively pick out a Muslim holiday; it happened to be one of the ones that came up. There was no particular reason that it had to be Ramadan."

This year, Ramadan began Aug. 22. The start dates vary from year to year because, like in Judaism, Muslims follow a lunar calendar. The entire fasting period must be observed, but any days where the fast is broken can be added on to the end of the fast. Maron missed one day after falling off his bike, breaking his fast around taking Tylenol.

"For health reasons you can always break," Maron said. "If you can't [fast], then you can't -- it's not supposed to kill you."

In addition to refraining from food and drink, Maron could not touch the opposite sex beyond a handshake, get angry, or swear. While Maron said that not eating during the day quickly became second nature, the hardest part was to watch what he said for the duration of the fast.

"The hardest part definitely wasn't the eating," Maron said. "I'm not an angry person, but controlling the way I felt or thought about people whenever people bothered me was hard. Even little annoyances, I needed to learn to let it slide, let it go by. That part was difficult, especially not swearing! These were things you don't think about very much until you're forced to pay attention to it. Words come out, even at the least malicious person."

While many of Ramadan's restrictions are similar to Jewish law, Maron said that he believed Ramadan, in contrast to Yom Kippur, had different meaning and purpose.

"Learning about breaking the fast for health reasons -- that was something I never knew about for Ramadan," Maron said. "I knew about that for Jewish fasts. I was intent and focused on the merits of why Muslims do it. Some of the big reasons they fast was to feel what it's like to be hungry, in poverty. I haven't heard that for a Jewish fast. That's what was on my mind. I know why we're fasting on Yom Kippur, so this was for a completely different reason."

However, Maron said the experienced enhanced his Yom Kippur, which occurred this past Monday.

"In a way, Yom Kippur was different because Ramadan made the fast much easier, and it gave me much more time to think," Maron said. "A lot of times I spent Yom Kippur wondering what I'd break-fast on instead of spending the time repenting and praying."

Although both holidays are over, Maron said that it is still difficult for some -- Jews and Muslims alike -- to understand why he wanted to keep Ramadan.

"A lot of friends and family didn't understand it; my dad especially had trouble understanding why, and I still don't think he got why I was doing this exactly," Maron said. "It wasn't anybody's thought that I was dabbling in another faith... some people just didn't understand why; but it didn't need to make sense to everyone."

Just as confused as the Jews in his life were Muslims who saw his video diary on YouTube. Many left comments about studying the Quran or learning specific passages, assuming that Maron was converting or was inspired to convert.

"People were really encouraging me to pick up the Quran, and I said, 'you know, guys... I'm not looking into Islam'," Maron said. "That wasn't what interested me."

The journey was recorded as a video diary, and entries were posted on YouTube by Elan Magazine, a magazine that caters to young Muslim professionals.

"My roommate's older sister, who I'm also friends with, is on the staff of Elan," Maron said. "When she found out I was fasting Ramadan, she said, 'Hey, why not put it on our Web site?' It was interesting to get that out. It brought something positive to the magazine -- seeing the good side of the Islamic world."