ב”ה תשרי תשע”ה TISHREI 5775 CERTIFIED SOUL NUTRITION ושבתה הארץ שבת לה׳ וציוויתי את ברכתי Dear Reader, 3 SHARE YOUR SPIRIT s we recommit ourselves to Yiddishkeit in this New Year 4 QUESTIONS FOR THE ~ Aand strive to do things better, we sometimes run into challenging HEALTHY SPIRIT areas. Mitzvos that seem hard to 5 WATER understand like kashrus and shmitta, which occurs this year, can be especially BEGINNING ANEW challenging. Although mitzvos that we 6 BY DR. YEHUDIT LANDO, PH.D. don’t thoroughly understand seem to TISHREI RECIPE be harder to observe than those mitzvos 9 SHIVAS HAMINIM SALAD that have a clear reason, if you look into the commentaries, you can find a reason for many of them. Then KEEPING KOSHER IN… again, even the mitzvos we do clearly understand should be done 10 VENICE with the same kabbalos ol as the mitzvos we don’t understand – BY LEIGH HERSHKOVICH the “chukkim” – since we truly don’t know the “real” reasons for PREPARING FOR SHMITTA any mitzvah; we do them only because they are commandments 12 BY MAAYAN MEIR from Hashem. As we start a shmitta year, some people might think that FROM THE DESK OF shmitta is a really unfair mitzvah. Why are the farmers the only 16 RABBI DON YOEL LEVY ones “penalized” for the entire year, while everyone else can continue working and profit? The truth is, if you look deeply into the Torah, the mitzvah of shmitta is extremely fair. Here is the “HASHGACHA” PROTIS 18 reason: Every other business run by a Jew is open six days a week and closed on Shabbos. On Shabbos, the owner makes no profits and no gains. The only ones who really profit from Shabbos are Who’S BEHIND THE ~ 20 INTERVIEW WITH farmers, because their produce continues to grow on Shabbos. Six RABBI OURIEL SERFATY years of Shabbosim, combined with all of the Yomim Tovim, equal one full calendar year, so during the seventh year, the farmers let CHASSIDIC INSIGHTS go of their fields and become “even” with everyone else. 22 SHMITTA: A LETTER FROM THE Kashrus is also not always easy to observe. In the USA, more LUBAVITCHER REBBE ZTz”L and more products clearly display the kosher mark; however, in Europe, kosher logos are not usually printed on product labels and SOUL NUTRITION consumers have to be “in the know” about the kosher rules in the 23 COMPILED BY DINA FRAENKEL places they shop. Read about the floating Jewish community of Venice, Italy and the various kosher establishments available to guests and locals alike in this installment of “Keeping Kosher In…” I wish you a new year of renewed motivation in the mitzvah of kabbalos ol, encompassing all of the mitzvos, and revealed blessings for all of Klal Yisroel. KOSHER SPIRIT Tishrei 5775 K’siva v’chasima tovah, l’shana tovah u’mesukah. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Rabbi Chaim Fogelman Rabbi Chaim Fogelman EDITOR: Editor in Chief Dovi Scheiner ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Dina Fraenkel DESIGN: Spotlight Design Scan the QR code with your smartphone to We welcome your comments, receive a PDF subscription submissions and letters to the editor. to Kosher Spirit Mail: 391 Troy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11213 Email: [email protected] © 2014. No portion of this publication may be reprinted without written consent from the publisher. FEEDBACK Share Your Spirit Readers share their thoughts... Dear Kosher Spirit, I read your excellent article about tevilas keilim. I would like to get it in electronic form to email to my family. Please send me the link to the article. Thank you. JP Dear JP, The electronic version can be found at www.kosherspirit.com. –Kosher Spirit” Dear Kosher Spirit, Dear Kosher Spirit, Good Morning. I love your publication, I read it cover to cover and I was delighted to receive Kosher Spirit’s I even save some of the articles for future references. I was reading Pesach edition with Ami magazine. I’ve about the seder preparations in Kathmandu; it is truly fascinating. stopped buying organic produce so was However, they mentioned “peeling potatoes, boiling carrots and thrilled to learn that it actually doesn’t ROASTING CHICKENS” for the seder. I know that it is the minhag in have more bugs. I had been toying with North America not to eat any roasted meat or chicken at the seder, I the idea of making gnocchi for Pesach was wondering if perhaps the minhag in Kathmandu is different?” which would have flopped had I not AB read the instructions in your magazine. These two items alone were worth the Dear AB, $7 I pay for Ami in Canada! Thanks for noticing. This was a typographical error and should read Regards, “cooking chickens”. DR —Kosher Spirit Dear Kosher Spirit, Kosher Spirit is an amazing piece of Torah. Thank you for you insights. I was wondering where to find the sources for Rabbi Yosef Dovid Chanowitz’s article concerning ‘Going with Grain’ - Cho- dosh in the Diaspora. Thank you again for your amazing website. Many thanks, Boruch Dear Boruch, The sources can be found at www.kosherspirit.com. – Kosher Spirit www.KosherSpirit.com 3 The ~ receives many letters/emails with kosher questions... Dear Kosher Spirit, When making a smoothie in a blender, what level of checking is required on the fruit and vegetables that ordinarily need to be checked for bugs? The ~ responds: hen making a smoothie, where any minute Wamount of bugs are liquefied and are botul b’shishim, one is only required to thoroughly wash the produce, not inspect in for bugs. After washing, one is left with only a safek issur. It is not an issue of mevatlin issur l’chatchila because you are left with only a safek issur and are not blending it with the intention to liquefy the bugs, rather to make a liquid drink. You can rely on the fact that you washed the produce well. This only applies when using a professional strength blender that is capable of fully liquefying produce (Vitamix, Blendtec, Ninja, etc.). Some basic home blenders will not be able to fully liquefy the produce and often leave small chunks that were not fully blended. 4 www.OK.org Simchas Beis HaShoeva, the “Water Drawing Festival”, took place during Chol HaMoed Sukkos in the time of the Beis HaMikdash How much do we really know about the water that we drink? Drinking water in the morning increases the More than 25% production of new blood of bottled water comes from a municipal water supply, the and muscle cells. same place that tap water comes from. In undeveloped nations, women spend Drinking warm water 200 with lemon boosts your immune system, million helps with weight loss hours a day collecting water. and aids digestion. The price of bottled water is up to 4,100 kids under age 5 die every day from unclean 10,000 drinking water. times the cost of tap water. The Environmental Protection If you drink your daily Agency (EPA) requires all recommended 8 glasses of water community water systems in per day from the tap, it will cost America to report drinking water you about 50 cents per year. If you quality to its customers annually. This choose to drink it from water bottles, includes details on where the water it can cost you up to comes from, what contaminants have been found in the water, and the potential health effects. $1,400. Americans consume 1 billion people have no access to clean 8.6 billion drinking water. gallons of bottled water per year. www.KosherSpirit.com 5 events of our lives, times when we experienced happiness, bliss, pleasure or pain, shame, embarrassment, and the incli- nation to make the same mis- takes in the same situations and with the same people. Thus, when we talk about a new beginning it’s almost like being in the therapist’s treat- ment room; we investigate the past now, in the present, out of a wish for a better future. One of the questions aris- ing in the process of the new beginning is: “Why is it so diffi- cult to begin anew? Why, every time Elul comes around, do we think, perceive, make plans, but don’t always succeed in imple- menting the new beginning or maintaining the new decision for any length of time?” The reason is that, in every begin- ning, we, as people, start doing something different from what we used to do. Doing some- beginning thing we are used to is much easier. We don’t have to force ourselves because it’s familiar and we know exactly what we are doing. A beginning means anew that we start doing something we didn’t do before, to behave Dr. Yehudit Lando, Ph.D. differently, and that’s why the beginning is hard. he voice of the shofar is calling and the Days of Awe are here, One of the things that are inspiring in each of us a Cheshbon HaNefesh – examining our typical to the beginning of a deeds in the last year and thinking about making amends and new year is the process of mak- beginning anew. What will we do this year that is better, to ing resolutions to change, to really make a new beginning? improve, to stop doing some- The important question is what “new” means. Does it mean thing, to undertake to do some- that everything we’ve done so far is erased, and we start with a thing new, etc. Good decisions clean “new” page? To where has everything I’ve done vanished? derive from the ability to keep T Do my deeds in the past have no more benefit for me, to help our eyes on the goal, the reason, me with my “new” beginning? and the aim of any new begin- On the day we are born, the first page of our life journey is written and the in- ning.