THE 7 ISSUE behind the scenes: NUTS & BOLTS OF A inside: BETTER WORLD my life of LIES feature: a rabbi’s WHY I THINK THE apology to MOSHIACH MONEY IS COMING i don’t have a DREAM THINK... small. HOLIDAY GUIDE INSIDE 2.75 DEDICATED TO THE LOVE AND INSPIRATION OF THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE ON THE COVER farbrengenVolume 12 | issue 2 Fall 5770/2009 a little nosh for the soul {editor's note} building a better world... the 7 issue behind the scenes:WITH A MITZVAH? nuts & boltsJust of aa few years ago no inside: better world my life one was talking about of lies feature: carbon footprints. a rabbi’s why i thinkIt seemsthe that nowadays all apology to moshiachyou hear about is the impact money is coming i don’t our activities have on the have a environment. We shop differ- dream ently and eat differently and think... many of us have made a life style change that clearly small. indicates that our everyday actions have an impact on the environment and the world around us. As a Jew, I’ve been watching the mitzvah foot print that started back at Mount Sinai. I view each holiday ritual and each Jewish act as having a major impact on the world around us. Perhapsholiday we can call mitzvot the building blocks of the Newguide World. With this in mind we hired art director Nechamainside Marcus and Award Winning photographer Levi Tenenbaum to create what it really looks like when we sound the shofar or perform any righteous act. And it looks good. The sages tell us that the foot print or impact of a good deed never goes away. And that’s good thing. So, enjoy this issue of our magazine and I hope it helps you see your every good deed as the nuts and bolts of what it takes to build a better world. Happy Reading, Rabbi Shmuel Marcus, Editor This issue is brought to you by the number 7. 2.75 >>About the photographer Levi Tenenbaum: Levi is an award winning photographer currently based in Los Angeles California. Having completed both Yeshivah and studies in photography, he fuses his Talmudic talents with his savvy photographer’s eye. His artistic direction? “Reality is where I live every day. Composing hyper-real imagery allows me to live beyond those restrictions.” EDITOR IN CHIEF: Rabbi Chaim N. Cunin EDITOR: Rabbi Shmuel Marcus DistriBUtion: Rabbi Avraham Green MANAGING EDITOR: Beth Rosen COPY EDITORS: Eli Marcus, Lisa Burstein CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, Rabbi Yosef Marcus, Dr. Ben Sherman, Rabbi Shmuel Marcus, EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS: Rabbi Levi Cunin (Jay Leno’s Rabbi), Yosef Marcus ART DIRECTOR & DESIGN: Nechama Marcus contact: [email protected] COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: Levi Tenenbaum contriBUting ARTISTS: Sarah Lehat, Ruvi Leider, Marc Lumer SPECIAL THANKS TO: Uri, Dina, Natan, Yitzchak, Moshe and Gilana Sara Pikover for continuing the Rebbe’s Farbrengen. Website: www.farbrengen.com ©2009 by Chabad of California All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce any portion of Farbrengen in any form, without prior written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages Printed in the USA ALL THINGS BIBLICALLY SEVEN >> 7 weeks counting to receive the torah // first verse in the torah contains 7 words // the bride circles the groom 7 times under the chuppah // tefillin straps Soul Bling SPOT ANY SOUL BLING RECENTLY? Send us your comments to [email protected] Ben Sherman of Farbrengen Magazine dons FOOD JUDAICA the gas mask for the grating room with Marc The LULAV & Gold of Gold’s. ETROG SHAKE For thousands of years, the Jewish People have fulfilled the biblical mitzvah to “Take for yourself a beautiful WHY YOU DON’T fruit and the palm branch.” Known as KNOW BORSCHT! POWER: KOsheR-style the four kinds, your By Dr. Ben Sherman It sounds like the beginning of a joke; “A rabbi, Lulav and Etrog set is a doctor and an entrepreneur get together,” used everyday (except I asked the girl in but the punch line is: seriously great tasting Shabbat) during the the green Starbucks protein bars! The secrets are in the doctor’s festival of Sukkot. To apron for a “Grande SmartFoods Technology™, with a little help get your own Lulav and Iced Borscht with from the Kabbalah. The all new bars are “Cholov Etrog set, contact your 3 pumps of Schav.” Yisroel”, made with whey protein supervised in local Chabad. She said “With room a centuries old tradition. Order your power bars www.chabad.org/centers for cream?” No she online at www.actionnutrition.net didn’t. You see, the Russian-style beet and Price: Peanut Butter Chocolate $1.99 ea. cabbage borscht, served hot as soup or cold Peanut Butter Chocolate $1.59 ea. as beer, is part of the culinary repertoire YOU can’T BLOW of Jews hailing from Eastern Europe. But, THIS SHOFAR OFF sadly, this traditional beverage is just a mystery to most Americans. For me, there Marc Gold of Gold’s was always a cold jar of red borscht in donning Tefillin with my grandmother’s Brooklyn fridge. It was Rabbi Yossi Lieberman. something my zaidy drank while he read Always dreamed of owning the Yiddish daily. Yet, as the years went and pasted labels, all a 29”-32” Yemenite shofar? This on and Yiddish daily’s turned into English by hand while sitting Rosh Hashanah you could be the Weekly’s, red borscht was set to be soon around the kitchen proud owner of a 100% kosher forgotten. table. Hyman quickly out-grew his bicycle route handcrafted yemenite shofar made Recently, I convinced my editor to fly me to and bought a car. In 1946, Gold Pure Food Inc, from an antelope’s horn! New York and I went to meet Marc Gold. He got their own apartment in Brooklyn. Today, www.kehot.com. Price: $98.99 is one of the only people that still produces the Gold’s mega plant in Long Island is run by Marc and his cousins. They produce a variety of that classic red jar of borscht and that’s Magazine staff writer going to do with Yiddish cultural condiments. Borscht, Lo-Calorie when I finally got my Grande Iced Borscht. his interview of a Jewish CEO? That’s Borscht, Unsalted Borscht or Schav, Russian right, while I hold the camera, my Style Borscht, and now the New York Mets’ have Marc is a borscht connoisseur who’s first brother-in-law, Rabbi Yossi Lieberman, made Gold’s their official ball-park mustard. job as a five-year-old was to slash boxes the local Chabad Rabbi, helps Marc Gold’s pack and ship some 17 million jars of of red horseradish with a red ink marker. with the mitzvah of Tefillin. It’s getting horseradish a year, but not as much borscht. Marc was too young to to work the family late and I have to catch a plane back Borscht sales are in a slow decline. conveyer belt, he was barley able to make to California, so we say L’Chaim, and an x. There is nothing like a good story As we drink and sample new products in Marc’s finish the borscht eager to go read a over cold borscht. I was about to enjoy the Yiddish daily. Marc Gold story. It all started in 1932, when office it is immediately apparent that Marc now Marc’s grandparents, Tillie and Hyman has someone else making red lines on the boxes, For the full line of Gold’s products, visit Gold, grated horseradish roots, filled jars and it’s not a five-year-old. So, what’s a Chabad www.goldshorseradish.com. e oic editor's ch WHY ARE YOU STARING AT MY T-SHIRT? e Need the perfect t-shirt to give your inner Jew some fresh air? Check out Chabad graphic designer Yossi Belkin’s t-shirts online at www.zazzle.com/yossibelkin. Price: $18.99 Out of town for the High Holidays? Not a problem! Find a Chabad center you can drop in by at www.chabad.org/centers. Whether you are in Korea, Cyprus, or Montana, Chabad is ready to help you with all of your High Holiday needs. You can even ask for a complimentary Yom Kippur sermon... are wound 7 times around the arm // 7 levels of heaven // every 7th year the land in israel lays fallow (shemittah) // every 7 shmeittah years we have a jubilee year (yovel) // 7 fruits the land of israel is cover | feature WHY I THINK THE MOSHIACH IS COMING and how that relates to our year 5770 Today, we stand at this most unique moment of history. At this time of transition, on the threshold between today and tomorrow, as six millennia of human endeavor approach their climax into the tranquil perfection of the eternal Shabbat, we are, in a sense, in possession of the best of both worlds. Let us seize the moment. By Eli Soble blessed with: wheat , barley, gapes, pomegranates, figs, olives, dates // 7 days of sitting shivah for a close relative // moses was the 7th generation after abraham // 7 holidays in the jewish year: 2 WEAR TEFILLIN 5 GIVE TZEDAKAH 8 LOVE YOUR FELLOW to change the world www.chabad.org/tefillin Contact your local Chabad Reach out to a friend CLICK HERE. 3 AFIX A MEZUZAH 6 BUY JEWISH BOOKS 9 GET A JEWISH EDUCATION www.chabad.org/mezuzah www.kehot.com Contact a Chabad near you 1 LIGHT SHABBAT CANDLES 4 STUDY TORAH 7 EAT KOSHER 10 OBSERVE FAMILY PURITY www.fridaylight.org www.myjli.com www.chabad.org/kosher www.mikvah.org You are here Day of the week Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Shabbat Time elapsed 5770 Years from creation 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 ccording to a it is all happening.