S. Simon Jacob: 0:09

Welcome to The Kosher Terroir. I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem. Before we get started, I ask that, wherever you are, please take a moment and pray for the safety of our soldiers and the safe return of all of our hostages. The history of wine in ancient Israel is rich and deeply intertwined with the region's religious, cultural and agricultural heritage. Israel, and especially as you visit wineries, you can't help but notice that each winery seems to host a rebirth of wine growing and winemaking in that specific region. Even smaller areas throughout Israel seem covered with ancient wine infrastructure. What gives Were our ancestors all drunks? Why so much focus and interest in wine? I've again asked my Teacher and Rabbi, Rabbi Yakov Shephard, to join me for a conversation probing these questions. If you're in your car, please focus on the road ahead. If you're resting at home, please select a wonderful bottle of kosher wine. Sit back and enjoy this truly enlightening conversation, Rabbi Shepherd welcome back to The Kosher Terroir.

S. Simon Jacob: 1:35

I've been traveling around Israel and visiting all sorts of different wineries. What's interesting about it is that there are gots everywhere, these stone wine presses for making wine, literally everywhere. If you go up to the Judean hills, everywhere you walk you can actually almost throw a stone, and it's close to impossible to miss hitting a got, a wine press, a stone wine press. It's crazy. They're everywhere. The truth is that there's so many wine presses here. It really brings to mind like why? Why are there so many wine presses? Why was there such a focus in ancient Israel on wine? I think it's all about being a Jew. There's such an impact on Judaism from wine, and God has put such a focus on wine within Judaism. It's amazing to me, so I wanted to talk to you a little bit about it. There's almost no way for you to live as a Jew without wine, for you to live as a Jew without wine. There's just almost no way to do that.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 2:50

So that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Maybe I'll start with explaining a little bit where I'm coming from for people that don't know me. For me, my focus in my life for the last more than 20 years is Kabbalah, kabbalistic meditation specifically, and I'm teaching people, training for how to connect whatever it is that they do in their like daily routine, whatever Shabbat Chagim, whatever it is, to give it the Kabbalistic meaning, to get the Kabbalistic insight, so they have the understanding to be able to connect to those things in a deeper way. Okay, so let's start before we're're getting into like the deeper, like Kabbalah insight, just like a more kind of surface.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 3:50

And look on, where do we see like a regular Jew using wine?

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 3:57

Okay, so the most obvious and famous and known is Kiddush.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 4:04

Right, like many, many people, even though they are not religious, they have this thing of doing Kiddush Shabbat night and to have like a Friday night and Shabbat lunch.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 4:19

Right, and Shabbat lunch is another step. People that are more familiar but I'm saying even people that are very far and they're not keeping anything they might still do a kiddush on Friday night and that's kind of a role model for the usage of wine that we see in other places all over, but so basically, every time, we have the whole thing of taking a cup of wine, a full cup of wine, and saying blessings over the wine to symbolize something that is precious, that is important, that we want to emphasize, that we want to make it significant. So, in the words of Chazal, the sages are calling that a cup of blessing and we have this concept of the cup of blessing, which is a full cup of wine, that the sages are using for all kinds of different things. So we do the Kiddush on Kos Shel Barakah and we do the Avdalah on Kos Shel Barakah and we have many, many occasions, like Brit Milah or Chuppah and etc. That we are using Kos Shel Barakah.

S. Simon Jacob: 5:40

A circumcision is a Brit Milah and a Chuppah is a wedding. It's almost in every single thing that we do. I mean there isn't a holiday that we don't have a kosher barakah. There's almost no events that we have in life that don't have a kosher barakah associated them or multiple kosot Right. I mean in a wedding you go through, not only do you go through, you go through at least three kosot Right, all right.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 6:16

Right. So the third cup that you're referring to is really the cup of bikat ha-mazon, koshebracha of bikat ha-mazon, and the truth is, according to the sages, that we should do like Kosh Barakah on every meal, every time we say Bekat Hamazon. Yeah, every time we have a meal or say grace after meals.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 6:37

There is a reason to say the Bekat Hamazon on Kosh Barakah and there's a very, very clear source in the Gemara that is saying that someone that is specifically making a special effort to say every Bekat Amazon with Kosher Barakah is promised to have like a special blessing for that. So we see that it's definitely something that is very, very important and whenever the sages wanted us to feel something, that something is significant, we have a certain event that is taking place and we want to make it that it will be honorable. So we do it with kosher bracha. That's basically the conclusion from all of that. So why is it? Why is it so?

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 7:35

The last time that I was a guest in your podcast and we had the wonderful Dubish Vatseder that we came close to also this year, that was last year, almost a year ago. So I think that we discussed it a little bit like in the introduction of my book of Seder Dubishvat. I spoke about it that it all starts really with the sin of Adam, the strong opinion. There's a few opinions in the Gemara of what was the fruit of the tree of knowledge, but one of the strong opinions is that it was wine. The sages are saying that there is a kind of a cry out that comes from the wine. So all of the results that happened From the sin of Adam HaRishon, it seems that it's like Similar to results, sometimes From wine, like people getting drunk and they're doing wrong things.

S. Simon Jacob: 8:50

But that would make you want to not do it. Exactly so as far as Jewish religion is concerned, we should become like Islam. We should never use intoxicating beverages, especially not wine Exactly.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 9:03

So now, after all of this introduction, so now I got to the Kabbalah insight to explain why it's not so, why we don't prohibit the wine and why we make wine to be so centered and important in our life. So there is a concept that is a very wide concept in the Kabbalah that we call tikkun to fix, to rectify something, and usually people know it from, because everybody have all kinds of different wrong things that they did in their past and they want to do tikkun for that. So that's usually the usage of the term in the Kabbalah. Some people that come to me they come for that. But what I want to explain is that really, the tikkun concept is not only for a person, it's also for different parts of the creation. In other words, part of the job of a Jew in the world is to create, to generate, to be part of a process of tikkun, and that is a very, very wide statement and concept that goes very, very far, with many, many different things, and the wine subject is one of them.

S. Simon Jacob: 10:32

So just to be clear with that as an example in Buddhism it teaches that you're supposed to go through life and not even leave footprints. You don't touch anything, you don't do anything. Anything that you touch is almost you know, is negative. So ideally, when you go through life, you're supposed to just not touch or do anything. In Judaism it's exactly 180 degrees from that. You're supposed to go through life and you're supposed to go through life and you're supposed to elevate or fix everything. So if you go through life without even leaving footprints or just leaving footprints, then you've wasted your life. As far as Judaism is concerned, you had this opportunity God gave you an opportunity to be on earth and to use your thoughts and your inclinations to do good things. And you know, some of your inclinations might lead you to bad things and then you do tikkun for those things that you did bad. But ideally there's a desire to do good things.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 11:44

Right, ideally, there's a desire to do good things, right, yeah, so, going back to the concept of the tikkun and I 100% agree with what you said that like and to explain it a little bit further, like, what is the kind of footprint that we want to leave? Yes, right, so there's many people, not necessarily Jewish, that they are doing tremendous effort to make a huge footprint on Earth before they leave this world, and not necessarily a positive footprint. Many times it's like negative influence. So we want to food to leave a footprint, but it's not like just to leave it as a footprint. Concept is not enough to explain it, because the add value of the concept of tikkun is that there is something that got broken and we need to fix it Right. And it really goes back even before the sin of Adam Rishon. It really goes back before the creation, that there's a whole concept in the Kabbalah of the shuddering of the vessels, shvirat HaKalim that we're doing tikkun for that, and it goes very far. I cannot really explain all of that in this podcast.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 13:08

But whoever is interested there's plenty of classes that I explain it on my channel. The point is that there is a huge necessity for tikkun and the wine is an opportunity for us that if we take this opportunity and we're using wine the right manner for the mitzvot, for k'dushah, for things that are holy and special, and dedicate that to God, to amplify our connection with Hashem, this is a way for us to create tikkun for all of the negativity that came out of wine For the whole world. It's not just for ourselves.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 14:00

It starts, like I said, by the.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 14:02

Marishon and also Noah, that got drunk. The first thing that he did when he went out of the ark is to plant a vineyard and to make wine, and he got drunk. The first thing that he did when he went out of the ark is to plant a vineyard and to make wine, and he got drunk. And all of that, and the Zohar actually speaks about it. The Zohar in the Kabbalah explains that the negative side of the wine is something that escorts humanity from day one, From the beginning of humanity, we have the negative influence of wine and Am Yisrael are commanded to work very hard to do tikkun, to fix that negative influence and to bring the wine back to its holy place, where it's supposed to be.

S. Simon Jacob: 14:48

So my drinking wine is doing it for humanity, not just for myself. Well, in your case, I would say yes.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 14:59

Because you're a very special person, but most of the people that drink wine, they just like to drink wine, right? So really it depends.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 15:08

But if you elevate it, they just like to drink wine, right and so so really it depends, elevated, it depends, it depends in like, also in the, in the circumstances, how, like, when you drink it. But most important, it's about how you drink it. What is the intention behind the drinking? If you like I said before, if you have in the back of your mind, I'm drinking now to give myself an opportunity to connect to Hashem, to elevate, and I want to use the wine to get to a higher state of mind that will help me to open up to the light of Hashem, me to open up to the to the light of Hashem, and to feel my neshama and to break the barriers, whatever it is that is holding me back from from feeling connected. And so you know, that's, that's the direction of things, of how to think about it, in a way of holiness.

S. Simon Jacob: 16:07

So I know that you have to reach a certain level to feel that potential to want to be connected to God and to want to use the wine to facilitate that. But at least, if you can start with, when you drink the wine, to make a blessing, to appreciate especially the fruits of God's labors in having this wine and having this opportunity from a perspective of thankfulness to God, rather than it being just an intoxicant that I'm drinking to just get smashed or to forget the world, it's really to remember the world and to remember God. So I can see that the way you actually do tikkun is to be exposed to the same thing that you sinned at and not to sin this time, to take it to a different level, to take it to something that's positive rather than negative.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 17:49

So with this, to actually use wine, to go out of your way to use wine and to make a blessing over it, and to have God in mind while you're drinking it, and also thankfulness for how wonderful it is, then I guess it's the ultimate tikkun for that sin. I would say it's definitely a good start for tikkun.

S. Simon Jacob: 17:59

I wouldn't say it's the ultimate tikkun, but it's definitely a good start. It might be the ultimate tikkun. For some people, there's ultimate and then there's the ultimate of the ultimate. Let's put it this way there's always another level.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 18:07

then there's the ultimate of the ultimate. Let's put it this way there's always another level.

S. Simon Jacob: 18:09

You can always have a higher goal.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 18:10

Right, right. So I want to present three concepts that are found in the Kabbalah that are like wine. There's three levels of wine according to the Kabbalah. Okay, three levels of wine according to the Kabbalah. Okay, the lowest level of wine is called Yain HaMeshaker. Like Shikor is drunk, so the wine that people are drinking to get drunk, that's called Yain HaMeshaker. That's the lowest level of wine. Okay. Then there is an intermediate level. That is obviously much level of wine. Okay. Then there is an intermediate level that is obviously much, much higher. That is called the wine that brings joy.

S. Simon Jacob: 18:58

The joyful wine.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 19:00

Okay, and that's kind of like the level that you're talking about, and then the top level, the ultimate level, is called Yaina Meshumar. Yaina Meshumar literally it means the kept wine.

S. Simon Jacob: 19:17

Yeah, it's wine that's been. Meshumar means to be watched or kept Right, cellared, cellared wine. Basically it's kind of funny, but that's yeah, exactly exactly.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 19:31

But, but, but the concept of Ya'ayna Meshumar. In the, in the sages, even like before the Kabbalah, just in the, in the simple understanding of the of the words of the sages, there's a Midrash that says that there is wine that Hashem created. Hashem created that wine Before Adam HaRishon, wine from the six days of creation, ya'ayna Meshumar, mishesh Iteime Bereshit. And that wine that is kept from the beginning of the creation is the wine that the righteous people will be able to enjoy in the feast in the end of the creation, in the end of time, able to enjoy in the feast in the end of the creation, in the end of time. There's a feast that Hashem prepared for the righteous people that will make it to the end line of whatever is the story of the creation. That is a long story, as we know. Are we talking about the world to come? We're talking about? Yeah, it's talking about the world to come we're talking about.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 20:31

Yeah, it's part of the world to come.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 20:32

The world to come is a very wide concept and within the world to come there's many, many different stations and levels.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 20:38

But within that, somewhere within the process of the redemption, somewhere along the end of it not the literal end, because there's no end, like we're talking the end of it, not not the the literal end, because there's like there's no end, like we're talking about eternity. But after the end of the world as we know it, there is a continuation that we don't really know much about, but one of the things that we do know that there will be a feast for the righteous people, and obviously we're not talking about a physical feast because it will not be with the physical body. It's talking about some kind of spiritual, some kind of a spiritual feast with spiritual wine, and that wine is called the kept wine from the six days of the creation, that is, before the creation of the physical world. That is something, a very, very precious, special spiritual abundance that Hashem created and he kept it within the time of the creation to the end time, to that feast. So God has His own wine cellar.

S. Simon Jacob: 21:38

Yes, and that's the cellar we want to get into. Exactly, wow, exactly, wow, wow. Unbelievable Ma'auch.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 21:47

Hashem, unbelievable Baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem. And the big thing that I want to say is that there is meditations while we're drinking wine to elevate the wine from the Yain HaMeshaker to the wine of HaMesameach, to the wine of HaMeshumar, okay, from the wine of the to the wine of the, to the wine of the, and that's like the highest level, like what you can reach with the meditations over the wine, when you're saying, when you have the Kossel, barakah, tidush or any other event. So the idea is to use that wine and to elevate it from the lowest level all the way up to the highest level, and whoever is managing to do that, so that's the Tikkun. And to elevate it from the lowest level all the way up to the highest level, and whoever is managing to do that, so that's the tikkun. That's that. He took that wine and he brought it to its tikkun, to the point that it can be fixed. Wow, so that's one of the many missions that we have in the creation Am Yisrael is that is, to do this tikkun for the wine.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 22:50

And obviously there's there's there's much more to to speak about and to explain about wine, but I think that, even even if like to take that understanding and to to have that in mind, without any further like explanations of meditation, and to use that as a meditation whenever it is that you're holding Kos Shel Barakah. I think that's an amazing achievement and it's something huge. It means a lot. That's the big thing about the meditation that I'm teaching. It's not you don't have to change Whatever it is that you do. There is things that need to be changed, but it's not about that. It's about having consciousness.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 23:36

Exactly, it's about having a conscious thought while you're doing it that you're doing it for a positive reason, rather than just doing it Right, right, right To do it thoughtfully, exactly, exactly when you understand the potential of your everyday routine or weekly routine or life events, and while you're doing something, you have that meaning in mind, you're conscious about it. So it becomes to be meaningful. It changes one's life, changes the whole perspective of it. Right, right, for me, that's. That's a lot of what life is about to to live life in a more conscious way, to learn to train ourselves to, to, to be conscious on whatever it is that we are doing. That's a and so wine is a very big thing within it.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 24:30

The first rabbi that I had for To be conscious on whatever it is that we are doing, so wine is a very big thing within it. The first rabbi that I had for Kabbalah his name was Rav Itamar Perelman Zatzal passed away about a year ago. He was a student of Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag, the son of the author of the Sulam explanation to the Zohar. I heard from him a very interesting point that is related with what we're speaking about, that it's much easier to have Hashem in mind and to have the right intention when you are doing something that is considered to be spiritual act like, for example, praying, learning, saying Hiyat Shema. Obviously also, those things are not obvious. Most of the people that are doing that, unfortunately, they're doing it without so much conscious and thought and connecting to Hashem.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 25:26

But it's easier to connect to Hashem in those things.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 25:28

But when someone is involved with something that is like eating, drinking, sleeping, the physical activities of the body, the natural activities of the body, it's much more challenging to remember Hashem within that.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 25:43

Drinking wine is definitely one of those things. Remember Hashem within that. Drinking wine is definitely one of those things. So to remember Hashem when a person drinks wine it's a bigger challenge than doing the meditations when someone is praying, for example, because it's not so obvious when you're praying, even though most of the people they don't so much connect to Hashem, but you know that that's what you're praying, so like even though most of the people they don't so much connect to hashem, but you know that that's what you're supposed to do, like in, like in the back of your mind. If somebody will ask you, why are you praying so, okay, that's like I'm praying because I I want to connect with hashem, I want to please hashem, I want, I want to do the right thing with my relationship with hashem. But eating, eating or drinking specifically drinking wine so that's not so obvious, even for people that are knowledgeable and more conscious.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 26:37

So, because it's less obvious and bigger challenge. Obviously it means also that the reward is bigger, and I'm not talking about the reward in the world to come, that's Hashem's. Hashem is doing that calculation of, like, who deserves what. That's interesting and what are you talking about? I'm talking about the In this world, yeah, in this world. Okay, what I mean to say is that the reward is really the consciousness and feeling of intimacy with Hashem. When I'm talking about something that has a big reward, it means it has a big potential for the person to feel the unity with Hashem.

S. Simon Jacob: 27:25

To feel more unity with God Right.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 27:28

Right and that's.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 27:31

I think that that's really what everybody are looking for, even though, like most of the people, they don't, they're not aware of that's what they're looking for, but really that's what's behind everything that people do, that people want to feel Hashem, they want to feel connected to Hashem.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 27:50

Just don't know how the knowledge that comes from the Kabbalistic meditations is the knowledge of Hashem's intimacy, to be connected with God, like you said. So we see that within wine there is this special potential that if we learn how to use it, if we learn how to take advantage of this potential whenever it is that we have the opportunity to do it right and we remember that in the right time, in the right place, and we do it in the right time, in the right place and we do it in the right manner, with the right intention, so all of a sudden, something opens up. It becomes to be different, it becomes to be a different experience, it becomes to be a different kind of a moment, instead of another kiddush, it becomes to be a moment of intimacy that the person can feel connected with Hashem.

S. Simon Jacob: 28:52

Instead of it being another beverage that you're just drinking, it ends up becoming an opportunity to feel special. I mean, there are many times when, ideally, people are trying to feel special all the time, but that's really, really difficult to do. There are times in life, though, that you do feel special, that you've done something for a loved one or you've done something with a loved one where you just feel complete. You feel like it's a much more satisfying experience when you see a wedding. That's particularly moving, or when you see a family event and you see them just so happy. They're bursting with joy and crying, and what have you?

S. Simon Jacob: 29:50

There are feelings that you get that are just incredible. They're indescribable, and I guess that's what you're talking about. The benefits of it's when, suddenly, that connection to God shines through and it just moves us inside. But if you're focused on trying to be conscious of everything and grateful for everything as well, grateful for everything as well, if you can feel, if you focus on that, the wine really gives you an opportunity to feel that way. It's interesting. I never thought about it that way myself, so that's.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 30:39

All of the things that you said is about when a person is going out of himself. It's not about me, it's about something like someone else, something bigger, and it can also be about you making somebody else feel that way.

S. Simon Jacob: 30:59

When you see that it takes you out of where you are and takes you into what another person is feeling, what another person is experiencing because of you, I think that's yeah, it's an amazing situation, amazing opportunity.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 31:19

So I want to present another concept to give us a deeper understanding of the meaning of wine. In the Kabbalistic view, there are three liquids that are very, very significant Water, oil and wine Okay, specifically olive oil. In Judaism, generally, those three liquids are connected to the concept of the three pillars that the ten sefirot are arranged by. So we have the right pillar, which is the pillar of kindness, chesed. That is starting with chokhmah, the wisdom. That is connected with the oil, the olive oil. It's coming closer to Hanukkah, so it's also connected with the meditations of the oil, of the candles of Hanukkah. We have the wine that we spoke about. That is connected with the left pillar, the pillar of judgment that starts from Binah, which is the understanding, more analytical mindset, and the water is the middle pillar, which is the balance between the right and the left. That is the. It's called the pillar of mercy, or hamim, the left pillar that is connected with the wine. That is starting with bina and then comes gvura. I think they translate as strength, strength, mightiness, and, and it ends with hod, which is it's. There's all kinds of translation, some people they say beauty or humility, or there's like different translations, but it's very hard to translate the concept of Hod. But the point is that lower than the Hod, lower than that structure, there is like the negative side that is getting nourishment from the leftovers of the left pillar. So in the process of making wine, the major thing that creates the wine to be wine is yeast, yeah, shmarim Shmarim. And in the Kabbalah they use a lot, a lot, the concept of the shmarim Shmarim and in the Kabbalah they use a lot, a lot, the concept of the shmarim of the wine, the yeast, to speak about the negative forces of the creation.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 33:58

Okay, and that, like, when you have that understanding, that opens up a door to many, many concepts that the Kabbalah is speaking about and it makes that tikkun that we spoke about before much more significant. In other words, the result of the Yain HaMeshaker to drink wine just to get drunk. The result is that it falls down from the left pillar to the negative side, and that is the understanding of why people, some people, they're getting so negative from alcohol, wine or liquors, whatever, in our days today. It's not so much about wine, it's like people are taking much more stronger things than wine, but anyhow, the potential is there, the alcohol is there. So the connection between the left pillar to the negative side is something very real in the history of humanity and we see that all the time.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 35:19

And the process of the elevation that we spoke about before is elevation from the Hod to the. That is connected with the strength and to bring it to the. That is, that is the understanding. Okay, that's the process of the elevation. So it actually elevates it through the. Exactly so. There is the process of the elevation so it actually elevates it through the spherot, exactly so. There is the realm of the Kedushah, of the holiness.

S. Simon Jacob: 35:50

The realm yeah.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 35:51

And there is the domain of the negative side that Hashem created. I want to always make that point clear to some people that it's not clear for them that Hashem is not a part of that system of Kedushah or impurity the purity or the impurity both are created by Hashem and Hashem is above that. It's not that the negativity is challenging Hashem, like they say in other religions, but it does challenge us. Hashem created the negative side as a challenge for us. So there is the realm of Kedushah and the side of the impurity and in between them there is something that the Kabbalah is calling Klipat Noga. Klipat Nga have negative and positive sides within it, a mixture of positive and negative, and that's also connected to the tree of knowledge that I said that the sin of the wine is starting from the sin of Adam HaRishon. The tree of knowledge so that's really the Kabbalistic understanding of what it presents is klipat noga.

S. Simon Jacob: 37:06

Klipot. Klipa is like the shell, but it's like the grape skins from grapes or the shell from the casing from eating a nut or what have you. That's what they consider klipot.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 37:24

So there is like the klipot me'ot, like the impurity, the total negativity that's not what we're talking about here and there is something that is intermediate between the holiness and the impurity, that is the klipat no'ga, and there there's a realm of mixture of good and evil noga, and there there's a realm of mixture of good and evil. And when we are using the clipat noga for things of kdushat, we connect that to the kdushat and then we have the potential to elevate it. So, in other words, the result of using the wine the right way is much bigger than Not touching it. Also, not touching it, but also like it's much bigger than what I can gain right now with this cup of wine. It affects like a huge system of spiritual powers that we don't really understand how it works.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 38:25

But Hashem created it and he gave us the user manual of what will be the right time, the right place, the right manner to do different things. Right now we're speaking about wine, but really it's about everything, anything that has the potential to be positive or negative. When it's positive, it's the highest level of holiness, and when it's negative, it becomes to be very, very negative. So wine is a good example for us, but I'm sure that people can think about other things that are in the same kind of potential positive or negative Right.

S. Simon Jacob: 39:14

Right Again, it's something that is that, at the right time, in the right conscious you know, consciousness of it um, it can be incredibly positive. That's why we have we have times it's not about drinking wine all the time we have it's we have all of these opportunities to drink wine, which are, you know, special, which actually give us an ability to elevate it, being able to focus at the specific times.

Rabbi Yakov Shepherd: 39:49

Right, right, when we learn, like the Kabbalistic meditations, we learn how to use every moment basically in a way that it will help us in our spiritual growth and to be more connected to Hashem and to be more of, to give more positive impact on the world and to bring the whole world to its tikkun. Jazakallah.

S. Simon Jacob: 40:16

Amazing. Thank you, Rabbi Shepard. I learned a lot. You really learned an enormous amount. Thank you. This is Simon Jacob, again your host of today's episode of the Kosher Terroir. I have a personal request no matter where you are or where you live, please take a moment to pray for our soldiers' safety and the safe and rapid return of our hostages. Please subscribe via your podcast provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you are new to the Kosher Terwa, please check out our many past episodes.