Table 4 Two 1 30 15

[Music] Good morning everybody. You're listening to table for two with Naomi Nakman on the Nakam Seagull Network. Wow, we had a crazy week. We had a baby blizzard which was hyped up to be the biggest blizzard of the century. So, we're going to talk a little bit about that later on the show, but you're listening to Table for Two, and I'm very excited to be here today. Today's actually Wednesday morning right here on the Lower East Side. Um, we were touch and go about trying to meet up. I have an incredible lineup and the snow. Are we coming in? Are we not coming in? We're going to try to pull this off because I really wanted this to show to happen. And I just really want to thank my amazing engineer ZK Copel for coming in today because we knew it would be hard driving in and it was pretty amazing. Thank you God for that. No traffic and easy parking. But thank you ZK and giving you a big shout out for uh yay for coming in. Um I have an lineup today like no other lineup I've had before. Just I'm always excited about my shows as you all know because I'm uber enthusiastic. For today's show, I have Russell Robinson, CEO of the JNF. If you remember last year, our Tishvat show, uh he was able to join us over the phone, but I made a pact with him last year that he would join us in the show and we would eat and drink our way through the show. And that's what we're going to have today. Uh pairing with uh some great wines. Naomi Ross is joining us, Jewish Cooking Concepts. Uh she's joining us. And of course, Jay Booksbound. Woohoo. Royal Royal Wines Marketing and you know, Sumelier extraordinaire. and he's going to be joining us as well today. So, we have an action-packed show. So, stick around for our Tishvat show and Naomi will share her wisdom, Jay, his wines, and we're going to hear right now from Russell Robinson. Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you very much for having me here, Naomi. As I said last year with the offer of wine and food, you would come on down. I would come on down even in the snow. Even in the snow. I know it was really I was very nervous for yesterday while it was, you know, coming down, but it stopped at a decent time. So just because of your show. I know. Thank you. Thank you. The power of your network. I know, right? Power of Nakam SQL network. That's it. There you go. Thank you, Nakam. Okay. Um, so uh we have so much to talk about. I just, you know, want to talk a little about the history of the JNF. Most of us are familiar with the Jewish National Fund. As little children, you know, you hear about the tree planting in Israel, but there's so much more to it than that. Um, so let's start with a little bit of the history of how the JNF got started and what year. So the JNF started in 1901 and uh the beginning of the Jewish National Fund and I think marking what today is and I'll get to that in a second is so significant because the Jewish National Fund started after 5 years of a Zionist Congress coming together the Herzel calling the the uh people Jews from all around the world and to understand realize that we had to have a place to call home and the only place to call home after a lot of debate you know um uh where to go. Some places even thought about upper state New York and Uganda and other places. But the reality is is that we had to return to the place of the Jewish people, the the land of Israel. And after 5 years of debating, uh finally the Herzel got past of the Zionist Congress that we can keep talking, but we have to have action. And we started the Jewish National Fund to repurchase the land of Israel. Repurchase it. And I always use that word because we didn't use legal arguments which we could have or biblical arguments which we could have. What we did is that we started buying acre by acre of land for the Jewish people to return home. And the great significance of that is that that is 114 years ago. We're celebrating the anniversary celebrating. We're marking the anniversary of the 70th uh uh year of the um liberation of the camps. Yeah. So the significance is is that why we didn't get get it fast enough. We didn't do it fast enough. So 6 million people perished because they had no place to call home. And that is really the the the the real underlining message of Jewish National Fund. bringing a Jewish homeland back to the Jewish people. So after that many years, the relevancy of our organization continues. It's the repurchasing the land. What do you do with the land? You have to grow on the land. You have to develop communities. You know, Tel Aviv just celebrated a couple years ago its 100th anniversary. Well, Tel Aviv was a Jewish National Fund town. The first 65 housing lots were purchased at a Jewish National Fund lottery. Wow. I did not know that. that today is now Tel Aviv. And you take all of the places from the far north to the south, it's all touched by the work of Jewish National Fund. And we're so relevant today as we're involved in water renewal, bringing to Israel, a fact that people love to talk about today, but 16 years ago was not a fact. Today, Israel reuses 78% of its water. Now the country next to it is Spain at 17%. And that such a big difference. Big difference. Now but 16 years ago we were doing about 4%. That's the mark of Jewish national funding. It's only 16 years ago. That's it. That's unbelievable. Out of necessity. You know, you have to that's that's providing 13 14% of water which is about for 1.5 million Israelis uh water. But really what it means is that that farmer, the origins of our Zionist movement, digging our hands into the soil, the celebration of Tubishvat that we're talking about, honoring the land of Israel and and the and and the earth. Well, we did that. That was the Jewish National Fund mark onto the land of Israel. And so that story continues as relevant as it was then. It's our opportunity to share in the nation of Israel. If we believe that Israel is nothing more than a a country of its citizens, then we don't need the Jewish National Fund. But if we believe that Israel is the nation of the Jewish people, that means that 14 and a half million Jews are part of that land. Just 7 and a half million live within its borders. That is how relevant Jewish National Fund is today. That's such incredible statistics and information that that you've got there that you're sharing with us because I think people really don't know enough about it. You know, the the the background and and and what's currently going on as well. It's just, you know, very informative for people to hear all this. Um there are so many other projects I know that you're working on, not you know, you think of when you think of JNF, you think of the trees and the planting of the trees up north and but you've got a lot of other stuff going on as well in the south. Uh, of course the galil, I know we wanted to talk about how the galil is, you know, progressing and and you know, all the I know that the soil there, I know Jay and I always talk about the the uh wines of the northern Israel, how the great the soil is there. So So you have to, you know, the the what is Israel today? It's the negv 60% of the land of Israel. 60 only 8 and a half% of the population lives there. You have the that's very small. You have the Galil, 17% of the land of Israel, yet 10% of the population live in there. So, we have to move populations to the Galile, move them to the negative. We have to protect spread out. Spread it out and we have to protect the environment. And we're known as this environmental organization because we planted 250 million trees. 250 million trees. What country has done that? Most countries log the trees down. We don't do that. Well, it's not only do we not log the trees down, we preserve the land. Wherever you're planting a tree, you're preserving a piece of land. You're giving it to nature. You're giving it to the people. It's a tree. People look at all of us. We'll walk through a forest and we don't realize how beautiful it really is. How it's so beneficial to us that we have a place to walk through to have that opportunity to play and and parks and and those things. Those are a lot of things we take for granted. That's the work of the Jewish National Fund in Israel as well. But moving 500,000 people to the NEGV where we started 15 years ago and we've made such progression building seven new communities, taking Bereva from a community losing population 10 years ago to today the fastest growing city in Israel. How are you doing this? How are you convincing someone from moving from or one of the small settlements, come to Beerva, come to the Nev? How does one do that? So you have to examine that's what the work of the Jewish National Fund does in its real you know uh I think and in its work it's not building a project it's building a vision. So we understood that people h want we need people to move to Bereva but why weren't they? So there was good education you have Bengorian University. Yeah. Very good. And a lot of American students go study there. So you had housing because you have plenty of land you have a movie theater. You have a shopping center. So what are you missing? You have a hospital. you're missing image because you're not going to move someplace where you just don't think it's a place you want to live. So, we built a $300 million project still continuing a 15 km 7 mile river park taking an old dry riverbed and it will have water in it in the next 5 years. We have a a 22 acre lake that will be opening up in a year. We opened a 13,000 seat amphitheater in Beer Cheva, the largest entertainment venue in Israel. Abraham's Well, where you know didn't know that it was there. Maybe you were there, but it's behind a locked fence today. It's a $6 million worldass visitor center. I had no idea. And I've been to Israel so many times. So, come you can actually go to the well. Not only go to the well, we turned it into a visitor center that was just recognized in the New York Times as a place to go to. We did not know that. And we've all been to Israel many times. So I think Abraham's well is kind of a significant uh uh place in our history, Christianity and in Islam and every religion. It's the beginning of monolithic religion. That park that we're building in Bereva, including the river park, is three times the size of Central Park that has converted the image of Beeva that grows to Beva. That's unbelievable. and in the north. I never would have thought, you know, to to to think that a desert is turned into I guess with Israel, you never know what you they build farms in deserts. And I'll tell you for your readers, too, every Wednesday, we have a departure leaving Jerusalem. It's a one-day trip. They can go on to our website at www.jnf.org. Are you grabbing this everybody? JNF.org and go to our our We have a weekly departure every Wednesday. It leaves from Jerusalem. It's a one-day departure. you're back by the afternoon. Jay's already writing notes. Write it down and uh sign up for it and you will be able to see from the Stay Road indoor playground that we built. You'll go and see uh our work in new communities in the negative. You'll go to Beva. You'll see the fantastic work of our of our work in Bev. You'll be back in Jerusalem by the afternoon and you get lunch on it. So, oh, you know, we're all about the lunch. We're all about the lunch on this show. And in the Galil we're told how do you move populations there? It's you talk about jobs and opportunity but did you know that AO gets 2.5 million visitors? I've been to Ako. Ah but were you 15 minutes outside of Ako where you have places that are making goat cheese that you have at least 25 wineries. We're all we're all platting over here. Goat cheese and wine. Okay. Why didn't you bring any? Ah Naomi we'll be eating soon the goat cheese. you know, go to uh our website or western Galileo website which we're part of. Yeah. Can we can we we're going to put that up on the screen, the Westgal.org. CK is going to try to put that up on the screen. If you're going to go to AO, spend a couple more hours, go to all these small little boutique wineries, go to these wonderful cheese uh uh factories, go to a place that makes uh unbelievable breads and foods. And it's killing me. And and so now you could this what does it do? It doesn't even not only it gives you an opportunity to taste and to feel the land and the people, but it increases their opportunity for tourism industry which increases funds which increases opportunity to hire people. That is the work of Jewish National Fund. The rippling effect of the vision that we have to bring in populations and strengthening them. You know, I'm absolutely speechless and that doesn't usually happen to me on that show on on my show that that I or in general. I'm never speechless, but I I am completely humbled by what you are talking about and what the JNF has done and and continually continually doing. I had no idea and I'm sure a lot of our listeners have grabbed their pens and are writing everything down. You can always pick up the show on the archives if they've missed it and they can hear this show again and get the information. Um, people can also email me if they'd like to uh um get more information. You can email me at [email protected]. I can direct you straight to the JNF or you can try the JNF.org as well to try to get a lot of this incredible information. Well, Naomi, so many of your listeners are people who go to Israel so often. Yes. And you know, they're not going to go on a tour bus and they're not going to go on a tour. They already have family there. They have friends. They they know Israel. And that's why our weekly departures on Wednesday is such a great opportunity for them. You will see a part of Israel that I guarantee, let them write to you afterwards, they didn't know existed. Okay. I I'm I'm I'm looking forward. And if somebody does go on these the the the tour and please um email me and let me know because I'd like to be able to share that information with our other listeners and how your experience was. And I'm also going to let Russell know because I think it's nice to hear how Table for Two can hopefully affect the the programs at JNF um is is uh impacting on all of us. Um I'm going to ask I'm going to broaden our conversation a little bit uh with Naomi and Jay because we have an action-packed hour and I'm trying to fit everything I in. I even cut out my intro at the beginning. So um I just I wanted to get straight down to it. Um so Russ, you're going to stay there. Naomi and Jay. Hi guys. Actually, I forgot that ZK one. I thought we'd be doing some chair shuffling. We've actually got um cameras everywhere. So, if you are listening to the show, that's amazing and fabulous. But if you want to turn on, and many of our listeners do become uh viewers, so you can watch us uh online live on Friday mornings 9:00 a.m. Um and you can also watch it on the YouTube. ZK uh puts it up uh within a couple of hours after this airs on the on the YouTube channel. Uh it's Nakham Seagull um and on on YouTube and you will find all of our shows and any shows that Nakam has done through uh JM and the AM or any other of our network shows are on there as well. But we have a nice little following and I want to thank everybody for those who do watch as well cuz you know listening is uh awesome. But um it's it's an interesting component when we have some some people watching us and watching us eat and drink our way through this uh amazing um group of people. Especially today um I was re uh Stuart Schnee. He's a um a book um PR agent and he's in touch with me a lot. He does quite a lot of uh books and he sent me a copy of um Hana Braha Seagullbound's new book. He said, you know, are you doing a Tishvat show? And I said, absolutely. And he goes, I'm overnighting you this book. Um can we get this on the camera? The seven fruits of the land of Israel. It's an absolutely beautiful book. I'm going to ask Naomi Roths, who has actually read it in great detail. I've read most of the recipes, but Naomi um had the time and literally we got this book three days ago. I got it on matzah shares. It arrived and then I stole it from her and then then she stole it from me. So Naomi has read it in depth. So I just want to talk to you a little about this uh Hana Brahase Gob's book because it was really amazing and um you know everyone here like Russell and Jay both took a took a look through it seems so impressive. I was I was just totally touched and blown away by the book. Um, mostly because it's something that I don't believe has been achieved so much in in the history of like cookbooks, that kind of thing. What she's done is very unique um and dear to my heart in that she's managed to synthesize all the different I both ideas about uh the Shivadham, the seven species. She's managed to synthesize it with spiritual ideas, cababalistic ideas. um and in a very holistic way. She brings in medicinal u facts and practical tips of how to make use of the Shivadham. Um she and then she has her recipes which are lovely. Right. I'm just I'm just holding the book up. There's a lot there's a lot of artistry in the book. There's some nice photographs. She even has a a step by step of how to use uh fresh grape leaves. She you know how to roll them and everything. Yeah, I thought that was really cool. She did a beautiful job on it. In fact, I um I was in Florida last week. Um, that's why the show was on hiatus and I was standing in the um in a restaurant because it was super crowded and behind me in line was a girl from Chicago. Um, and we were chatting um and cuz I love to chat to everyone in restaurants and she was saying her sister had just um done the artwork for this new book that's about to come out. Oh, great. I'm sure I'll see it on the bookshelves. And then like is it two days later I get this email from Stuart Sheen that this was the book that she was talking about that this lovely lady Reena was talking about. So I I uh was it's it's got some it's besides pictures it's got artistry. I I'm going to hold it up but um she's an artist and she painted a lot of the a lot of the actually there's right right over there where right where your hand was. You see that? I'm I'm going to hold this up. in between every section. Um it's the book is divided into sections uh based on each different min each different species uh grape you know pomegranate that kind of thing and they actually do something lovely which is what you just showed that artwork um it gives a quote and begins the section but also they have a profile of a personality of what that species is. Um, so she and she has, you know, outlines what it what the characteristics are of of each of those species. And then she has a profile of, you know, who am I as that species? And she has a a beautiful poetic um, you know, pros kind of thing in in between each of those sections that sort of sums up like if I were a if I as a grape were person, this is who I would be kind of. So it's unreal. I'm a pomegranate. Sounds very sounds very early 70s to me. Well, it's very it's it's a little hippish. It was written in late60s. It's right out of butt iron, which is a little bit more hippish. Hippish a little to say. Yeah. Um it's it's it's almost like a safer and a cookbook all rolled up into one, which is very nice, very unique. So, um I think you can get it on Amazon. Um or check your local bookstores. It's literally coming out um any day now. What's the name of it again? Um, it is called the seven fruits of the land of Israel with a mystical and medicinal properties by Hannabra Seagelbam. S Ei Gel B A M. There you go. I'm holding it up. Um, for those who are watching. So, I just, you know, just a little bit of a shout out to that book being on on the Tishvat. You are listening to table for two with Naomi Nakman on the Nakam Seagull Network. Our show is sponsored by Ables and Hyman. We taste better. Okay Naomi, thanks. Thanks again for that little um intro about the book. Thank you for sharing it and letting me steal it from you. I'm stealing it back now because we got a couple of days to Tubishvat. Now I can educate myself as well as having you in now to educate us all. I was already reading up for Tubishvat. I have another book if anybody I don't know if anyone's seen it or not. It's called a person is like a tree. It's a source book for Tubishvat. Also bring this really this up as well. This really is a safe air though. It's by Bakbam. Is he some sort of kidding me? Do you know? Do you know that? Is it a cousin of a book spam? No, but I'll take credit. Okay. But it's it's spelled B ux. Yes. No, I'm BS. But I'll take credit. Okay. I I I think read I've been reading this book on and off since last Tubishvat. And I think that it has definitely opened my eyes to a much larger, richer holiday that I I think I didn't so much have an appreciation of into as much as I do now. I think chubbyishvat's kind of like sometimes it happens in winter break out here in New York and you know gets brushed aside you don't learn about it in school. It's not hasn't become such a focal point in in our education which is so sad. You know what's interesting also I find that I'm sorry that's okay. My my son-in-law is spartic. Okay. They probably do more stuff. They go nuts with tubes. They have sedurum and they have all kinds of stuff going especially the shabas. I mean really they have all kinds of stuff going on and it's a shame or I shouldn't say it's a shame it's it's exciting that we're on the cusp of that you know they're going to they're going to a little bit behind they were a little bit behind but you know it's really a wonderful well I think that it's one of the you know Naomi talks about it I think it's one of the great losses tish was greater I don't think we're teaching it I think we gave away I one time made a speech that if you celebrate Earth Day you're being anti-Jewish because every day is Earth Day. No, because we we began Earth Day with Earth Day began with Tubishvat. That's what it's all about. I thought it began with Beres. Okay. No, but Earth Day there's no other people. No other people have a new year for the soul and a new year for the earth. Right. No, it's it's so true. So beautiful. And and we don't teach it to our children to understand that we are really neat people. We are about the environment. We are about that. We take a day and beautiful thing about tourist vod is that it's not religious. So you can move it. It's like it's like a president's huh birthday. You can move it to a Monday or Sunday or whatever you need because it could be in the time period. But why is it during this cold time period? It's right when and now go outside on Tubish and go in the deep cold like outside right now and you will see that the trees are starting to bud. Well, we we spoke about that. Yeah. I tubishvat is really the earliest point. Why is it the new year for the trees? It's because it's the point at which the sap inside the tree starts rising up, right? It's the earliest point of renewal for the tree. And chubishvat is all about renewal. Um, so when when we celebrate Chubish Fat, it's at that point when you look outside and it's the most dreary and you think you take a look at the trees and they look completely dead and they look barren and they look like there's nothing left inside. That's the point at which God has put in this little spark of life that starts rising and creating. And it's such a Oh my god, I got the chills. I know. I'm not kidding. It's a it's a it's a beautiful but but one of one of the things that's so amazing is that and this book also is talks a lot about it um the Torah compares a man to be like a tree right so we are supposed to take a huge lesson for ourselves about our own renewal um as modeled by the trees we're supposed to how is man compared to a tree right we're supposed to recognize that we also have winters we also So at a time when we feel like we're at a you know we feel dead right that there is this spiritually yeah that there's this sap rising up in us that there's this spiritual energy that's sort of yearning to come upwards good stuff man is this 60s and 70s it's amazing it's just amazing and and and the seder especially your your son-in-law the more I've been learning about the tubisha seder it is just amazing with so pregnant with all of the there are so the symbolisms and multi-layers and it's so accessible because for our kids like I don't know about you I I was just talking about this with my husband when when my husband went to Hebrew school and I had it in when I went to a day school tubish came and we were handed a piece of dried out buxer right I agree you could shake with it or something I thought you could there was some fruit platters I thought were nuts that nobody ever wanted because you couldn't get to the core of it, you know? I I thought, well, I know it's the new year for the trees, but I didn't know we were supposed to chew on one, right? You couldn't you couldn't even get your teeth through. It was like so hard and unpleasant. And the whole idea of the tubish seder is to make it very pleasant for us. See, I think that's the issue is that that's why Tubishvat sort of died down because it wasn't about food. And as soon as we bring food in, we as the Jewish people will gravitate to it even greater. So I but you're right, you know, eat fruit and and and participate and and understand it. And I know it's Cababala and yes, it's 60s, but it's it's a neat 60s. It's a neat piece that talks about even, you know, fire, you know, how fire you you know, you want to light candles on Tubishvad and put your hand on top, you will burn if you get too close, but if you far enough away, it'll give you warmth. Everything about nature and about life has that point that could give you that renewal. Yeah. Um the it's for my kids, right? My kids are are young, but now they're getting a little older. I'm able to bring more of this kind of thing into I always try to do something for Jewish. Yeah. I think it's so important at home. I try because and by a tree JNF, of course. I I had pictures I want you to know I just found of me as a seven-year-old planting my JNF tree when when in Australia in Israel. So we do it in Australia through the day. By the way, we have your water bill still. It it's it's incredible. I thought the tree retains more water. It may do. If you pay for it, it will retain it. You know, now that I always felt like because the schools I'm not saying that they're not doing their job, but they're not. there Russell will say it they don't make they don't make a huge deal about it especially it was it was at a point a few years ago that one of my kids schools um they sent the kids home you know the women's league or what whoever took care of the tubish treat and they came home with a fruit rollup oh no that's so sad for a fruit rollup is shahakul it is not which means this is not a fruit I'm glad it was at least on their radar like a lot of times tobish is really at that point I tried to adopt something fun for the kids to do every year. I I wish I could say that they were, you know, that I was able to make a beautiful tubish seder for um for them at that point. But, you know, you have to do for every age what what they accessible and what's appropriate. One year we did like a tubish jeopardy and that way at least it was a little educational. One year we did a tubish bingo. But once you bring in the fruits and you make beautiful platters, the kids get into and the meanings behind everything. Why? What other chevron minim people that gets lost? I I don't even think I know all the I know grapes. I know geffen maybe we should I have to tell you we're going to start popping that corks. Okay, we're going to start one but let's just finish Russell finish your thought there. I I just want to tell people that we do have on our website, but we we go through hundreds of schools in the United States uh bringing tashvat to the children and I think it's what Naomi is saying, you know, it's so important we have and and I and I when I say about Earth Day, we have this really neat holiday, a real neat holiday about the earth and about planting a tree and about taking care of the everything that was God-given to us and not to have our children understand this beautiful part. Yes, Roshashan and Yom Kipur and all of our holidays are important and all of our lessons are important, but can you imagine they go through life and let them say proudly to people who don't understand Judaism who they're not going to give a whole speech about Rosha Shana, but they could talk about these people called the Jewish people that celebrate the earth, that celebrate life for the entire planet, right? It's it's really it's getting it's gotten a little bit lost and and now as we've become foodies and just in general more educated about besides the food and and and everything you know about spirituality and and people are learning more and wine and and of course there's a whole tubish piece on the wine that takes you from the colors. Yes. Yes. Naomi, you could tell us the colors as we go through. That's I wanted to tell Russell and Russ and Jay I I didn't officially say hi. Hi. I want to tell how are you? Let's move on. As long as I have the wine, I'm welcome. Oh, you you know that Jay is like number number one uh most most appeared guest on the but I have to tell you that I I don't know probably Russell is aware of this but more drinking up mate even in the negv which in the rest of the traditional uh world world of wine growing very hot desert areas do not grow grapes. There is one exception in the entire world where that is not true. You know where that is? That's in Israel. Of course. And not only that, the Yatier Forest is considered one of the best, if not the best wine out of Israel. And by some critics, they just got a 91 in the wine enthusiast. Are they going to be there on next week? Yes. By some critics, it's considered one of the best wines in the world. By the way, in the Yatier forest is the only handplanted desert forest in the world. It's unable. And what's interesting about make the desert bloom, right? They make the desert. Only in Israel, only Jew, a lot of people don't know this is that at night, and this is great for the grapes, it's very cold. It's freezing. It could get below freezing. Absolutely. And Mitzpammon, which is in the crater, the Grand Canyon of Israel. If you haven't been there, you have to go there. I haven't been there in 25 years. My husband's never been further south than Bashva. So you have to go and in Mitzvah Ramon in a place that you have 110° in the summer and it goes down to 50, you know, 55 degrees in at night and it grows these wonderful grapes that are making some great wines. So you have Yatier and down in the nega go and it's when you say one of Yes. One of the most wonderful wines and very inexpensive is a bark peninoir. Oh, we we've had bar and that bar pininoir is a a a chain called Wegman's. You've heard of it? Not a kosher chain. They do have some kosher foods in some kosher areas. We introduced it to them on Passover a couple years ago on Pes a couple years ago. They now it's their best selling imported peninoir. It's and it comes from the negative and people are going what? But that's what the wonderfulness about the JNF is and the wonderfulness of the land of Israel. If you are the wine that you're tasting what are we drinking here today is 100% pomegranate wine. So this is Shahakal. Is this a shahak? It is one of the seven me it was one of the seven. Right. Would you tell us a little bit about pomegranate and and how it so there's you know there's a few different pieces by the way um on Tubishvat you know if you're according to the traditional Tubishvat seder. So they have many different customs. One of them as as you actually mentioned was um having four glasses of wine similar to a peser and they they go from um white to all the way to red. Meaning that the colors are supposed to change um as as you progress throughout the sa the seder to represent different parts of the season uh seasons like each season of the year and how the seasons of the year change and progress. There's also a ton of cababalistic stuff on it. I got to call up my Yehuda alphabet should be a great wine selling moment for you. So we have to really promote it because the four glasses that go with the four seasons and the darkening from the white all the way through. So it goes from summer, right, to fall, you know, to to uh you know, to winter and to spring and or spring summer, I forgot how the goes and spring, sorry, spring summer. So you're progressing all the way down to to the darkness of winter, but then it comes right back to that white wine. So Jay, we have to promote Tubish for the adult. I will war I will tell everybody there are six wines that I brought. I'll just briefly tell you about each one so that this one. Sure. Varo. Amen. There you go. Okay. Everybody's uh excellent. Okay. That's a very nice wine. Um do you want to send that back down there? But but I will tell you, let me just briefly tell you about the six wines that we brought. Okay, the first one is a and also because it's fruit driven is a a San Antonia sangria. But it's very important to know that this is 100% grapebased with fruit flavors in it, but it is not kosher for Pesak. And why is that? Because some of the fruit flavorings may not be acceptable to all. Can I put Can I Sure. Oh, and I like it cuz it's got a screw top. And that does not mean it's a low. I used to think a screw top meant it's a low quality wine. It's not true. High school years, especially if you look at New Zealand 18, New Zealand wine, Australian wines. Now, some of the laws in those countries are requiring that for certain wines it has to be in a screw cup. Plenty of plenty of clear glasses. And I have another um case of glasses. Just a little shout out to uh Royal Wines. Uh KFWE Kosher Food and Wine Expo 2015 is about two weeks away at this point. These are the LA glasses from last year. So, thank you to Royal Wines. You know, it's great because put your nose into this like we've showed you before and smell it. And smell. You don't get just you don't get just the wine. You grab you get the fruit. Give to Adam afterwards. I I did I didn't answer your question about pomegranate. Oh, yes. Tell us more about the pomegranate. Um so we know that the in addition to the wines, it's also a very big big tradition to have the seven species as we mentioned which are um grapes, pomegranates, figs, dates, olives, wheat, and barley. But specifically, uh it's a big thing to have fruits on on um chubish fat. So the five of the five fruits of those species include pomegranate and each of the fruits have a huge amount of significance. Pomegranates uh we know um are all of these uh species are mentioned in the Bible right um as special to the land and they all have a lot of holiness to them. A pomegranate they compare um the seeds of a pomegranate to the mitzvot of a person. So um so just as you see inside of a pomegranate each each little seed is its own self-contained compartmentalized little package right and correct and and the whole thing is edible. So that has a lot of significance because um as we all know we as people are not are not all good or all bad. We have lots of different parts of us lots of components. We have lots of components. We have we have you know we we have lots of mitzvah. of things. We don't always do in the right way either, but we try um we try our best to um to to be full like a Ramon. That's what we say on Rashan. On Rashana, right? There's a few there's quite a lot of tie-ins as well. Yes. Um I guess it's all about the new year, right? either soul or also you'll you'll notice also with the uh there's a lot of significance as to uh the attributes of the fruit whether it has a peel whether it does that's edible that's inedible whether it has a pit whether it doesn't have a pit um and all of those are representative of um basically different levels of closeness get getting closeness to God it's it's it's pretty significant Naomi puts everything just so doesn't she she's the she's the Yes. Wow. I met Naomi at last KFWE and we she interviewed me. I I pinned you down to an interview. Yeah. And she's going to come after you again. She's going to come after you again. Be warned. We can't wait for that. By the way, everybody, right now, go online right now. I'm sorry. After the show. After the show. Not during my show. 15.com. Buy your tickets because there will be it will be sold out. It's sold out every year. It's sold out every year. And there will be no tickets available at the door. And uh so get it. You should know me and my food blogger friends, we are counting down. We are so excited. We're looking to meet up. 3,000 people there and it's in a new venue. So was a it was fabulous last year but it was a little you know it gets tight because it's such a fabulous event and everybody wants to come and so now we've got a bigger space and Ari White's going to be there. Can't wait to eat Ari White's food. We got 30 restaurants. 30 restaurants. Is there like 26? Can is there somewhere we Okay, we are not telling you. You got to get there. You got to come and you're going to be surprised, but you're going to be blown away by the beauty and the wine. Here's another wine. It's called Late Harvest Orange Muscat. This is my favorite. Now, a lot of people loves this. A lot of people when they hear the word orange muscat, they think that it's made out of oranges. Not so. It's 100% grape wine, but if you put your nose, your little Jewish noses, we're all smelling. Oh my god, my really get again fabulous. There's a a sense of oranginess to it. So you get that impression of orange. How do they make a grape taste like orange? I know. We need Joe. Go work for her. Joe Hurleman in the house. We need him in the house. But no, when grapes grow near uh first of all, the the genetic DNA of a grape really makes it a lot of difference as to how it's going to taste. But also when it grows near other vineyards, like you know, often you'll hear the word it it's got pine aromomas. That's because many of the vineyards that have those aromomas where the wine comes from are grown near near pine groves. Uh so it's there's appleness to it. There's grown near apple groves etc etc. It's so important and we've we've spoken about this a lot about the taw the taste of the land. So you know I've learned all this from Jay and and hopefully my listeners have learned this too that you know it depends on on where you know the grapes are grown. It's going to affect how the grapes taste. So important to note that this wine is in fact a wine. It is a bor pyaguffen. Yeah. This is and it and it can be used. It should be used can be used for Shabbat. The sangria that we tasted although is a bor prian cannot be used for pesak. And the three more rad wines and I'll mention the other two. I don't know if we'll get to them. Is a luchi wine. Love it. Why wouldn't we get to it? And there you go. Wine. So and a passion fruit wine. Get them cracked open. Those are also kosher for pesak but not acceptable for bor priaguffin. They are 100% fruit and 100% made in Israel from the fruits that are grown there. Back to the tubes concept on the show. Okay. And finally is the uh is something for all everybody, you know, people who can't drink wine or kids that want to feel like they're participating. This for little Leora Nakman who's seven and likes would like to drink her parents wine. Non-alcoholic sparkling peach grape juice. It's 100% grape juice. So it is a buri pigen. It's 100% kosher for pesak but zero alcohol. zero alcohol and you know great for and it's got natural peach flavors in it. So you got again the fruits of the you make a very good point because it's very important at um on tubishvat to have the shivim to have the seven species but it's also important to have other fruits. It's very encouraged to have all different kinds of fruits that you can make a bare pie on um and and one of the reasons I I had was sort of you know irked as I mentioned about the fruit rollup story was because one of the biggest points of a tubishvat seder is to be able to make blessings. It's to be able to make a bare priz and um and have other people say a mean to your breath. Oh, that's very nice. Very good point. And and so that's like an integral part of it. The whole idea is bringing awareness to us to have appreciation for what we have. Let's actually everybody has something to say. Great idea. Okay. Wait, wait, first Jay, then Russell, then me. The sader, right? I didn't even think of this when I did this when I brought the six wines, but you have a seder. You can have six different fruits and and nuts and whatever and have, you know, a wine with each one. Exactly. Well, you have your four wines, so you can you could you could do the pairing for a different up. No, no, no. I think that what Naomi is saying is again how wonderful this holiday is and and you know how it has all of these interpretations and and and involvements and interactions and for us not to be celebrating too much everywhere. That's why when I said, you know, Earth Day, it's not, you know, it was a joke, but the joke was, why would we give up this wonderful smell, this wonderful symbol, this wonderful involvement of the Jewish people and and and not celebrate this? It's so just wonderful. And I will just tell you that because Jay talked about all the wineries in Israel, we have every year a um a food and wine mission to Israel. Oh, I so want to go on that. Naomi, I will tell you the problem is is that we only take 32 people. Okay. When is it? When is it? It's going this March and you can find it on jf.org. But here's the problem. It sells out very quickly. I can imagine. I can imagine. We go to the finest chefs in Israel. Why? With 32 people. Cuz you're going into their kitchen and you're cooking in their kitchen. So you can't do that with 95 people. And these 32 pe people go around every day that they're you know the the bus driver doesn't drink. And I think that's the only one. Um, and and I don't know if you should or not. Maybe you should with the traffic in Israel away. I will tell you the they asked me one year I was going to be in Israel. They said, "Would you speak to the group?" I showed up at 8:00 at night. It was a worthless speech because everyone was I could have said anything. They said, "Yes, let's go. I mean, let's drink some more." Um, we would love that. But, but people who have never been to Israel go on this trip. Yeah. and they taste and drink Israel and see that this wonderful country that people sometimes look at as well Israel it's kind of a you know desert dirty it doesn't have good food it has the greatest food greatest food Israeli food Israeli cookbooks are coming out now are the most popular so I know that you're a tea totler but in this case I'm kidding but in this case I'd like you to give us your opinion on this next wine which is also from Morad wait I mixed up my glasses I can do can do it by smell because this is so passion fruit. I want to try the leuchy one cuz I like fruit wine. I'd like I'd like to get Oh, let let's give Naomi some. And Naomi after that, after this is explained, we're going to Naomi's got actually is going to do our what's for Dennis segment sponsored by our friends at Gomel. Thank you Gomeglot for uh sponsoring our segment and we talk about an easy recipe. Naomi will be uh sharing that right after this. Okay, we're doing a little bit of cleaning glass. Russell is not only the CEO of the JNF, but he's a professional wine pourer here at the Seagull Network. He's gonna take you learned from Jay Books. Bam. Okay. Wow, that really smells like Is that amazing? Have you not This is one of my favorite wines. It's quite um even though it's um Shahakal, it's quite strong in alcohol percentage, right? It's um 13.5%. Yeah, that's right. It's not It's not It's not nothing. It's not a mcato, which is 5%. This is a real swish and breathe. Do it with five S's. You know that? Did he teach you that? Yeah, we've done this many times. Swishing and breathing. I mean, you know, the five S's. I don't think I could name them now cuz I've had like a little bit of this, but Naomi, why don't we talk about Also, Go ahead. And while I really want to try that one, I've never had the luchi one. I'm obsess. I I do want to just mention that um in addition there there are as I I mentioned you know the four wines the Shabbatim um there are a few different segments and traditions customs that people do at the Tubish Seder um and the reason for the big emphasis on eating the Shibatam is because it develops the connection with the land of Israel. That's what it's about. In addition, I didn't know this, but I read it's also a beautiful thing to whether it's one of the Sheba hamm or not to purchase and have at your on chubish something actually grown that year from Israel. Okay. So, we have a trouble this year because it's because of explain. Um this is the the seventh year um sabbatical year uh where we don't uh harvest the the fruits that have been grown while while the land is supposed to be choppers for the land. It's we take care of everything, right? So So you're actually um there are many many laws about what you can and cannot consume this year. So it's a little bit tricky and you should definitely find out where your fruit is coming from if you are going to grow uh to eat anything. my daughter was in Israel. She said it was very complicated. It's a little it's it is definitely worth learning about. Um and um in addition, but generally speaking, that that is also an important tradition if you're living outside of the land of Israel to partake of something that has grown in Israel. Um and what are we doing this year though? Um and also to be able to make since as I mentioned, we want to say as many as many blessings as we can. If you can find a new fruit, we we do that. Um Just like just like we do on rash shana. So it's the rashash shana for the trees. If you can find a new fruit to make a one, all the better. Go make lots going to have amazing stuff out there. So and um and also to speak words of Torah about all these different ideas and things. So all of those fit in when are we going to get to eat your stuff? Okay. I just wanted to hold on guys. One thing that I think it's really important. We've spoken about Tishvat. Everybody knows it's Wednesday, the day after the baby blizzard. Let's just give the actual date of when Tishvat is going to be. You have about a week to get this together. It starts, I believe, next Tuesday. Next Tuesday night, Wednesday. And it's Tuesday night, Wednesday. So, you can do it after on uh Tuesday night, which is probably 5:30 quarter to 6 about and you got to finish and get it all in by that same time the next day, right? So, just, you know, let's keep that in mind. You've got a week to get your research together. Naomi has got so much information she's given us today. You can listen to the show again on our archives or on the Nakam Seagull network app anytime. I'm excited because I'm actually going to be giving a a Tubish class on Tubishvat which is very very fun for me um that I get to really involve myself with with my students and it's at the JCC in the five towns. So, if you do want to go out to the JCC, you've got a week to uh call them up at JCC. I don't have I used to know their number by heart, but I do not know uh the number by heart anymore. Um but you can look them up JCC of the five towns and sign up for Nami Russ's class. She is brilliant and she's informative and we and part of my menu there is going to be incorporating the Shibatam into a greater menu. So if you don't have the tradition to do a tubish fat seder, you can still, you know, you can create your own by by incorporating it into a larger meal. Um, a lot of times, especially since it's the winter, like I love fresh figs, which are one of the the seven species. Correct. But you can't really get fresh figs at this time of the year unless they're importing them from I don't know where, but I haven't seen them. Um, so the tradition has become since it's winter time, you end up relying on dried fruits a lot. Okay. The problem is that a lot of people don't like the dried fruits. A lot of people find the dried figs to be crusty and dry and whatever or um for example dates also get mixed reviews. So what I like to try to do is to incorporate them into recipes and menus that really really highlight them, make them delicious for people, make them more enjoyable for people. Um, I brought one little sample today um as a way of showing what you can do and how you serve it um to make it a little bit more um appealing for those who are not huge date lovers. Oh, this is going to be good. I already know this. You know, I already said I'm I'm always about the go-to. So, the braha is for for a date. Um, and we're using today medulle dates, which are um really the most wonderful ones out of the Jordan Valley. They're they're just delicious and they are meaty and caramelly and down in the south. They're just fantastic. Um, these I think are are actually Israeli ones that I had had um available. I stuck them in my freezer, but you know, a she's so clever on so many levels, but this was a good one. I have to store them because I like to She's like a bear. I hibernate for the winter. Um, but but for the schmitty year, we need to stock our freezes. But for like like I said, if if you don't if you want fun, easy ways of dressing up the sheet, this is a nice way of serving them. It's super simple. It literally is a five minute recipe. You basically make a mix of goat cheese, um maybe some cream cheese, cinnamon, honey, um and just make the mixture and split open the dates, remove the big pit in the center, stuff them in, and then you top it with either a pecan or an almond and bake it really only for say five, six minutes just to warm the cheeses inside and melt it a little bit. Melt it a little, get the flavors, the aromas at 350 uncovered. uncovered for five or six minutes and also toasts the nut which brings out the natural oils and aroma. Um and if you are not to show them to the or if you're allergic to nuts you can skip it. You can skip but the nuts the nuts are nice especially um on tubish the you know the the famous song. Yeah, you sing it. Sing. So what's the first line of the song? Right. What's the shape? I'm actually going to take one. The almond tree. The almond. Why is it? Because the almond tree. Let me give one to ZK. Can you have one? It's No, you don't want one. The almond tree is the first to blossom. So that's why it's in the song. Uh these are actually with pecans on top just because I happens to like them better. Well, okay. Careful. Be careful. Okay. All right. So Naomi has done our what's for dinner segment sponsored by our friends at uh Gourmet Glass. I will I'll post it on my She's going to post it on Jewish cookooking concepts.com and maybe she'll you'll give it to me. I'll post it on um the Aussie gourmet.com and um thank you for doing that. Our show, you record your tubishvad uh seder filming. Um it's not being you mean at the JCC. It it will not be filmed. It's a cooking class. It's a cooking class. It is an intensive. It's a hands-on two and a half. So I will be more than happy to list your uh website on my website as well. Great. And people can go to our website because then they can show up with the tree certificate and they can also go on and we're even for Tupushva every year we have a a raffle and two free trips to Israel. Uh go online to www.jnf.org or call 18008 um um what is it? Uh 5 8005428733. Order your trees. Register for the uh raffle. Go to Israel. That's fantastic. Thank you. I'm so we we're going to do that too. Um I just Yeah, this is delicious. Okay, you are listening to You want one? You are listening to Table for Two with Naomi Nman on the Nam Seagull Network. Our show is sponsored by Ables and Hyman. Okay. Um this looks amazing. I'm going to try this. The the cheese sort of cuts cuts the richness of the the date because the the dates are really rich. I know goat cheese wasn't your favorite. No, I love goat cheese. People were crazy about goat cheese. Everyone in this studio is obsessed with goat cheese. You can also use one of those those seasoned goat cheeses. You know, the ones that have like cranberries or nuts or like one of those. If you want to make an easier thing even easier, you can even take some of those flavored goat cheeses. And what's this hint of citrus I'm tasting? Oh, I forgot. Sorry. Secret ingredient. Um I I held out on you. Uh orange zest. Okay, now I'm going to try that with my orange wine. I'm going to I have the orange muscet here. Yeah, I'm smelling the orange muscat. And I'm gonna just have a swig of it after I've had this delicious bite. Okay, there was silence there because this is a beautiful pairing. Well, the orange muscat with the date that goes very nicely. We're having the luchi over here, which also I'm going to try that. Okay, I I just want to give one the luchi goes very well with it. Yeah, really. That does work nicely, too. That that works very nice. I'm going to try the luchi now. I'm not sure cuz I didn't have enough of the dates, so I want to try. I've lo the whole tray. This is amazing. I want to make sure. Yeah, you you have to be sure. Make as my father um may he rest in peace used to say. I have to make sure it's not poison. And my mom says that too as he would steal everything. You know, I really like what the the uh what is it? Wal does also uh I love crunch. I love texture in my food. I do that a lot. You need the textural contrast because the dates are very chewy. The the cheese filling is very creamy. So, you need the textural contrasts, right? All your local supermarkets have these products. I know Gourmet Glut always has um dates, they're going to have a nice selection out. I want to I want to mention also, by the way, about the figs. If you are a non-lover of dried figs, if you happen to not like to eat them just as is. Also some very nice things you can do with them are um poaching them in red wine and then you can make it like a crustini with more goat cheese with more go or ricotta if you don't like that make a crustini with ricotta and put on this absolutely you know I actually did last year I don't know if you remember Jack after we had our interview with Russell we actually had aishvat I'm going to repost all those recipes on the aussiegome.com um and we're going to have those um I'm going to have some of these recipes up there along with Naomi. So to give you some ideas, some fabulous ideas for this, you know, it's it's I love it when the whole family can get involved. Maybe this Sunday, prepare with the kids, go through the chevron minim, ask them what they want, get some ideas from the family. You say, "Okay, we're going to have dried figs." And the kids kids are going to roll their eyes, but you tell them different ideas that you can come up with. You also sort of surprise them a little bit. Um, one of the the recipes we're going to be making in the tubisha class is a ve roast with figs and mosscato. There you go. Oh, there you go. Once they're cooked with meat and wine, it's all good. By the way, that mosscato, the bartinura mosscato is everywhere. And the meat. And the meat. Thank God. That is that is like exploded into every single everywhere market. I I've seen some ads in the hip-hop world um on YouTube recently. It's unbelievable what Mosscato is has uh has just broken open everything. All records, right? They say it's the most popular selling while in the US or something. the bartinura that category. Out of the blue, right? Out of the blue. It's very nice. I was driving in the in the country somewhere in Florida, like in the middle of nowhere or something, and they had a Bartonora sign. So, I was like very I'm like, "Yay, Royal Wine." The blue bottle. The blue bottle. Blue bottle. The blue bottle. Yeah. See, blue and white Israel. That's where to go. That's the way we go. Woo. Looks like a JNF bottle. Here you go. Yeah. There you go. Blue and that that JNF Todd. Okay. We'll come back to that. No. Go your head. you go and then we'll come back to you. You can you you can also change up if if you um need to take a break from sweet, right? Don't forget about our much um forgotten about olives, right? Which also I love olive oil. You know, you know, it's not from Israel, but I just want to give a shout out to Breezy Beckham and she just went to uh Rome on a and she went to a kosher wine um vineyard there and an olive press. Veretta. Yeah. And she bought me back olive oil. Oh, really? Yeah. She bought me back a bottle. It looks like It looks like a bottle of um wine, but it's a bottle of olive oil. Am I allowed to use that as one of my chev even though it's not from Israel? You can't make the braha on it. However, that does that is you know olive and olive oil the same way wine and and grapes are connected, right? um from a good from a good pressing and you can make the braha on something else and then have olive oil on the table or if you wanted and this is just another idea if you want to dipping if you want to make it like fun and and a little gourmet you know of course of course family of foodies that's my hashtag you could get your you could actually wash and make a mozzi and get your kita your your wheat in by having a christini party right and then you can make an olive tapenad right or dip it in olive oil. I wanted to just say what a crustini is. Let's talk about a christini because not all of our listeners know what a christini is. Christini is basically a baguette bread that you slice on an angle on a bias and then you put on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and you put it in the oven at like 350 to 400 and just toast it for a couple of minutes. It should not be brown like toast. It should turn it crusty and and crispy but still white. And that's what Christini is. And you quite often see tempernard with that. You're putting something wet on top. So, it has to be firm enough to not get soggy, but not not not burnt or brown. You're not putting jam on it. Remember, see a fig jam. You could do You could do jams. Yeah. But the fig the fig and ricotta or the fig and goat cheese, like you said, is a fantastic pairing. Um killing me here. Topnod with some, you know, roasted um baby tomatoes are, you know, like grape tomatoes, that kind of thing. They're not they're not a fruit, but they taste like a fruit. Yeah. um some something. There is so much that we can do and go on to Nam's website, go on to the aussiegome.com. There's tons of recipes. Go to your favorite blog. There's going to be tons of stuff that's going on. We have so many uh uh great blogs going out, but I don't want to mention one. I don't want to talk about so many of them because I could go on for half an hour just in listing all the blogs. Let's just J&F jf.org. You can go in on their website to hear about the culinary tours, the their bear chev tour, the um what have I missed the gift certificates. Just just make a donation. Just make a donation. Support Abraham's well and go on to Royal Wines. Make sure you get your tickets. This has been an unbelievable hour. We could actually probably do a second hour, but Miriam would kill me because uh we've we're almost out of time. Um I really want to thank ZK again for coming in today. all my amazing guests. Um, thank you very much. We're gonna definitely smoo up a little bit after the show and you know, nobody can drive right now because we've had a little bit to drink. So, uh, thank you very much. I want to wish everybody a Shabbat shalom. Um, Nakam's got a Super Bowl, amazing Super Bowl halftime show. So, make sure that when it's the Super Bowl halftime, you watch his amazing ad on the nakhamagle.com website. Uh, it's pretty funny. Last year's was hilarious. He had hundreds and hund maybe a million views. It was unbelievable. Uh so make sure you watch that. Uh you are listening to table for two with Naomi Nakman on the Namigo network. Also heard on Rutch English radio. Our show is sponsored by Ables and Hyman. And stay listening for music but sponsored a lot of sponsorships today by our friends at Royal Wines all the way up till Bening today. Have a Shabbat shalom. Take care. Bye. [Music] [Applause] [Music]