Now Is the Time for Pure Chocolate in a Date
Life brings bitter and sweet together.
Dear Healthy Jew,
We’re living through bittersweet times.
These days are sort of like pure 100% cocoa chocolate inside a medjool date, just as we ate together on Friday’s neighborhood foraging walk in the park as we sipped freshly brewed foraged fennel tea.
Just a few dozen miles from where I sit writing to you, the hostages - our brothers and sisters - are nearing the end of their second year of brutal captivity. Our soldiers are still dying in Gaza, as are civilians all over Israel. Thousands of families and dozens of communities remain shattered, tens of thousands of reserves yet again called up to serve our nation.
Let’s not forget the bitterness.
Life isn’t always sweet. Wars and other crises are like 100% chocolate, very bitter but very healthy, very real food. Hard times and tastes help us grow, even if in real time we often don’t understand how.
So as Healthy Jews, we want our chocolate to be 100% cocoa. Any lower percentage means the rest is sugar: 72% is 28% sugar. Imagine pouring a quarter-cup of sugar into a cup of soup! (I know, pure cocoa chocolate is pricier than the standard, but when you think how much each piece costs, it’s only a few cents.)
One second, I need to pause as our family heads to our safe room, which happens to be the boys’ bedroom. The ayatollahs are sending ballistic missiles.
Ok, now I’m back, sitting on the floor as Achiya continues his afternoon nap undisturbed.
Yet it’s not all bitter.
Whether we call it miracles, Israeli ingenuity, or both, it’s sweet when our battered nation arises like a lion to face and destroy our worst existential threat in almost a century. Good things are happening, and the feeling on the street (whenever we dare venture out) is more hopeful and happy than it’s been in years.
Dates, too, are sweet, delicious, and packed with nutrients, and one of the few dried fruits that aren’t commonly processed with sugar and preservatives. They’re also very cheap (at least here in Israel): you can easily find a whole kilo for 20 shekel (less than $6).
As Healthy Jews, we want our sweetness to come only from the real world, a strong burst of energy straight from God’s creation. Dates are the “honey” of Israel’s special seven species.
Life is whole when we embrace its opposite flavors together.
The sweet is real, and so is the bitter. Neither of them need to be modified or enhanced; they are fine exactly as we find them. There are no mistakes in God’s world - neither the tragedies of October 17, 2023 nor the victories of June 13, 2025.
When we embrace both better and worse times, the pain and joy are softer, more manageable. They are parts of the package of life, not problems waiting for us to fix them.
It’s like 100% chocolate inside a date, where opposite tastes blend in harmony, each sharing their unique flavor and depth.
Life is in session today, bitter and sweet together.
Want to learn more about the complex tastes of food and life? Check out this post, one of Healthy Jew’s firsts:
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Be well,
Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Naiman
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