"Shabbat is a Privilege Given to You": The Israeli Chocolate Brand Owner Surprises

About eight years ago, anyone who heard the name 'Max Brenner' would perk up in respect. Max Brenner was a luxury chocolate brand led by chocolatier Oded Brenner, but precisely during the period that was supposed to be the peak of his career, Brenner lost everything.

In a deep interview with 'Yediot Aharonot', Brenner explains how he lost the 'Little Brown' cafe in New York after the Strauss company, with which he worked, sued him on the grounds that he violated a clause in his contract stating that he could not open his own cafe as it would be considered competition. In March 2017, when the restrictions imposed by the court were lifted (one of them being the prohibition to use his own last name, reminiscent of the successful brand) - Brenner decided to pick up the pieces and start again.

However, during this period, Brenner began to explore Judaism, peeked in, and 'got hit': alongside the enormous sums he lost, he began learning about the Rambam, connecting with Judaism, and even observing Shabbat.

The Lesson Brenner Learned from the Yeshiva Student

"Judaism always interested me," he admits and adds that his interest grew when a Bobov Hasid asked for professional advice and he conditioned it on learning Torah. "I found it strange that I knew Nietzsche, Tolstoy, and Kafka well - but not the Rambam," he notes.

When he began studying, he discovered, in his words, a wonderful world he was unfamiliar with, a Judaism that "is done injustice because of politics" in Israel, according to him. "I discovered an amazing life technique. I try to put on tefillin every morning and observe Shabbat, which is my way of rising above the material, above nature, being human in the grand sense of the word. I don't think there's an entity out there waiting to punish you if you don't observe Shabbat, it's a matter between you and yourself. Shabbat is a privilege given to you."

When asked if he feels any sense of revenge towards those involved in his case, who caused him to lose so much money, Brenner says, "Jacob, a yeshiva student I met during a trip to Jamaica, talked to me about the story of Lot's wife and said: 'You have to look forward and advance. Never look back, because if you look back you'll get stuck and become a pillar of salt.' I have zero feelings of revenge and zero negative feelings. From my perspective, everything that happened was for the good, and I even thank everyone for it. I'm not someone who holds grudges, calculates or blames," he concludes.