This Covenant Foundation Report from the Field by Dr. Esther S. Friedman profiles Peretz Chein's work reimagining Farbrengen, a treasured Chabad tradition of storytelling, song, and spiritual vulnerability, as a structured, accessible wellness practice. Through the M² Research Fellowship, Peretz set out to solve a problem: how to share the emotional power of Farbrengen with people who had never experienced one.

Peretz distilled the practice's essential elements into a board game called Let's Farbreng!, which mirrors the emotional rhythm of a traditional Farbrengen, theme cards for framing conversation, turn tokens for guided participation, dice for prompting toasts and contemplative silence, and a circular board representing non-linear emotional flow. The design creates conditions for authenticity without forcing it.

Testing yielded powerful responses, participants said it "felt real" in ways they didn't expect a game could. More than 300 copies have been purchased, bringing the Farbrengen experience to communities well beyond Chabad.

The fellowship also shifted Peretz's understanding of wellness itself. He moved from seeing it as something external you introduce into your life to recognizing that wellness can emerge from within when the right conditions support it, companionship, authentic conversation, singing, and silence. Rather than seeking external fixes, he now understands that people carry an innate capacity for wellbeing that simply needs the right structures to flourish.