The Middle-Eastern food industry has gotten highly competitive in recent years in the Middle East.

Israel and Lebanon having been trading the world record for the largest plate of chumus in recent years. Last year Israel took the record for the world's largest falafel ball. 3 years ago a team from Qatar baked the world's largest pita bread.

It is almost like the battlefield of the wars that have been too common has been adjusted to the battlefield of bragging rights.

take a bite out of that falafel ball!

Well, now, we have a foreign invader. Someone in California at the Santa Clarita Valley Jewish Food and Cultural Festival has claimed the world's largest falafel ball. He surpassed the previous record, held by an Israeli, by more than double, with the falafel ball weighing in at 52.8 pounds.

According to The Daily News Los Angeles:

What's as big as a beach ball, as heavy as three bowling balls, could feed a multitude and harkens back to biblical times?


Try the world's biggest falafel ball, rolled out for the record books Sunday at the Santa Clarita Valley Jewish Food and Cultural Festival.


"We have a winner!," said Dawn Walker, chef of Dawnsdinners.com, after weighing in the crusty colossus of 52.8 pounds. "We have the worlds' biggest. It's unbelievable."


The 12.5-inch-high falafel, a spicy Middle Eastern snack made from ground chickpeas and fava beans, was certified at 5 p.m. for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records.


"It measured 3-feet, 10-inches round.


Call it chick pea destiny. Organizers of the intimate Jewish festival in Santa Clarita had hoped to beat the official Guinness World Record falafel of 24 pounds.


Only the falafel, prepared by an Israeli chef in New York last May, looked more like a garbanzo hockey puck.


"Our goal was to have a beautiful falafel that was traditional," said festival volunteer Marlene Bernstein.


Meaning it must be round. Succulent. And mouth-watering enough to compel a hunt for a blanket-size pita.


More than 2,000 revelers who had flocked to the Jewish festival for Israeli dancing, a kugel cook-off and a run on Jewish food trucks had salivated for falafel greatness.


Robert Ingram had waited since noon hoping for a falafel crumb.


"It should have not too much crunch. The pita should be nice and toasty, not overdone. Tahini sauce. And it should all come together in one nice 50-pound falafel," said Ingram, 64, of Valencia, "constructed of pure enjoyment."


For Dawn Walker and her husband Dan, it meant borrowing a portable barbecue. Getting some falafel mix, courtesy of Authentic Foods and Tarazi. And experimenting with a custom stainless steel mold.


As the wind whipped through the festival grounds at College of the Canyons, two falafel lumps spent 8 hours in the oven vying for the record headline.


At 3:21 p.m., the first ball emerged during a blast of klezmer music, and weighed in at a frightening 22.9 - whoops, kilograms - or 50.4 pounds, a would-be record breaker.


The second emerged a couple pounds heftier at 3:30 p.m.


"Wow. I feel like David Caradine of `Kung Fu,' said Dan Walker, hoping not to drop the 145-degree winner.


Many marveled at its garbanzo girth. And the musty aroma of its souffle-like caramel-colored crust.


"It looks like a falafel. It smells like one. Of course, it'll taste like one," said Ric Royce, Dawn's dad, of Oxnard, who once supplied venerable dinner houses such as Trader Vic's. "It'll be the biggest - and the best - ever.


"In my wildest dreams, I never imagined her to be the falafel maven."


There was only one problem: because of health regulations, no one would be allowed a taste of the chick-pea chariot. Instead, they could only dream.


"I think it's fabulous," said Sandi Hershenson, chair of the festival hosted by Chabad of SCV, Temple Beth Ami and Congregation Beth Shalom. "We are celebrating the joys of Jewish culture."


"You're in the history books," added Leah Pollack, 39, of Valencia. "You know what's monumental? Jews in Santa Clarita. And we put on the world's biggest falafel ball."


Not everyone, however, was impressed with its culinary charm


"That's disgusting," said Sandi's daughter, Emma Hershenson, 11, of Stevenson Ranch. "I hate falafel. I mean I hate falafel. But I do think this is monumental event."


For the Walkers, the question was what to do with their monumental feat.


"We're going to frame it," said Dawn Walker, known for her luscious brisket and matzoh ball soup, as well as for catering to special diets. "Put it in a Lucite box. Shellac it. Put it in my living room.


"We'll be smelling falafel forever."

Now someone has to put him together with the guy from Qatar with the pita bread and the guy from lebanon with the plate of chumus, and we have a world record portion of falafel!

US President Barak Obama held a reception in the White House yesterday in honor of American Jewish Heritage Month. American Jewish Heritage Month, being in May, pays tribute to the American Jews through the history of America that have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.

President Obama held a reception yesterday recognizing Jewish Americans in the arts, science, the military, business and industry, and in public and community service. In attendence were Jewish community leaders and members of Congress, along with stars like Judy Blume and Sandy Koufax, along with Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren, among others.

President Obama said a few words:


As part of the entertainment, the Maccabeats were invited to sing a couple of songs. I have not found a better clip than this yet, though I am sure an official clip will soon be made available. Enjoy this clip for now:



and here is another, a song written just for President Obama:

This article is just so ridiculous and degrading that I am going to copy the full article, in Hebrew, here, because I am sure it will be taken down very soon. The full Hebrew text of the article can be found at the end of the post.

Kikar has the story of an avreich who went to Rav Elyashiv and described to him a situation that he had recently been involved in. He had been travelling on a mehadrin bus there was a woman who sat herself down in the front section of the bus, against the rules of the mehadrin arrangement.

He says he approached her and politely asked her to move to the back and respect the desires of the other passengers. She refused to move.

Thinking he was fighting the holy fight, he got very rude, started screaming at her in front of the whole bus full of passengers, said very rude and demeaning things.

Now he wants to know, after a few days of reflection, if he behaved properly or if he should apologize to her for his behavior.

The Psak
Rav Elyashiv supposedly answered that he has no reason to apologize, as she was wrong and she should have moved to the back and not disrupted the mehadrin arrangement.

The avreich persisted and suggested that perhaps she was handicapped and was unable to move to the back despite being screamed at, and maybe he does need to apologize?

Rav Elyashiv, again supposedly, responded that he has no need to apologize as he acted properly.

The Proof
Rav Elyashiv proved his words quoting from the story in the gemara of the amora (article says it was Shmuel but I don't think so) who encountered a woman in the street who was dressed immodestly and he ripped it off her. He is praised even though in the end it was discovered the woman was not even Jewish. Rav Elyashiv said from that we learn that one can shame someone who goes against "Dat Yehudit" in the matters of tzniyus.

I don't know why a woman sitting n the front of the bus is equal to a woman wearing immodest clothing...

And here is the full Hebrew text of the article, in case it should be taken down:
קווי המהדרין בתחבורה הציבורית עוררו לא אחת סערה ציבורית גדולה. ארגוני שמאל טענו כי הקווים הללו מפלים נשים, כשלעתים נגרמו ביזיונות לנשים ישבו בחלקו הקדמי של האוטובוס, בניגוד למקובל.

בשל כך הורה בג"ץ למשרד התחבורה להקים וועדה מיוחדת שתכריע בנושא. הוועדה שקלה את כלל ההיבטים והחליטה להתיר את הפרדת המהדרין אך ללא אפשרות לכפות זאת על הנוסעים.

פסק חדש של מרן הגרי"ש אלישיב, נותן לכאורה לגיטימציה לביזוי נשים אשר הפרו את הפרדת המהדרין בכוונה תחילה ולא נענו לבקשות לעבור לחלקו האחורי של האוטובוס.


אברך חרדי הגיע אל הגרי"ש ובפיו שאלה. הוא סיפר לגרי"ש כי באחד הימים, עת נסע באוטובוס בו הונהג הסדר המהדרין, הייתה אישה שהתיישבה בכוונה תחילה בחלקו הקדמי של האוטובוס.

"ניגשתי אליה וביקשתי שתכבד את רגשות הנוסעים ותעבור ממקומה אל החלק שיועד לנשים אך היא סרבה", סיפר האברך.

ב"עזות דקדושה", לפחות מזווית הראייה של האברך, הוא פתח כלפיה בצעקות רמות, תוך שהוא מבזה אותה לעיני כל הנוסעים, ומשתמש בביטויים קשים נגדה.

כמה ימים אחר-כך, האברך תהה בינו לבין עצמו האם עשה נכון. הוא חש צער על הפגיעה באישה, ופנה לגרי"ש בשאלה: "האם אני צריך לבקש ממנה סליחה?".

הגרי"ש שמע את פרטי הסיפור והשיב לאברך כי אינו צריך לבקש ממנה סליחה, מאחר והאישה היתה צריכה לעבור לחלק שיועד לנשים ולא להתעקש להפר את הסדר המהדרין.

האברך הוסיף ושאל: "אולי היא הייתה אישה נכה, ולכן היא לא עברה ממקומה למרות הבקשות והצעקות, ואני כן צריך לבקש ממנה סליחה על הביזיונות שעשיתי לה?", אך הגרי"ש ביטל את דבריו, ושב ואמר כי אינו צריך לבקש את סליחתה, "נהגת כדין", הבהיר הגרי"ש לאברך.

בכדי לסבר את אוזנו של האברך, ציטט הגרי"ש אלישיב מעשה מהגמרא על שמואל שהלך בשוק, וראה אישה בבגד לא צנוע וקרע אותו מעליה, ולבסוף התברר כי מדובר בגויה. "מכאן אתה למד", הוסיף הגרי"ש אלישיב, "שמותר לבזות מי שעובר על הדת היהודית בענייני צניעות".

Rahm Emanuel was inaugurated as mayor of Chicago the other day. The Chicago Children's Choir sang Matisyahu's song "One Day" at the inauguration ceremony...

(sefira warning)



And just to add a version that is acapella, the Maccabeats has a video of themselves singing Matisyahu's One Day song...

Glenn Beck Restoring Courage Rally


Glenn Beck calls for a rally he calls for "Restoring Courage". The rally will take place in Jerusalem in August. he does not know how many people will show up - it might be just him and a couple other people, but he feels strongly about expressing that he stands with Israel.

Here are a few clips from the past couple days in which Beck discusses his plan and comments on Israel, the Arabs, Nakba Day and more..

1. Congrats to the new Jewish/Israeli Mayor of Chicago

2. Will There be A pesach Sheni Korban Tomorrow?

3. Saving A Sefer Torah

4. How Not To Apologize

5. Circuses And Kosher Food

The hummus/chumus war is spreading to more universities. It started out at Princeton and has "spread" since.

The latest battlefield for the hummus wars is De Paul University.

According to NBC Chicago:

Snack spreads may not sound like typical referendum fodder, but DePaul University students say voting on which hummus the school serves on campus is a matter of human rights.

The school's Student Government Association has allowed a campus-wide referendum asking students if Sabra hummus should be removed from DePaul dining halls.

The vote came to fruition after the campus' Students for Justice in Palestine complained about Sabra's parent company, the Strauss Group, which they say gives money and supplies to two Israeli military brigades involved in human rights violations.
The referendum asks students, "Are you in favor of replacing Sabra with an alternative brand of hummus?" and is the first student referendum on a SGA ballot in at least 10 years.
Students began voting Monday and will continue until the end of the week as part of the school's general elections.

chumus or hummus?  that should be the real hummus war

Depending on the results of the voting in this referendum, chumus will announce a decision regarding the possibility of running in the upcoming elections for president of the United States.

Obviously, chumus would run on the Republican ticket, now that Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee have officially announced they would not be running, leaving the field wide open, even for a tub of chumus.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was on the Glenn Beck Show talking about the shared values between America and Israel

A story was just told about Rav Shteinman by his main gabbai and assistant, Rav Shlomo Levenshtein. He spoke at a bar mitzva and related the following incident, in which I find a couple of interesting points:

Rav Shteinman

A yeshiva bochur that was not interested in learning torah went to Rav Shteinman. He asked Rav Shteinman if he would like steak or ice cream.

Rav Shteinman asked what those things are, what the words mean. The boy responded that they are the names of very delicious foods. Rav Shteinman than said no, he would not want those foods.

The young man than said that if he is offering the rav food that everybody considers to be delicious, yet the rav does not want any of it, so "I can also not want to learn Torah even though everybody claims torah is very sweet. So why do they force me to learn torah?"

Rav Shteinman responded that if you would give someone honey and he would put it in his mouth and say it is bitter, it is a sign that this person has sores in his mouth. The same thing with Torah - someone who does not want to learn torah, it means that he has lashon ha'ra in his mouth and therefore has no desire to learn torah. (source: Ladaat)

1. Not just does he not eat steak and ice cream, but he was not even familiar with the words and what they refer to!
2. I wonder if his argument convinced the young man that he should be learning torah. Did it make him realize the problem is within him and motivate him to start learning?

I'd say this is something that could happen only in Israel, but it would not be true. Yet this specific craziness just happened in Israel.

An Israeli couple named their newborn baby "Like". Like, as in, or should I say like, the ability to click the "Like" button in Facebook.

Yahoo News has the story:

Stumped for an original name for their newborn daughter, an Israeli couple took inspiration from social networking site Facebook and named her "Like," Israeli daily Maariv reported on Monday.
The parents lifted the name from the popular feature on the site, which allows Facebook users to click on the word "like" and give the thumbs-up to comments, links and pictures posted by other users.
"We named her Like because it's modern and innovative," father Lior Adler told the mass-circulation paper. "I checked that the name does not exist elsewhere in the country, that was the main condition for me," he said.
"In our opinion it's the modern equivalent of the name Ahava (Love) he added. "It's just my way of saying to my fantastic daughter, 'love.'"
Adler and his wife Vardit have in the past strayed into unusual territory in naming their offspring.
The pair share a love of cooking and so decided to name their other daughters "Pie," using the English word for the name, and "Vash," Hebrew for "Honey," Maariv reported.
As might be expected, the couple's newest arrival was quickly announced to their friends and family on Facebook, where she was an instant hit, her father told the paper.
"When I posted her picture and name on Facebook I got 40 'likes,'" he told Maariv. "Considering that I have only a little more than 100 friends on the network that's a lot."

Like, Vash and Pie. Talk about crazy. What is going to happen with this girl in 20 years, when Facebook is a thing of the past and she tries to explain her unusual name. They might think it is cool now, but later they will think of it as pretty stupid. I mean, what would you think if you ran into someone named a term from MySpace?

Though if they were so inspired by Facebook, "Like" seems like a better choice than naming the kid "Mark Zuckerberg"...

This is taking the title "the Facebook Generation" just a little too literally!

Natan Sharansky and Jonathan Pollard were subjects in the finale of a game show trivia question..

The Israeli Heart - Why I Stand With Israel

I sometimes find it particularly humorous how in the haredi community everything is the rabbis. No matter what you want to do, publicly at least, it must have approval from the rabbis. A business you open must have rabbinic blessing in order to succeed, or at least have the chance of it, a newspaper must have rabbinic support, and on and on. Name the public service in the haredi community and you will find the rabbinic support propping it up.

Free Dental Clinic
One particular case that just brought this to mind is a free dental clinic that recently opened in a neighborhood of Bet Shemesh.

This is not the only one. Lemaan Achai operates one in Ramat Bet Shemesh. There used to be one in Bet Shemesh proper. Some have recently opened up in other cities like Kiryat Sefer and others. This particular neighborhood, where the new clinic was just opened, suffers from serious poverty and the free dental clinic is a big boon to such a neighborhood. Even the best of neighborhoods have people who are needy, or those who are down on their luck, even if only temporarily, and a free dental clinic would help such people no matter where it was. In a particularly poor neighborhood it is all that much more helpful.

You wonder why a free dental clinic would need rabbinic approval. They are a bunch of dentists offering an expensive service for free to those who cannot afford it. but it does require rabbinic approval, for whatever reason. Because everything does.

The funny part of this is that in the local haredi newspaper there was a write-up about the ceremony that marked the grand opening of the free dental clinic. Reading the article, if you knew nothing about the free dental clinic, you might come to the conclusion that the rabbonim were going to be running the clinic, providing the free dental care to the patients. The article described the ceremony, detailing which rabbis appeared, which rabbis spoke, and which rabbis support the opening of the clinic.

There was not a word of the dentists who were donating their time and energy. Not a word of the sponsors of the clinic. Not a word about the people who put all their efforts into actually opening the clinic.

I find that a bit humorous.

The Boys In The Japanese Jail
Today, the appeal for Yaakov Yosef Greenwald was heard. Greenwald is one of the three boys arrested in Japan after being caught smuggling drugs.

The three were mules for someone else, their kindness and naivety used to take advantage of them. They were caught, they went to jail in Japan, and have spent a few years in jail in Japan. One of the three has since been moved to a jail in Israel, and was eventually pardoned.

The Appeal
The family, and Greenwald himself, along with the askanim helping him, were all very optimistic about the appeal and expected to be released.

The Verdict
Unfortunately, today the appeal was heard and decided upon. the judge in Tokyo ruled and rejected the appeal. Greenwald must remain another two years in jail in Japan. (source: Bechadrei)

The Seat Belt Law
In Israel the law is that every person riding in a car must be buckled up. if a policeman stops the car and finds anyone riding within not buckled, he issues a fine to the driver.

What Is Commonly Done
When the unbuckled rider is someone who was getting a ride, and especially if he had been told by the driver to buckle up but chose not to, common practice is generally that the unbuckled rider is the one expected to pay the fine.

I am not sure why he ever would, except for common decency, as it is the driver's license that is recorded for the fine. The unbuckled rider can walk away and never pay the fine and only the driver would get in trouble. Of course if the rider was not a hitchhiker but a friend or family of the driver and was being given a ride with a previous relationship, then the rider would pay to avoid harming the relationship. But in a hitchhiker situation, the hitchhiker would usually be expected to pay, considering it is his fault the driver was fined, despite the fact that he really has no impetus to do so.

The Story
A fellow was driving to hear his regular shiur from Rav Elyashiv. Along the way he picked up a "trempist" - a hitchhiker who need to go somewhere along the same route. After warning the passenger to buckle up a number of times, he began driving.

As luck would have it, along the way the traffic  police pulled him over. After checking his papers, the policeman issued a fine due to the unbuckled passenger. A fine to the tune of 500 NIS.

The driver told his passenger that he should take the fine and pay it, due to it being his fault it was issued. The passenger refused, saying the fine was issued to the driver rather than to him. After arguing about it for a bit, they agreed to go to Rav Elyashiv and lay it out before him, and they would act in accordance with whatever Rav Elyashiv would say.

The Interesting Psak From Rav Elyashiv
Rav Elyashiv paskened that because the law requires all passengers to buckle up, the driver is not allowed to begin driving until he ensures that all passengers are appropriately buckled. The driver is obligated to pay the fine because it is his fault he began driving before ensuring the passengers were buckled. He received the fine for that and he must pay it.

As proof to his psak that the driver, rather than the passenger, is at fault, Rav Elyashiv referenced a recent question he paskened on.

The Proof
5 people got stuck in an elevator. They came before Rav Elyashiv asking which of the 5 is obligated to pay the costs of the rescue and evacuation operation, and for repairing the elevator. The story began with four people in the elevator, and a fifth tried to jump in. The four warned him that it might be too heavy for the elevator and warned him that it might get stuck. he insisted and went into the elevator.

The four of them wanted the fifth fellow to pay the bill, as they claimed it was his fault the elevator got stuck. The fifth fellow claimed it was not his fault as it was a combined effort and the bill should be divided equally among all of them.

Rav Elyashiv heard the story and paskened that whichever one of them pushed the button to activate the elevator is the one obligated to pay the bill. he is the one who caused the elevator to get stuck.

As an aside, I wonder what would be the psak if the fellow had pushed the button and then the fifth guy jumped in catching the door at the last moment. I would guess, based on Rav Elyashiv's psak, that in this situation he would probably say the fifth fellow would be at fault and would need to pay.

Comparing the cases therefore one comes to the conclusion that in the case of the driver and passenger, it is the driver who is at fault. he drove when he should not have. Therefore he must pay the fine. (source: Kikar)

Despite the riots and protests and border crossings and having war nearly declared from various borders, Israeli border police still bothered to save a Palestinian child form a burning house