One bite, everyone knows the rule.

Dovi and @DBashIdeas make peace over Cholent. 😂 pic.twitter.com/digzf81vo0

— Frum TikTok (@FrumTikTok) February 4, 2024

Kikar is reporting on an interesting battle taking place right now in RBS D, a similar battle to one that has taken place in many cities and neighborhoods with mixed populations - basically a power struggle for controlling the tone of the neighborhood or city.

Several years ago there was a rash of terror attacks and some attacks were thwarted by regular bystanders. By "regular bystanders" I mean not members of any of the security forces. While generally we think of people stopping an attack by pulling out a licensed gun and shooting the terrorist dead in his tracks, or maybe we might fantasize about someone driving by and seeing an active shooter and driving right into him to stop him, or maybe driving alongside him and swinging open the door to smash into him, James Bond style of whatever, back then some of the attacks were stopped by people brandishing household items.

This feels disrespectful., though I dont mean it to be. 

I did not like the cholent campaign of Bnei Braq. Haredim are intelligent enough to get vaccinated without that.

this is awesome! I hope it works

בני ברק: צלם האדמו״רים ואושיית הרשת מוישי גולדשטיין עובד במשך יממה, מסביב לשעון, על הכנת הטשולנט, לקראת אלפי המתחסנים שיגיעו הערב. pic.twitter.com/SASidGaOPp

— ישראל כהן (@Israelcohen911) February 11, 2021

There was a court case in Northern Israel that was the result of a fight that broke out in shul over a pot of cholent.

This does not seem to be a major chiddush, but basic halacha. It is interesting in the sense that someone felt it was important, or significant, enough that it needed to be published. It also points to a major cultural issue as well.

The question presented is regarding a major cultural trend in haredi areas of "Thursday night cholent". Guys get together at a cholent joint and sit around late Thursday nights eating cholent and kugel, beer and challa, and maybe a Hungarian will have some galla/ptcha. So, the question is, with Rosh Chodesh Av falling out this Thursday night-Friday, can the regular weekly "Thursday night cholent" events take place as usual or must they be skipped this week due to the advent of the Nine Days when eating meat is prohibited?

Rav Shabsi Yagel, rav of Bnei Hayeshivos in Ranana, responded that with the hope that this will no longer be relevant by Thursday night as by then hopefully the exile will be finished and we will by then have merited the geula, but if not, there is a difference between sefardim and ashkenazim in this regard.

There are different minhagim regarding eating meat during the Nine Days. Ashkenazim stop eating meat from Rosh Chodesh Av, meaning from Thursday night this year. Sefardim have other minhagim that allow eating meat on Rosh Chodesh, and some allow it on Motzei Shabbos as well (and some allow it all week and just prohibit eating meat and drinking wine during the week of Tisha B'Av itself). Yemenites allow eating meat throughout the Nine Days and only prohibit it at the seuda mafsekes right before Tisha B'Av.

That being the case, Rav Yagel said that in his shul in Ranana they have a weekly Thursday night shiur and they serve fleishige cholent with coca cola every week/ This week, because of Rosh Chodesh Av, they will be serving pareve cholent.

And, while some will suggest making a siyyum as a solution to be able to eat meat, Rav Yagel says such a siyyum cannot be scheduled for the Nine Days for the purpose of being able to eat meat, but if one's learning happens to come to a siyyum during the nine Days that is definitely something to celebrate and would be allowed to eat meat. Rav Yagel even relates a story in which arestaurant in herzliya contacted the kollel in Ranana and offered a proposal by which each night the kollel would arrange an avreich to go to the restaurant and make a siyyum so the customers of the restaurant can eat meat. In return, the restaurant would donate a percentage of the profits from those days back to the kollel. Rav Yagel says the Kollel rejected the proposal.

And, Rav Yagel concludes, the beis hamikdash is worthy of being mourned for, even if it means forswearing meaty foods on Thursday night and making do with kugel and other pareve foods.
(source: Srugim)

Personally this discussion seemed very straightforward with no unusual or controversial chiddush to make it noteworthy. As mentioned above, I think what makes it noteworthy is the cultural aspect of people being concerned regarding Thursday night cholent.

I can see it now - food trucks selling cholent parked on the streets near parks in Haredi neighborhoods, near business centers and outside the stadiums hosting sporting events. Maybe they'll pour the cholent into those paper cones, or maybe into tacos, or the classic paper bowl.

A car company wanted to advertise an event in the Hamodia paper. The event was going to be some sort of sale on Thursday night, and an added selling point was free cholent for attendees of the event. The ad bore the image of a car, and next to it was a pot brimming with hot steaming cholent. The image actually looks more like an ad for cholent than for cars.


I would point out, to paraphrase the words of the hadran, they run and we run - they run to nonsense and we run for Torah, by mentioning that while the secular and non-Jewish world advertise their cars for sale with images of scantily clad pretty women, we advertise our cars for sale with pots of cholent! מי כעמך ישראל!!

The Hamodia censors filtered out this ad and rejected it, explaining that the phenomenon of Thursday night cholent is too "streety" - rechovit in Hebrew.
source: Kikar

it seems to be a trend for non-haredi politicians to have their haredi-involved meetings over cholent...

That is Mayor of Bet Shemesh Aliza Bloch sitting having Thursday night cholent with one of her advisers and interviewing and doing a photo shoot for a Mako program called "People"

Cholent. Not too many shailos can come up with cholent. Maybe if a drop of milk spilled into your bowl of cholent you would ask if it is kosher. Maybe you might have a question about how to heating or wrapping your cholent on Shabbos. Those, though, are really shailos external to the cholent.

As Kikar reports, nowadays cholent is commonly consumed in ways it never before was. Cholent is no longer just a Shabbos lunch food. Nowadays cholent gets served at weddings and bar mitzvahs throughout the week, it gets served as a social food on Thursday nights, it accompanies shiurim often on Thursday nights at "mishmar" but also at other times...

A question was sent to a number of gedolim asking about a person who committed to not eating cholent during the week - he wanted his cholent to remain special for Shabbos - can he eat cholent at a wedding he participated in where cholent was served. His friends had asked him why he wasn't eating, and when he explained what he had committed to, they claimed that the pareve cholent served at the wedding is not the same as the cholent he eats on Shabbos and is therefore not the subject of his commitment - only fleishige cholent would be the subject of his commitment. The question presented to various gedolim was does this person need hataras nedarim, an annulment of vows, in order to eat pareve cholent at upcoming simchas, or perhaps his commitment does not include this type of pareve cholent.

Here are some of the various responses from the rabbonim asked:
Rav Mendel Shafran and Rav Moshe Shaul Klein both answered saying that cholent is cholent and his commitment applies equally to pareve cholent as it does to fleishige cholent.

Rav Shmuel Eliezer Stern and Rav Naftali Nussbaum said it needs research to figure out what people call cholent. Personally I think it is clear that people also call pareve cholent "cholent", and if their answer is that it depends on how people call it, the answer would be that pareve cholent is equally cholent for this issue.

Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein said we don't necessarily need to consider what people call it but a beis din should debate the issue - if a person commits to making cholent for his friend or for a shiur, can he fulfill his commitment by making a pareve cholent or only by making a fleishige cholent?

Rav Mordechai Gross answered that "cholent" is only fleishige cholent. A person in this situation could eat the pareve cholent, should he so desire, without annulling his vow.

Awesome story reported on in the Jewish press from this Shabbos in the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.

From the Jewish Press (originally from Bechadrei):

On Friday night, 15 Arabs rioters from the Silwan/Shiloach (City of David) broke in and attacked Jerusalem’s Diaspora Yeshiva on Mount Zion.
The Arabs attacked the Yeshiva students inside with stones and blocks, according to a report on B’Chadarei Chareidim.
Fearing the Arabs were armed with guns, the students initially ran away for safety, but they then returned to defend the yeshiva and themselves from the Arab terrorists.
The students began to fight back, throwing chairs at the rioting Arabs, boiling water, and eventually even throwing the Cholent at the rioting Arab infiltrators.
Cholent is a traditional Jewish stew that sits on the fire throughout Shabbat, and is usually eaten for lunch.
After the Cholent was thrown, the Arabs ran away.
Police arrived a half hour after the attack was over.
It’s not known what the students ate for lunch on Shabbat.

That's right. The ultimate weapon wielded by Jews - the pot of cholent. They saw those beans flying and went running like the devil! They clearly knew what was coming!

Perhaps the IDF should start using cholent somehow in its arsenal.. can you imagine tanks shooting rounds of cholent? The Air Force dogfighting with the Syrians and forcing them to retreat when they start shooting the cholent-laced bullets? Special commando units rounding up terrorists after after forcing their surrender with a bowl of cholent?

As they say, an army travels on its stomach...

You can't make this stuff up!

Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg is on a warpath. And he seems to win every battle. The motif seems to be health. Bloomberg first took on the sugary soft drinks, successfully implementing a ban on sales of sugary drinks in sizes over 16 ounces. Then, more recently, Bloomberg took on the metzitza b'peh issue, successfully implementing a new law requiring anybody performing a circumcision to inform parents of potential health risks, and have them sign a waiver to allow the metzitza b'peh.

And now, the latest battle by Michael Bloomberg is fighting against cholent and bagels. Bloomberg stopped donations of bagels and cholent to homeless shelters, saying food donations must be examined for salt, fat and fiber content.

CBS News reports:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s food police have struck again!
Outlawed are food donations to homeless shelters because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and fiber content, reports CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.
Glenn Richter arrived at a West Side synagogue on Monday to collect surplus bagels — fresh nutritious bagels — to donate to the poor. However, under a new edict from Bloomberg’s food police he can no longer donate the food to city homeless shelters.
It’s the “no bagels for you” edict.
“I can’t give you something that’s a supplement to the food you already have? Sorry that’s wrong,” Richter said.
Richter has been collecting food from places like the Ohav Zedek synagogue and bringing it to homeless shelters for more than 20 years, but recently his donation, including a “cholent” or carrot stew, was turned away because the Bloomberg administration wants to monitor the salt, fat and fiber eaten by the homeless.
Richter said he was stunned. He said his family has eaten the same food forever and flourished.
“My father lived to 97; my grandfather lived to 97, and they all enjoyed it and somehow we’re being told that this is no good and I think there is a degree of management that becomes micromanagement and when you cross that line simply what you’re doing is wrong,” Richter said.
But Mayor Bloomberg, a salt-aholic himself, was unapologetic.
“For the things that we run because of all sorts of safety reasons, we just have a policy it is my understanding of not taking donations,” Bloomberg said.
Told that his administration recently enacted the policy, the mayor was Grinch-like.
“If they did in the past they shouldn’t have done it and we shouldn’t have accepted it,” Bloomberg said.
Richter said that over the years he’s delivered more than two tons of food to the homeless. He said Mayor Bloomberg is eating away at his ability to do good.
The ban on food donations was made by an inter-agency task force that includes the departments of Health and Homeless Services.

One might call Michael Bloomberg an anti-semite, if he wasn't Jewish, or maybe he is a self-hating Jew. To attack cholent? bagels? How low can a person get!!??

I never heard cholent defined or categorized as a carrot stew. Carrots are generally a minor ingredient in cholent, so "carrot stew" is not quite right.

Seriously though, if this guy, Glenn Richter, credits cholent for his families lifespans to 97 years, I want that recipe! But he does have a point - while I understand that the city has to be worried about sfety and health - if people are donating food, maybe the food is spoiled or unhealthy or maybe someone is donating with malicious intent and the food was poisoned - the city cannot just take donations of food without guidelines and restrictions. it can be dangerous, and it can lead to lawsuits. If someone were to get sick from eating the cholent, or anything else that was donated, the city would be sued for millions.

Yet, Bloomberg does seem to be micromanaging, and over-reaching in his level of control... I get that he has to be worried about safety issues, but does he really need to be worried about salt and fat content? Will/can an obese homeless person, or one with high blood pressure, sue the city for making him unhealthy for having served food with high salt content?

Efrat Chooses Its Second Cholent King



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Super Bowl Cholent