Bamba at Heart of Rabbinic Dispute
An absurd argument over blessing snack food may help decide the future leader of Jerusalem’s Sephardi movement.
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Rabbi David Yosef, the two sons of Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Jerusalem Ovadia Yosef, leading Sephardi authority and spiritual leader of the political group Shas, have long fought over inheriting their elderly father’s kingdom. However, the feud has recently taken a turn for the ridiculous. The siblings are currently engaged in a public fight over which blessing to recite over Bamba, the peanut-buttery corn puff snack which is one of Israel’s most popular junk foods.
Both sons believe whoever wins the argument will be one step closer to their father’s blessing and kingdom.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO