Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises environmental reporter Sue Surkes and culture editor Jessica Steinberg, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

For the holiday, we are pretending that current events do not exist and we first discuss what each staff member is putting on her festive table.

Surkes brings us a new and very exciting development from Netafim, Israel's flagship drip irrigation firm that since the 1960s has led the world with cutting-edge agriculture technology. She describes how the company has spent the past decade trying to solve the riddle of the rice paddy. They've now cracked it, and the technology is already in use in Italy, Turkey and India.

Finally, Steinberg discusses several exciting new endeavors from the Shomer Hechadash group of agricultural volunteers. One, an app called SunDo, which allows volunteers to connect with farmers in need of labor that has been cut off due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. The other initiative collects "ugly" fruit that is considered not attractive enough for sale and finds them a good home with people who are in need.

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IMAGE: A display of cheesecakes at a bakery in Netanya. (Chen Leopold/Flash 90) 

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