How do you check Rosh Hashana simanim, figs and grape leaves, for bugs? 👀

Shalom everyone. Today we're going to talk about  certain produce that are used for the simanim,   predominantly in the Sephardi community. Figs can  be prone to infestation, especially from wasps on   how they develop but also after the drying process  can be subject to infestation from storage. Figs   are pretty straightforward to check. You want  to take a fig like this and slice it in half   lengthwise. Once it's opened up, we're going to  want to almost flip it inside out. Look through   to see if you see any signs of worms. They'll be  discolored or webbing. It can be a little tedious.   If you see anything you're not 100% sure about, no  harm in removing it just in case. That's basically   what you can do for a dried fig. Grape leaves.  Grape leaves can certainly be infested. The   Ben Ish Chai, who is based in Baghdad, the whole  Baghdad community actually made a prohibition of   eating grape leaves. But nonetheless, the Ben  Ish Chai was adamant that for his community,   they should still use them for the simanim on  Rosh Hashana. So what that community would do is   even though they wouldn't eat the simanim, they  would nonetheless have it placed on the table   just to look at because one of the main reasons  of simanim is when we see beautiful new things,   it gives us an inspiring attitude which can have  a really profound effect to the next year. For   grape leaves, if they're jarred and let's say they  don't have a reputable kosher certificate on it,   you're going to want to rinse each leaf front  and back well. And then you're going to want   to check it afterwards, say on a light  box or something to see any visible bugs   like thris or anything of that sort.  And with that, shana tova umetuka.