This is the time of year when one of the songs in the Top 40 is the irresistible ditty

 Dip the Apple in the honey...may you have a sweet New Year

T.T.T.O Oh My Darling Clementine!

If you are not familiar with this catchy tune, you can find it on YouTube to enhance your Rosh Hashana experience. 

One of my kids, back in his preschool days, took poetic license with this song and insisted on changing  the word honey and replacing it with the word ketchup, despite many eye rolls from an older (read 6 year old) sibling. 

When asked about the change from the traditional honey, the child answered, because I don’t like honey, I like ketchup. 

There’s always one in every crowd. 

But it does beg the question. Do we have to dip the apple in honey?  If we are hoping for a sweet year why not use sugar or even ketchup if that captures your fancy and tastebuds?

And perhaps even more profoundly, besides perhaps providing some entertainment for the preschool set,  why are we indulging in this activity at all?

Rosh Hashana is a powerful day. 

In the liturgy it is referred to as HaYom, The Day!

Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, author of the classic Mussar text Alei Shor and Torah educator who passed away in 2005, teaches us that the way a person acts and thinks on Rosh Hashana plants seeds for the coming year. Therefore one of the things we will do in that day is eat sweet foods or other dishes that create auspicious omens via a play on words for that item that will give a positive message and plant the potential for a sweet year. 

If our mindset and desire is to have sweetness in our lives by being loving and giving, it is helpful  to root that thought in a physical activity that will help us keep our focus on being the best version of ourselves. 

Think if it as a visual aid. 

There is, therefore,  a custom to eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashana. 

This fruit is full of many seeds, or arils, and before we partake of the pomegranate we intone a little prayer that just as the fruit is full of seeds, so may we be full of many good deeds in the year to come. 

The most famous of these auspicious omens or visual aids is the apple and honey combination. 

And indeed the choice of honey is intentional. 

There is a Jewish law that if something unkosher falls into a kosher dish of food it will render the food in that dish unkosher. But if something unkosher falls into honey one need only remove the item and honey remains kosher. 

The reason for this is honey has a preservative nature and a foreign substance will not affect its original state. 

This is a powerful lesson. 

No matter what we have said or done this past year that action is something extraneous to ourselves. Our real and best self is still preserved. We needn’t fall into despair thinking repair is not possible but rather tap into the reality that the real me is still there and our job is to reconnect with that point of origin. The best possible real self is still there, and repair is possible. 

The Hebrew word for honey is Dvash. 

Each letter in the Hebrew language has a numerical equivalent. 

The word Dvash equals 306 which is also the numerical value for the word Isha which means woman. 

A woman has the capacity to see beyond the surface and see the deeper reality. Just as honey preserves it’s original state, a woman has the ability to tap into the original state of a person she knows well. 

Imagine a mom whose child has gotten into trouble and is now facing the reprimand of a judge. She will plead his case and say: you are only seeing the outside, if you could only see who he really is you would understand how this behavior was a mistake and needs to be corrected but it is not the measure of the person. 

The mom is allowing her child to go back to the point of origin, she believes in who he is intrinsically and that belief will help him on the road to rehabilitation knowing someone really believes in him. 

So it seems the song got it right - we do need to dip the apple specifically into the honey. 

And my child the iconoclast? No need to worry about him. 

I always knew he was a creative genius.

I’m his Mom after all - I saw right through to his core!

Shana Tova UMetuka!

May we all be blessed with a Sweet New Year! A year of blessings, health and happiness and a year that feels sweet in every way!

Shabbat Shalom and lots of love!