Close To Torah

By Rabbi Richard Jacobs

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are full of customs
which on the surface seem pretty strange; for example,
casting our sins into the water on Rosh
Hashana (Tashlich) and the atonement ritual of
Kaparot on the day preceding Yom Kippur.
Dipping an apple in honey is so well known it is now
synonymous with Rosh Hashana greetings cards and it is
no less strange than either Tashlich or Kaparot. An apple
dipped in honey is one of the symbolic foods that we eat
on the first night of Rosh Hashana. We return from our
evening prayers to find the Yom Tov table not yet laden
with a sumptuous Yom Tov meal. Instead it is covered with
“delectable delights”, including apples and honey, fenugreek,
leek, beets, dates, gourd, pomegranate, fish and in
pride of place the head of a fish (or if you are really lucky
a head of lamb).
After Kiddush and Challah (also honey dipped), yet before
the meal proper, we embark on what can only be described
as a tantalizing taste sensation, eating a morsel
from each dish preceded by a short (and equally puzzling)
prayer. For example: on eating the apple in honey we say
“May it be Your will …that You renew us for a good and
sweet New Year”; on eating the pomegranate we sat “May
it be Your will…that our merits increase as (the seeds of) a
pomegranate”; and on eating the fish we state “May it be
Your will … that we be fruitful and multiply like fish”1.
What is the point of this exercise? Do we really think
that eating an apple in honey will cause us to have a sweet
new year? That eating pomegranate will cause our merits
to increase? Or that eating fish will cause us to have more
children?
Yet our Sages tell us that “Simanim milsa he”2 – these
symbols are significant. To understand we need to look a
bit deeper.
The Rema in the laws of Rosh Hashana3 tells us that
there are those that are careful not to eat nuts on RoshHashana3. One of the reasons he gives is that the Hebrew
word for nut (egoz) has the same numerical value (gematria4)
as the Hebrew word of sin (chet)5. From this we can
see how far we are supposed to distance ourselves from
even the hint of sin on Rosh Hashana. The Kotsker Rebbe,
with his customary wit, points out not to forget that sin
also has the numerical value as the word sin — for sure it
is more important for us to distance ourselves from committing
a sin rather than just refraining from eating nuts.
These symbols are significant when they come to stir us
to strengthen our emunah, our faith. By eating these foods
and, more importantly, by saying these short prayers, we
fill ourselves with positive will and inspire ourselves to improve
our deeds. It is our responsibility not to only keep
the bathwater, but also to ensure that we do not lose the
deeper meaning of this curious custom.
Each symbol also has its own deeper meaning. One of
my favorite explanations of the custom to dip the apple in
honey is that of the Bnei Yissasschar.
A highlight of the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services
is the prayer of “Unesaneh Tokef”. At the climax of the
prayer the congregation call out in unison, “U’teshuva (and
repentance), u’tefillah (and prayer), u’tzedakeh (and charity)
ma’avirin et roa hagzeira” (remove the evil of the decree!).
Above the words “U’teshuva u’tefillah u’tzedakeh” are written
another three words Tsom (fast), Kol (voice) and Mamon
(money). These three words indicate the means with
which we can achieve repentance, prayer and charity.
The Bnei Yissasschar points out that each of these words
has the numerical value of 136, in total 408 6. Apple, tapuach
in Hebrew is spelt taf + peh + vav + chet. The outer letters
have the numerical value of 408 7 while the inner two
letters have the value of 86, which is the equivalent of the
name of G-d that represents Judgement8. Rosh Hashana
is the Day of Judgement when we are judged for our actions.
The word for honey in Hebrew is D’vash, which has
the same numerical value as Av Harachamim – Merciful Father9.
Dipping the apple in the honey hints to us the way
which we can successful turn this Day of Judgment into a
merciful one – by repenting, praying and giving charity.
Wishing you a sweet New Year.

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1. The full text can be found in the ArtScroll Rosh Hashana Machzor
page 96
2. Horayos 12a, Kerisus 6a
3. Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 584:2
4. Each of the letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet has an equivalent numerical
value. A Gematria is the sum of the values of all the letters in each
word. On occasion an additional 1 is added for the word as a whole.
Our Sages often link and draw connections between words and phrases
with the same numerical value.
5. Aleph (1) + gimmel (3) + vav (6) + zayin (7) + 1 (for the word) = 18
= chet (8) + tet (9) + aleph (1)
6. Tzadi (90) + vav (6) + mem (40) = 136
Kuf (100) +vav (6) + lamed (30) = 136
Mem (40) + mem (40) + vav (6) + nun (50) = 136
The sum total is 408
7. Taf (400) + chet (8) = 408
8. Peh (80) + vav (6) = 86 = aleph (1) + lamed (30) + heh (5) + yud (10)
+ mem (40)
9. Daled (4) + beit (2) + shin (300) = 306 = aleph (1) + beit (2) + heh (5)
+ resh (200) + chet (8) + mem (40) + yud (10) + mem (40)

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Rabbi Jacobs is the Executive Director of the Ohr Lagolah Hertz Institute for International Teacher Training, an affiliate of Ohr Somayach Institutions. He can be reached at r.jacobs@ohr.edu.
This article was copied with permission from the Ohr Somayach Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur Handbook, which is still available online at http://ohr.edu/roshbook/.

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[Editor's note: by Rabbi Y. Spitz - While this is an excellent explanation for why we dip apples in honey, it still leaves room to explain why it's also customary to dip challah in honey. I recently saw an outstanding pshat in Rabbi Shmuel Brazil's new sefer, "Bishvili Nivra HaOlam" - page 43 -44:

He cites the famous Rabbenu Yona in Brachos (36) quoting Rabbenu Meir HaLevi that if a piece of non-kosher food falls into a batch of honey, then over time the honey will dissolve the non-kosher substance until absolutely nothing remains of it, not even a trace , and eventually it will be permissable to eat of it. The Chofetz Chaim in his preface to Lekutai Halachos also quotes this as proof that just as honey has the ability to transform the natural state of another, so too The Torah has the strength to change a person's natural state from Rasha to Tzaddik. 

Rabbi Brazil continues that the gematria of the word  devash (honey) is equal to that of the word Isha (woman) -ד+ב+ש=4+2+300=306.א+ש+ה+1+300+5. This is as Chazal tell us (Bereishis Rabbah 17,7)  that the wife has the ability to change the natural state of her husband - for the better or for the worse. [This is also why, according to some commentaries why Yaakov was punished for hiding Dina from Eisav]. He then brings several more proofs to this idea - about the power of honey to affect change in other items.

He then refers to the idea of Challah symbolizing  Man – for the mitzvah of taking challah – especially on Erev Shabbos – is counted as  a woman’s personal mitzvah – to help rectify Chava’s sin of enticing Adam to sin (on Erev Shabbos) -and thereby ruining Man’s potential – for Adam was called “Challaso shel Olam“.

Utilizing these concepts helps clarify our minhag – For every Jew’s goal during the period of Yomim Nora’im is to try to show Hashem that we are trying to change our wayward ways, as well as ourselves to be proper Ovdei Hashem. Therefore, by dipping the Challah in the honey we are symbolizing our heart’s request – that we take ourselves (symbolized by the challah) and try to change (symbolized by the honey’s inherent abilities) for the better.

Wishing everyone a Kesiva v’chasima Tova!]

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Categories: Hashkafah, Inspiration, Machshuvah, Moadim / Tekufos, Mussar, Rosh Hashana Tags: