Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the universe, the day G‑d created Adam and Eve, and it’s celebrated as the head of the Jewish year. It begins at sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1 (Sept. 25, 2022) and ends after nightfall on Tishrei 2 (Sept. 27, 2022).
The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is blowing the shofar (ram’s horn) on both mornings of the holiday (except on Shabbat), which is normally done in synagogue as part of the day’s services.
Rosh Hashanah feasts traditionally include round challah bread (studded with raisins) and apples dipped in honey, as well as other foods that symbolize our wishes for a sweet year.
Before eating the apple, we May it be Your will to renew for us a good and sweet year.”
Where can you get the tastiest apples honey? According to Michal Shiloah Galnoor – CEO of JNF Western Galilee Now, The tastiest apples in Israel are grown in the Galilee And the sweetest honey in Israel is grown in the Galilee.
The sweet honey is different from the sweet apple. The apple is a sweet fruit that grows on a tree, and there is nothing surprising about that - many sweet fruits grow on a tree. But the honey comes from the bee - an insect cannot eat it, and it is even stingy. But see it's a miracle: the honey produced by the bee is sweeter, even sweeter than the apple.
There are two types of sweetness in life: there are times of family joys, successes at work or happy relationships. These times are as sweet as the apple. But there is also a different sweetness: the kind that comes after challenges. When things do not go as expected, when a disaster has occurred, when we are about to lose our job, when we fail to meet the goals we have set for ourselves, or when our relationships experience a crisis and we feel alone.
When we face these challenges they seem bitter and painful just like the sting of the bee. But if we strengthen ourselves and face the challenges successfully, we will discover new dimensions in our personalities that we didn't even know existed. The challenges reveal our inner depth. Tension in marital relations is a painful thing, but there is nothing sweeter than the reconciliation that comes after it. It's hard to lose a job, but often new and better options will open up to us. The feeling of loneliness can eat us from the inside, but we can use it to get to know ourselves better. We have all experienced difficult times in our lives that after the fact we look at them and say: "G-d, thank you for giving us challenges - where would we be without them"?
That's why we eat an apple with honey on the first day of the new year. We wish each other that the apple will bring with it sweetness, and that the bee's sting will bring with it greater sweetness!
May we all merit a happy, healthy, sweet new year!
