September Scroll article

In my preparations for the High Holy Days I look through many resources.  This year, for some reason, I was curious about the usage, number and origin of the many High Holy Day greetings.  You could start a list with Gamar Chatimah Tovah (may you be sealed for the good)  or Gud Yuntif (have a good holiday) or L’shana Tova Tikatevu (may you be written for good [in the Book of Life]) and then get into the many variations and conjugations of these.  The list and the explanations of what to use and when can get very intricate at times.  What surprised me was that in a number of these books the greeting that I expected to see was not present.  For the last few weeks I have been thinking about the words: L’ Shanah Tovah u’mutukah:  To a good and sweet new year! The other greetings focused on the worship/spiritual work of these days: awe, reflection, turning and returning, renewal, the Book of Life, repentance and atonement…

This year however I feel very drawn to this greeting of sweetness.  This hot and dry summer has been filled with lots of bitterness: the economy, oil spills, politics, global weather weirding.  Add to that personal challenges we all may face and we could make quite a list.  There is a lot going on in the world that could really drag us down and makes it hard to start off on a high note, with a sense of awe and wonder.

And then someone serves us apples and honey.  This treat is the epitome of the greeting; L’Shanah Tova u’mutukah.  To a good and sweet new year.  As one year comes to an end and we do reflective acts of Cheshbon Nefesh (accounting of our soul) we search for the sweet and positive in our lives and our world.  As we bite into the apples and honey may we find sweetness of taste and the sweetness of tone.  In a world filled with bitterness let us find ways that we can add some sweetness.

The more I considered this saying and how much it spoke to me this year I thought about the fact that I was not finding it in my resources.  I wondered, beyond my first explanation, what the reasoning behind this greeting/prayer and accompanying ritual would be if I were writing a book..

Partnership: Apples and Honey are truly a partnership God – farmer – natural resources – bees – trees.  All have to work and support each other for there to be success.  For example if the bees don’t pollinate the trees there may be no fruit.  The bees of course take the pollen to eat sustaining themselves and their families and that becomes the honey we dip the apples into for Rosh Hashanah

In addition to dipping apples into honey, some of us dip the round Challah of Rosh HaShanah as well.  This becomes a symbol of a good year.  Why?  The challah and the apples may be basic sustenance.  May we be sustained in this new year.  But to add a taste of honey raises the experience and our blessings to a new height.  We want more than to be just sustained.  May we have added layers of sweetness for ourselves, our families in this new year.

Finally, honey is sticky. May our blessings, our hopes, dreams, life changes, acts of tikkun/repair and repentance stick through this year.

With any and all of these ideas, as we enter this new year, let us make sure we stop to taste this moment of sweetness and bring this blessing into the year with us.