Realism, not just symbolism
by Rabbi Moishe Schnerb
It’s Rosh Hashanah night! We arrive home from shul aglow with anticipation and excitement. What an amazing way to start the New Year. The chazan was superb, the Rabbi gave a powerful and incisive drasha for which I actually stayed awake! Tomorrow I’ll be back in shul for a long service, and, of course the main attraction, the blowing of the shofar! Right now there are more important things at hand. It’s time for the whole family to gather for the traditional Rosh Hashanah supper. Mummy has been busy for weeks trimming the roasts, making four different types of fish and the house is ablaze with light and chatter. Boy, am I hungry!
Daddy walks in resplendent in his new suit and tie, calls us to take our places at the table and after chanting the kiddush and washing our hands, we all get a piece of challah, of course dipped in honey. And now we are ready for the repast, but one second! What’s Mum bringing? A whole tray with all sorts of little dishes unlike the usual dips we have with our challah. What’s going on? Pomegranates, carrots, fish head, little green and brown fried pancakes, beetroot and leeks. Why is this part of the Rosh Hashanah meal? Then I recall that when I was in Yeshiva, I was invited to a Sephardi family on the first night of Rosh Hashanah and they brought in a tray with 32 different types of concoctions so appealingly displayed, some so potent that they required an immediate call to 999, the fire department. What indeed are these meant to symbolise?
The Gemara1 discusses the importance of eating all sorts of symbolic foods on Rosh Hashanah. “Abaya said, ‘Now that you have established that an omen is a significant thing, a person should always be accustomed to see [in some versions of the texts it substitutes to eat] at the beginning of the year on Rosh Hashanah a gourd, fenugreek, leek, beetroot and dates.’” Even before the traditional apple, or the coveted pomegranate, one should actually make the bracha of Borei Pri Ha’etz on the date, since that is the first fruit item listed in the seven species for which the land of Israel is praised. After making the bracha, we chant the traditional wish, “May it be Your will that our enemies and foes should be destroyed.”
We need to explain why specifically the date was chosen? It seems to be more than just the fact that the Hebrew word Tamar fits nicely linguistically into that beautiful wish of ‘Yetamu’ – destroy our enemies. In fact, if all of the symbolic foods were simply a play on words, it might make more sense to have the kind of foods that are significant to us in the language we speak such as, for instance, eating raisins and celery, and asking for a raise in salary, or having a Chelsea bun with the hope that this particular club finally wins the Cup this year.
The Toldos Yakov Yosef says that he once heard from the Baal Shem Tov an explanation on the verse2, “G-d of vengeance, Hashem, G-d of vengeance appear.” He explained it by means of a parable to a person who committed the heinous crime of defacing a poster displaying the visage of the king. He was arrested and brought to trial, but instead of receiving a sentence of lashes or incarceration, he was appointed a junior government minister. He rose through the ranks to ultimately become Chief of Staff. As he progressed through all the government circles, he became acutely aware of the incredible kindness and wisdom that the king brought to every area of his kingdom. The greater his admiration for the king became, the more he was ashamed and embarrassed about his complete lack of respect in defacing the image of the king. He realised that this too was part of the king’s wisdom. Had he been banished to jail, he might have had a moment of regret, but would most likely spend the rest of the sentence hating and planning vengeance against the king. However, now he was confounded every day by remorse and a constant realisation of his own foolishness.
Hashem’s greatest revenge against all His enemies will manifest in that rather than torturing them, and exacting from them their true reprisals, He is going to expose them to the date, to the sweet honey and pristine beauty of the Jewish nation, and their Creator to whom they are loyal, and they will be consumed by regrets and shame how they could have persecuted and used every means possible to destroy such an elevated Nation. “G-d of Vengeance, Hashem” – the sweetest revenge is the mercy of Hashem [Hashem is the name of Compassion] who will obliterate them with their own guilt. There is no better analogy for the wish that our enemies be destroyed than the sweetness of the date which will be the ultimate comeuppance of our most despicable foes.
Next, we take the pomegranate and say the bracha of Shehecheyanu, provided it was not on the table when we made kiddush, and we say, “May it be Your will Hashem that we be full of mitzvos like a pomegranate is full of seeds.” The obvious question is that in the Gemara3 it states that even the most empty, uninvolved Jew is full of mitzvos like a pomegranate. Are we not limiting our aspirations by wanting to just be like less than ideal Jews?
One of the answers might be that it is told about the Shaagas Aryeh that when he was about to leave the world, they brought him a siddur so that he could say vidui before his death. He lifted up his hands and said, “These hands will testify about me that I don’t need to say vidui because I never had time to sin.”
A similar story is told about the Kotzker Rebbe who constantly exhorted his students “I’m not asking you not to do aveiros because you don’t want to sin, but I’m asking you to be so busy with good things, that you have no time to sin.”
He proves the concept from a very interesting Gemara4 which says that if the roof of one’s Sukkah contains an open space totalling 3 tefachim [24 cm] the Sukkah is invalid. However, if one has on one’s sukkah, invalid s’chach, for example metal beams, then only if it totals 4 tefachim [32 cm] is this Sukkah invalid. This seems counterintuitive, since empty space should not be more serious than invalid s’chach. Why are we stricter regarding open space than we are with illegally placed s’chach?
The Kotzker says the lesson is that just being “open air” In other words, just chilling, vegetating or doing nothing at all productive, is worse even than being busy with things that perhaps one should not be busy with. In other words, there is nothing more toxic than inactivity, since that breeds attraction and allure towards the most negative things. Even negative activity can be arrested, and the present energy harnessed in a positive direction. The most powerful antidote to the Yetzer Hara is utilising one’s time. This is what we mean when we say “we should be full of mitzvos like a pomegranate is full of seeds”. Just as the pomegranate is tightly packed with no free space, we desire to be busy all the time with positive things.
The symbolism of the apple dipped in honey is based on a statement by the Be’er Mayim Chaim based on the Midrash5 in which Hashem poses a question: is there anyone who ever said praises before Me without Me having given him a neshamah? Has anyone ever performed a Bris Milah or made a parapet for his roof without Me giving him a son or a house? Has anyone ever performed any mitzvah without Me having provided the means?
On a simple level, the intention of the midrash is to make the point that since it is completely impossible for anyone to ever independently fulfil a mitzvah and we are reliant on Hashem for all our resources, in reality, we deserve no reward for mitzvah observance since we receive everything as a free gift.
There is, however, one way that we can actually earn and deserve reward for the fulfilment of mitzvos. This will happen when a person truly anticipates and yearns for the ability to do what Hashem has commanded. He wants a child so that he can perform the rite of Bris Milah. He wants a house so that he can put up a mezuzah and a parapet. He prays that he could be successful in his business ventures, so that he will have the means to give tzedakah and have the financial ability to properly fulfil so many cherished imperatives. Hashem will gladly grant his request, and additionally, reward him for the aspirations and passionate prayers that become the catalyst for Hashem’s gifts, which facilitate our ability to realise our hopes and aspirations.
Studying the apple, we find something quite unique. The Gemara6 compares the Jewish nation to an apple and explains that just as an apple tree produces fruit before leaves grow, so too the Jewish nation said השענ we will commit to what we must do, before עמשנ we find out what those responsibilities entail. The hallmark of a Jew has always been to value commitment and preparedness to sacrifice and do whatever is necessary for the furtherance and development of our relationship with Hashem, even before we fully understand exactly what may be required of us, and the toll it might take. It is therefore so appropriate to take an apple as virtually our first food of the year, and express our heartfelt desire to pray for and create opportunities to do the will of our King, and realise that the sweetness and richness of this world and the next will be our reward for an unequivocal commitment to grab every opportunity to do a mitzvah. This is the honey, the “good and sweet year” we pray for at our very first meal on Rosh Hashanah night.
- 1Horayos 12
- 2Tehillim 94
- 3Brachot 57a
- 4Sukkah 17a
- 5V.R. 27:1
- 6Shabbos 88a
