Stroll through the farmers’ market, and you can feel fall approaching. As we say goodbye to summer’s heat, those achingly soft, sweet, dribble-down-your-chin melons, peaches and plums give way to fall’s bounty of apples: cool and crisp as an autumn’s day.
Dipping apple slices in honey, Jews the world over begin the festive meal of Rosh Hashana, as we ask God to renovate us for a good and sweet New Year.
Everything on the holiday table reflects this wish. Dishes are sweet, fruit-laden and round in appearance. No bitter flavors and sour for this holiday!
Apples belong to the rose relations of plants. Approximately 10,000 different varieties produce in the world, over 7,000 of them in the United States. But why do we all eat apples for the Jewish New Year? Some rabbis compete that when Jacob disguised himself as Esau in order to trick his father, Isaac, into blessing him as the first-born, Isaac - who was blind - noticed a sweet smell emanating from Jacob. Isaac likened the smell to a field blessed by God, which later commentators taken to be an apple field. Because this incident is said to have occur on Rosh Hashana, the apple became an appropriate choice for the holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment