[img]96|left|Shachar||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem — As with most Jewish holidays, after spending the evening before and the day of in prayer, we go home to a sumptuous meal with foods symbolic of the holiday we are observing. Rosh Hashana (literally head of the year), the only holiday Israel observes for two days, is no exception. We celebrate the birth of mankind 5771 years ago when Hashem (G-d) created man, and the next day He rested. This year is particularly significant in that Shabbat, the day of rest for Jews, immediately follows Rosh Hashana.
That means cooking enough food for three days of feasts! There are certain customs passed down from generation to generation in Jewish families. These customs vary according family history and location in the world. In the U.S. and in Israel, just about everyone dips apples in honey for a sweet year. And instead of a braided challah (bread), we use a round challah to symbolize the continuity of Creation. Some people add honey or raisins to the round loaves, again for a sweet year. Many of my Rosh Hashana dishes are made with honey, like my chicken with a honey/onion marinade, my brisket of beef with dried fruit and yams baked with honey and catsup, carrots baked with honey, and a family favorite of honey cake. I buy the honey cake from the bakery, but I have fond memories of the honey cake my grandmother used to make from scratch.
Now This Can Be Complex
On the second night of Rosh Hashana, we eat a new fruit, one we haven't eaten all year in order to say a blessing thanking Hashem for keeping us alive and bringing us to this season. Considering I love fruit and Israel has so many fruits I have never seen or tasted before, I spent the year sampling them. I had a difficult time finding a fruit I had not already enjoyed during the year. Finally I found a quince. It is sort of a cross between an apple and a pear and cannot be eaten raw. It must be cooked. Guess what I cook it with? Right. I bake it in honey with a little cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg and ginger.
Foods Rhyme with Laughter
Another must for Rosh Hashana is a pomegranate, one of the seven species inherent to the land of Israel. The others are wheat, barley, olives, dates, figs and grapes. Supposedly the pomegranate contains 613 seeds which correspond to the 613 mitzvot (commandments) required of Jews. I actually know several people who have counted the pomegranate seeds and each time come up with 613! We also make a blessing on the pomegranate to wish that our good deeds this year will be as plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate.
Some communities eat from the head of a fish so that we will be like the head and not the tail, leaders not followers, in the ensuing year. Other customs are to use the head of a lamb, or the tongue of a cow. I remember my grandmother used to make pickled tongue and considered it a delicacy. Just the idea of it makes me lose my appetite today. But because the head of a fish or lamb is not exactly the most tantalizing sight on a dining room table, Jews in the U.S. started using “gummy” candies in the shape of fish. It is easy to find gummy bears, but fish takes some doing. A friend of mine found kosher gummy fish for me at the shuk (open market bazaar).
Because Jews had been exiled from the land of Israel to the very ends of the earth, they speak different languages. Hebrew is the only common denominator, and many Jews, myself included, do not speak it. I can read it, and every bar/bat mitzvah boy and girl can, too, but English is my native tongue. Jews from Central and Eastern Europe speak Yiddish, sort of a cross among German, Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic languages. Jews from Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey and other Mediterranean and Arabic countries speak Ladino, sort of a cross between Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic.
On Rosh Hashana, the other symbolic foods we eat vary according to culture, custom and particularly language. The significance of the food is often associated with a pun of the food's name. That may differ according to the language in which the blessing over the food is said. For example, the Hebrew word for gourd is similar to that of “tear.” We eat pumpkin or zucchini or squash and say a blessing that we wish that Hashem will “tear away” all evil decrees against us. Beets are used to wish that all enemies who might “beat” us will leave us alone. The word for leeks is similar to the word for “cut off.” So we wish that our enemies will be cut off. Carrots are often sliced like round coins and eaten so that the year will be a prosperous one. I even know someone who eats a “raisin and celery” together so that they get a “raise in salary!”
Wishing everyone a sweet, healthy, prosperous and safe year. May you all be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life.
L'hitraot. Shachar