Dip the Apple in the Honey

With the yomim noraim around the corner, this past week I pulled out my machzor and started practicing my chazzanus.  I know I don’t know every tune and can’t hit every note, but it was the bluntness of my two year old daughter- STOP SCREAMINC DADDY- which had me close the siddur and get back to working on drashas.  But for many of us, we find most meaningful parts of the yomim noraim are certainly not the drashas but those beautiful tunes that bring out the tefillah.     Unfortunately, the most classic and catchy Rosh Hashana tune fails to inspire:

Dip the apple in the honey make a bracha loud and clear,

shana tova umituka have a happy sweet new year.

So when I found a dvar Torah on this week’s parsha that mentioned honey, it struck a chord with me.

In the final verse of this week’s parsha the Torah tells us of the imperative to love and cleave to Hashem,:

…לְאַֽהֲבָה֙ אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֥עַ בְּקֹל֖וֹ וּלְדָבְקָה־ב֑וֹ כִּ֣י ה֤וּא חַיֶּ֙יךָ֙ וְאֹ֣רֶךְ יָמֶ֔יךָ

 to love the L-RD thy G-d, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for that is thy life, and the length of thy days…

“כִּ֣י ה֤וּא חַיֶּ֙יךָ֙ וְאֹ֣רֶךְ יָמֶ֔יךָ.”  “For that (the love of G-d) is our life and the length of our days.”

What exactly does it mean that loving G-d is our life and the length of our days?  Seems redundant: is there a difference between the description “our life”, “chayecha” and “the length of our days”, “orech yamecha?”

Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, one of the most influential (and my personal favorite) of the Polish Chassidic Rebbes, offers a beautiful explanation in his sefer Kol Simcha.

We naturally despise bitter tastes, but sometimes it is worth swallowing something bitter for a greater benefit.  Take for example a bitter medicine; it may taste repulsive, but we tolerate the flavor knowing that it potentially will improve our health and well-being.

Conversely, while we naturally love something sweet, unfortunately that sweetness may not always be good for us.  Cakes, cookies, and candy may enter your mind as examples, but Rav Bunim chooses the natural example of honey.  Honey tastes delicious, but like most sweet foods, it must be eaten in moderation.  We ultimately regret eating too many sweets no matter how delicious they taste.

Rav Bunim uses these examples- and the instant gratification of the sweet honey and the long term “sweetness” of medicine- to explain why closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is described as both chayeinu and orech yameinu.

Chayenu- cleaving to Hashem sweetens our lives like honey.

But also

Orech yameinu- unlike honey, this closeness will provide long term satisfaction.

It’s a sweet idea, but is the metaphor accurate?

I hope we are proud of our religiosity and recognize that it is in our long-term best interest.  But in the here and now, is our Judaism really sweet like honey?  Do we truly feel the day to day sweetness that Rav Bunim depicts?

Over the years, I have noticed an interesting Rosh Hashana phenomena: as the honey dish goes around, children try their hardest to scoop as much honey as possible on their little piece of apple or challah.  But as we age and get a little more mature, the honey loses its appeal.  We take a little dab of honey just to feel like we did it, just to be able to check apple and honey off our list.

Perhaps we would feel the sweetness of our relationship with Hashem if we try to fit more honey on our piece of challah.  If our Judaism is just something we dab here and there to check off our list, of course we won’t feel excited or taste that sweetness.  Only if we are willing to put ourselves out there and take an extra teaspoon of honey can we tap into to the sweetness that the Torah promises us.  That extra teaspoon can come in different forms: find an inspirational book to read over the chagim, choose a part of davening to focus closely on the words, or commit to listening to some uplifting Jewish music while in our cars this year.  Lshana tova umtuka – let’s not just have a happy sweet new year, but search for the sweetness of a lifetime- ki hu chayeinu v’orech yameinu.