As Jews celebrate Rosh Hashana, they ignore the calories and go for the sweetness, hoping it will flavor the entire year.
By SHERYL KAY
Published September 26, 2003
At holiday time, people often worry about how many calories they'll consume. Imagine the conflict when a religious tradition calls for the eating of sweets.
But that's part of what will happen as Jews around the world gather with their families tonight and pray for a sweet year.
Sunset this evening marks the beginning of year 5764. Rosh Hashana, which celebrates the birth of the world, also marks the beginning of a 10-day period of introspection, contemplation and atonement. Yom Kippur ends those 10 days in a solemn fast, while Rosh Hashana begins the observance with joy and festive meals.
Several traditions surround the celebration, including eating honey cake, honey-glazed carrots and the ever popular apples dipped in honey. By partaking in these, and other sugary dishes, Jewish people hope to symbolically start off the new year with only sweetness and good fortune.
"Forget about the calories and everything else," advises Rabbi Mordecai Levy of Northdale.
"We talk about having a healthy, sweet and wonderful year among our families and collectively among everyone else in the world. Dipping apples in honey is not about calories - it represents the sweetness of the New Year."
Carol Jaffe is often called upon to help make Rosh Hashana a little sweeter when she and her family are invited out. For the past decade, Jaffe, 52, a homemaker in Tampa Palms, is almost always asked to bring along her famous parve (nondairy) apple cake.
Because it is nondairy, "it can be served at a kosher meat meal," she said. "That means no milk and no butter, and almost everything I bake definitely has butter in it."
But there is no prohibition on eggs or sugar, "and this does have sugar in it."
Dieting aside, she predicted, "people will definitely have a piece. Will they have a big piece? Depends how much they're worrying."
Following the tradition is really the key, Jaffe said. "On Rosh Hashana, it's important that we think about the sweetness we are wishing for the year ahead, and a great way to do this is in the food we are preparing to eat as a family that night."
Some families take the tradition even further by serving a variety of apples or honeys from around the world. Rae Wallach uses an assortment of honey jars that she has collected over the years.
The first, a crystal one she received as a wedding gift, came with a card saying "with best wishes for a happy, sweet life." Wallach, 45, a full-time mom living in Carrollwood Village, said she has added several since then, hoping for even more sweetness and citing the Jewish concept of hiddur mitzvah.
"We are taught that we should do all that we can to enhance the beauty of each holiday," said Wallach. "I've collected a really nice variety of honey jars - ceramic, hand blown glass - and it keeps everyone anticipating which one I'm going to use that year."
It seems the only room for anything bitter on Rosh Hashana comes in the form of a citrus helper.
"You don't want apples to discolor while you're waiting to eat," said Rana Levy, the rabbi's wife. "Just rub a little lemon juice on the exposed area, and that should keep the color just where you want it to be."
