Inside Bay Area
AS the sun sets this evening, the 48-hour Jewish new year called Rosh Hashana will begin. If you've ever attended a Rosh Hashana dinner or are joining one for the first time, you will see apples dipped in honey proudly displayed on the evening's menu.
Symbolically, these sweet foods are eaten to demonstrate our wishes for ourselves, our families and community — that we be blessed with a sweet new year.
But there is a deeper dimension to the apple and honey dish:
There is a difference between the sweetness of an apple and the sweetness of honey. An apple is a sweet fruit that grows on a tree. There is nothing surprising about that — many fruits are sweet.
But honey comes from a bee — an insect that not only is inedible but actually stings. Nevertheless, the honey it produces is sweet. In fact, honey is sweeter than an apple!
Similarly, there are two types of sweetness in our lives: We have times of family celebration, successes in our careers, personal triumphs and harmonious relationships. These are sweet times like the apple is sweet.
But there is a different type of sweetness, a sweetness that comes from times of challenge: when things don't go the way that we would like them to, when tragedy strikes, when our job is in jeopardy, when we fail to reach the goals we had aspired for, when our relationships are being strained and tested, when we feel alone.
At the time when we are facing these challenges, they seem bitter and insurmountable, like the sting of a bee. But if we are strong and withstand the difficult times and overcome the obstacles to our own happiness, we reveal layers of our personality that we never would have tapped into if we weren't challenged. Something deeper is brought out when we are tested.
Tension in a relationship is painful, but there's nothing better than reconciling after that tension. Losing a job is degrading, but how often it is that we find bigger and better things to move on to.
Loneliness can eat us up, but it can open us to higher levels of self-knowledge, too. We all have experienced events in our lives that at the time were painful, but in retrospect we say, "Thank G-d for the tough times — imagine where I would be without them!"
So we eat apples and honey on Rosh Hashana.
We bless one another that in the year to come the apples should bring sweetness. If, for some reason, we get stung, may the bite reveal a more powerful sweetness from within us!
On behalf of the Tri-Valley Jewish community, I wish each and every one of you a joyous, meaningful, sweet new year.
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick is director of the Chabad of the Tri-Valley in Pleasanton. For more information, call (925) 846-0700 or visit http://www.jewishtrivalley.com.
In God We Trust is a weekly column that rotates among local religious and spiritual leaders. Letters and inquiries may be sent to faith@trivalleyherald.com.
AS the sun sets this evening, the 48-hour Jewish new year called Rosh Hashana will begin. If you've ever attended a Rosh Hashana dinner or are joining one for the first time, you will see apples dipped in honey proudly displayed on the evening's menu.
Symbolically, these sweet foods are eaten to demonstrate our wishes for ourselves, our families and community — that we be blessed with a sweet new year.
But there is a deeper dimension to the apple and honey dish:
There is a difference between the sweetness of an apple and the sweetness of honey. An apple is a sweet fruit that grows on a tree. There is nothing surprising about that — many fruits are sweet.
But honey comes from a bee — an insect that not only is inedible but actually stings. Nevertheless, the honey it produces is sweet. In fact, honey is sweeter than an apple!
Similarly, there are two types of sweetness in our lives: We have times of family celebration, successes in our careers, personal triumphs and harmonious relationships. These are sweet times like the apple is sweet.
But there is a different type of sweetness, a sweetness that comes from times of challenge: when things don't go the way that we would like them to, when tragedy strikes, when our job is in jeopardy, when we fail to reach the goals we had aspired for, when our relationships are being strained and tested, when we feel alone.
At the time when we are facing these challenges, they seem bitter and insurmountable, like the sting of a bee. But if we are strong and withstand the difficult times and overcome the obstacles to our own happiness, we reveal layers of our personality that we never would have tapped into if we weren't challenged. Something deeper is brought out when we are tested.
Tension in a relationship is painful, but there's nothing better than reconciling after that tension. Losing a job is degrading, but how often it is that we find bigger and better things to move on to.
Loneliness can eat us up, but it can open us to higher levels of self-knowledge, too. We all have experienced events in our lives that at the time were painful, but in retrospect we say, "Thank G-d for the tough times — imagine where I would be without them!"
So we eat apples and honey on Rosh Hashana.
We bless one another that in the year to come the apples should bring sweetness. If, for some reason, we get stung, may the bite reveal a more powerful sweetness from within us!
On behalf of the Tri-Valley Jewish community, I wish each and every one of you a joyous, meaningful, sweet new year.
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick is director of the Chabad of the Tri-Valley in Pleasanton. For more information, call (925) 846-0700 or visit http://www.jewishtrivalley.com.
In God We Trust is a weekly column that rotates among local religious and spiritual leaders. Letters and inquiries may be sent to faith@trivalleyherald.com.
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