Apple-y Ever After: The Punny Side of Rosh Hashanah

August 23, 2024 | Shabbat and Holidays

By Rachel Turniansky

With Rosh Hashanah marking the beginning of the Jewish year, there’s a tradition to start the year off right by incorporating symbolic foods that reflect the wish for a sweet year. Many people eat apples and honey and greet each other with the phrase, “Shana Tova U’Metukah, May you have a good and sweet new year.”

There are many other symbolic foods, that can also be incorporated into your Rosh Hashanah meal. Some of the most popular simanim (symbolic) foods are fish, honey, spinach, carrots, cabbage, pomegranate, apples, leeks and dates.

Some people go further and have a version of a seder when they eat a variety of symbolic foods and incorporate a specific prayer connected to the character of the food. For example, because a pomegranate is full of seeds, many people eat a pomegranate after saying the blessing, “May it be Your will, our G-d and G-d of our ancestors, that our merits increase as [the seeds of] a pomegranate.”

Some simanim are based on the Hebrew name for the food. The Hebrew word for leek, karti, is related to the word kareyt, meaning to cut off. This food is sometimes eaten and connected to the blessing that “those who wish to hurt us will be cut off or cut down.” If we want to put a more positive spin on our leeks, we can wish that we will not be cut off from our community and friends.

My family can often be described as “extra” when it comes to word play, so we’ve come up with some extra punny simanim that have become tradition. Here’s some of our favorites:

• “Let Us Have a Raise in Salary”: Lettuce, half a raisin, celery
• “World Peace”:  Hummus (whirled peas)
• “A Salam Aleikim”: Salami with bread (lechem = Hebrew word for bread)
• May we have a year in which we show that we CARABout our neighbors and that we CHERRYish our loved ones.

Whatever your traditions are – ones you carry with you, or those you create yourself – may you have a good and sweet year ahead!