Basya Tsybukmakher
While apples aren’t on the Talmud’s short list of symbolic foods, a honey-dipped apple slice has become synonymous with Rosh Hashana. There is even a prayer for the honey-dipped apple — for a good and sweet year, of course. May it be Your will . . . that we are renewed for a year that is good and sweet like honey. Why the apple? Because the apple contains the name of G-d. An apple has ten
small holes. In Hebrew the symbol for ten is yud, which has the same letters as the word yad, which means “hand.” Those ten little holes are a hint to seek out G-d’s Hand everywhere. The apple’s core is shaped like a five-pointed star. The Hebrew letter for five is hey. The letters yud and hey combine to form the Divine name. Honey is a metaphor for repentance. Just as sweet honey comes from a stinging insect, humans can transform mistakes, which are like bee stings, into merits by making amends.
Some people eat their apples and honey baked together. Four large baking apples (Granny Smith, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, or Jonagold) ½ cup of honey, or to taste (estimate 2 tablespoons for each apple or less to taste) ¾ cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 375 ° F. With an apple corer, dig a hole two-thirds of the way down each apple — you want to make a hole, not a tunnel. If you don’t have an apple corer, remove stems with a knife and scoop out cores with a melon baller or spoon.
Spoon honey into cavities in apples. Place apples in 8 × 8-inch baking dish and pour ¾ cup of boiling water into dish around apples. Bake at 375 ° F for 45 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve hot.
Ungar, Carol. Jewish Soul Food: Traditional Fare and What It Means (Kindle Locations 927-929). Brandeis. Kindle Edition.