The Depth of the Apple

There's Levels to This

How young do you think you were when you first heard or tasted the tradition we have that we eat apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah? Apples are one of our most famous High Holiday traditions, stemming back generations. We certainly were not the first though. Malus Domestica, or apple trees, go way back. Archaeological evidence points to the year 6,500 BCE as when apples were first cultivated. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that some of our earliest texts referenced apples. 

Tapuach, the Hebrew word for apple, is found once in the prophet Joel’s 1st chapter but makes most of its appearances, unsurprisingly given its focus on images of nature, in Song of Songs. 

None of these places directly link it to Rosh Hashanah though. So the question is asked by sages throughout time, there are plenty of sweet fruits, why does the apple get singled out?

Responding to a different prompt but giving us a serviceable answer, The Talmud in Masechet Shabbat 88a quotes our relevant verse from the 2nd chapter of Song of Songs:

As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the children. Under its shadow I delighted to sit and its fruit was sweet to my taste.” It then asks Why were the Jewish people likened to an apple tree? It is to tell you that just as this apple tree, its fruit grows before its leaves, so too, the Jewish people accorded precedence to “We will do” over “We will hear.” 

Now the Rabbis had so much wisdom about so many different areas. Sometimes, the even got the science right! Pomology, the study of the fruit category of which apple is a part, was certainly not one of them. It turns out, its leaves do in fact precede the fruit. 

Nonetheless, the idea here is profound and worth briefly exploring as a way to think differently about our connection to apples on Rosh Hashanah and in turn how that might affect us this year.

Naaseh v’nishma, we will do and then we will listen is one of the seminal moments in our Torah. It represented a shift at Sinai when the standard was set for the Jewish people to come. We will throw caution to the wind and we’ll do it. Then afterward, we’ll ask the questions. 

Even though the science is wrong, it’s this same framework that the sages of The Talmud connected to apples. The question still remains then though, what’s the connection between “we will do and we will listen, apples, and Rosh Hashanah itself? 

One possible answer for this comes from Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the now deceased and divisive head of Satmar Chasidim. On this piece of Talmud, he explains that we were rewarded for participating in this act of naaseh v’nishma, preceding deed to action. Utilizing the Rabbinic principle of midah k’neged midah, measure for measure, Rabbi Teitelbaum tells us that for our ancestors’ decision to precede action to learning, God rewards us with the gift that God can actually hear our prayers and fulfill them before they even come to be. That is, while they’re still forming in our hearts and souls, the Divine has an understanding of what it is we need to pray for. 

I think this can be transformative for us in the rest of the holiday season. To put it plainly, it has been a trying year. As Jews, Americans, and humans concerned for humanity, crises abound.

Many of us are left wondering, how do we pray in a moment like this? What words can possibly meet this moment? There’s an immense amount of pressure to find the perfect words, the most cohesive thoughts, and express the deepest desires. We have such a long countdown to the high holiday with an intense build up that we all wonder, will I say the right thing? And here, this teaching argues, we actually don’t have to say anything at all. 

This year in those moments when we just can’t muster it and we’re sitting with the prayer book open, begging for the words to come, we can cash in on the reward gifted to us by our ancestors. That moment of naaseh v’nishma, doing before learning, stands throughout time and its echoes reverberate. 

Though the science is dubious, the Rabbis’ conception of the apple speaks to us. Like the prophet Isaiah tells us, 

before you called, I answered.

Your heart and soul can be seen and heard even if you don’t know how to make them sound or call. So let us dip our apples this year, not just for sweetness, but also to remind ourselves that even if we don’t have the words, just being here is good enough.

Shanah Tovah V’nochacha, a sweet year filled with presence!