A Honey of a New Year
PJM Efrat, Israel: Dipping apples in honey will be part of the tradition for many Jews as they celebrate their New Year on Thursday. But amateur beekeeper David Bogner's jars of honey represent more than a quick trip to the supermarket - they are a labor of love.
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As I tend to my beehives on this late summer afternoon, I can’t help but think that this simply has be the perfect hobby for anyone who likes to sneak away from it all a few times a month.
The truth is, making the rounds of my hives shouldn’t be all that time consuming since I really don’t have that many. But my small bee-yard’s setting in a pretty meadow overlooking a cherry orchard and that makes it terribly tempting to dawdle and stretch out the time I spend here.
Between checking each hive, I sit down in the tall grass and watch the worker bees come and go on their endless foraging flights. I often bring a snack and a cold drink with me to enjoy while watching my bees at work.
What’s funny is that my kids have also figured out that, beyond the necessary labor of lifting the heavy honey supers and checking the health and arrangement of the bee colony in each hive, there is an attractive element of lazy escapism in their father’s quirky hobby. It’s gotten to the point where they now argue over who will get to come help me on any given outing to visit the bees.
One of the things I’ve been pondering on this particular late summer trip is how perfectly timed the honey harvest is, falling just before Rosh Hashanah.
Of course the bees have no idea that their honey - a year ’round treat for most - will be especially in demand in Jewish homes in a few days. Yet, the culmination of their spring and summer labors seems perfectly timed to ensure our holiday tables are well stocked with sweet amber honey.
One of my secular Israeli friends once gave me - his religiously observant buddy - a good natured prod by saying that the custom of dipping apple slices into honey for a sweet new year is simply the result of chance. He said that if our tribal ancestors had wandered in the tropics for 40 years rather than the desert, we’d be heralding the New Year with sugar cane and pineapple rather than apples dipped in honey. It is only the convenient abundance of honey during the end of Israel’s seasonal cycle that has made it an obvious holiday symbol for sweetness.
If I were of a mind to be mischievous, I’d have asked my friend how exactly one draws the line between chance and G-d.
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1 Comment
anon:I love these human-interest/bee?-interest/culture stories in Pajamas Media. (I especially liked the article on gourmet salt a few months back.) Pieces on Levantine and Israeli culture are also bery interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Sep 14, 2007 - 6:09 pm