A Riddle for Rosh Hashanah

8 September 2023

Here's a riddle that will catch most people out:

What bee-product do we make a blessing over on Rosh Hashanah night?

(No, not honey. We don't make a blessing on honey.)

Answer: Apple.

An apple comes from a bee? Yes it does.

An apple tree cannot produce apples without bees. But the bees themselves have no clue that they are performing the vital task called cross-pollination.

It goes something like this. While busy eating nectar from a flower, the unsuspecting bee gets pollen stuck on its feet and wings. The bee then moves on to another tree to get more nectar. Some of the pollen falls off, and happens to reach the right spot on the second flower to pollinate it, eventually budding into fruit.

The bee thought it was just eating lunch. The pollen stuck on its feet was nothing more than an unwanted bother. No one would ever have guessed that the budding fruit that appears weeks later was all thanks to the bee.

We are like that bee sometimes. We think we are making honey, when actually we are making apples. There is the life we are busy with, our conscious world, the things we think we need to get done. And then there is the vast mysterious web we are a part of and contribute to without even realising, the chain reactions we cause unawares.

At the Rosh Hashanah table, we eat apples and honey. As a new year arrives, we acknowledge that we only see a very little section of the big picture. Most things that happen in our lives make no sense to us. But nothing is random. Every occurrence, every interaction, every conversation and every experience is a part of a grand divine plan. Everything happens by G-d’s word. We intend to make honey, and G-d intends that we make apples too.

Indeed, the word for bee in Hebrew is Devorah, which can be split into Devar Heh - the word of G-d.

So if you ever feel like your wings are being weighed down by some unwanted load, remember, you are cross-pollinating someone’s flower. A beautiful fruit will bud from your toil, whether you see it or not. It’s meant to bee.