Sweet Apples From The Tree Of Knowledge

Question: What is the meaning of the symbols of Rosh Hashanah: apples in honey, a fish head etc.?

Answer: A fish head symbolizes our desire to be a head and not a tail. It is because we want to determine our life by ourselves and not allow ourselves to draw us in the direction of the ego. We want to know what this life was given to us for, what the purpose of our life is, and how to fill it with meaning and make it worthwhile and significant. This is the difference between a head and a tail.

The pomegranate symbolizes the nation of Israel, the unity of all the souls in one body. This is exactly how we want to feel, united in one soul.

The apple in honey symbolizes our desire to fill our life with meaning and sweetness. It is the same apple that Adam ate and sinned because of his calculations. He meant to perform a correction for all of humanity at one time because he included all the souls in him. This is how great the egoistic desire was that was revealed in him.

But Adam didn’t succeed in performing the correction. To correct means to fill with sweetness and to ascend above our ego. The apple symbolizes our egoistic desire that was created by the Creator and when we dip it in honey and correct it we reach a good life.

Adam tried to perform this correction at one time and didn’t succeed, and so we perform it gradually—many people throughout history, one correction after another, gradually attaining the end of correction.

The apple dipped in honey is the symbol of the correction and the sweetening of the ego that allows us to use it for good.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15