By Rabbi Jill Maderer

L’shanah tovah umetukah. We wish each other a good and sweet new year. Typically, we celebrate our hope for a sweet new year by eating apples and honey. But a lesser known tradition identifies a different symbolic fruit for Rosh Hashanah: pomegranates. As delicious as apples and honey are (and I love apple cake!), they are too easy!

Pomegrantes are hard. They require work, perseverance and patience. For every bite of sweetness, we have to suck off the fruit while careful not to swallow the seed. So maybe pomegranates are the more realistic symbol for the new year.  Anyone have a recipe for pomegranate cake?  (Feel free to share High Holy recipes here!) May we do the hard work of life, and may its sweetness be the fruit of our labor. L’shanah tovah umetukah.