NIPPLES AND HONEY

Mmmmm.....

Honey.

The sticky, sweet, golden, dripping delight associated with both Rosh Hashana (apples and honey) and Israel (the land of milk and honey).

And current events as well. Wasn't there a major archaeological discovery this week about bee-keeping in the Holy Land?

Last night, as I joined the Upper West Side Jewish cocktail party that was Fairway, I chose two jars of honey for my Rosh Hashana table: a overpriced number from Spain via San Francisco and an overpriced number from New Zealand, whipped to a buttery consistency and color.

Mmmmm.

Everyone knows that Jews dip apples and challah into honey on Rosh Hashana so we will have a sweet year.

Shana Tova, Shana Metuka, we wish one another in the days leading up to the festival.

A good year. A sweet year.

We Jews believe that you are what you eat.

You eat kosher, you lead a kosher life.

We stay away from eating animals that are predators, for instance, for we do not wish to become predatory ourselves.

Naturally, not all kosher-eaters lead kosher lives.

And not everyone who dips their apples in honey has a sweet year. Jews have known many bitter years, bitter decades, bitter centuries.

The taste of Rosh Hashana honey is tempered always by Passover's salt water in our yearly rituals.

Still, we give sweetness a chance. Especially at the start of the year, ten days before the gates of heaven open on Yom Kippur and we get a chance to petition God on high.

So, if there is any mystical power to honey, I say -- bring it on!

Increase the dosage.

Make honey a habit.

Welcome honey into your life.

Let honey drip from the walls of your home, from your door-posts, between your eyes and down the length of your body.

Honey belongs not only on your dining room table, but in your bedroom as well. Shana Tova u' Metuka!