Honey is an integral ingredient for Rosh Hashanah, as Jews worldwide dip both challah and apples into this golden, syrupy liquid as part of their New Year traditions. But honey comes from a bee, an insect that stings and creates pain. Why isn’t the sweet apple enough to celebrate Rosh Hashanah?
According to Sweet Stings, an article on Chabad.org, two types of sweetness are experienced throughout one’s life.
Family celebrations, career success, and other joyous moments are sweet like an apple.
Yet another, different type of sweetness comes from times of challenge, when life throws an unexpected curveball and a person’s spirit is tested. These moments sting like a bee. But when the unfortunate struggles can be overcome, the sweetness symbolized by honey is a special sort of experience.
While there are many ways to dispense honey, many families own a honey pot or honey jar which features prominently during the High Holidays. Whether a wedding gift, a family heirloom, or handmade object, the honey pots described here have special meaning and provenance to these community members who share their stories.
Rona and Cantor David Proser’s favorite honey pots
Rona and Cantor David Proser have various honey containers that they use for Rosh Hashanah. Of them all, two stand out for special memories.
One was purchased in the late 1980s on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills during a trip to visit family. The Prosers spotted it in a store window. Not only was it unique, but it was also the only item in that store that they could afford at the time. It is a glass and metal representation of a honeybee, with wings that close as a lid. The Prosers always pair it with a Rosh Hashanah mat created by their younger daughter, Maura, in first grade at Hebrew Academy.
The other object is a more traditional ceramic honey jar with an apple plate by Israeli artist Renee Vichinsky. This set was purchased at a Certificates in Advanced Jewish Educations (CAJE) conference where Proser was recognized as one of the Jewish Educators of the Year, along with all the principals of Jewish supplementary schools, by the Jewish Education Council of UJFT in May of 2000.
Memories of grandparents for Alene Jo Kaufman with her honey pot
Alene Jo Kaufman’s paternal grandfather, Allen R. Kahn, was a unique individual, she says. Born in Mikado Michigan, and one of 10 children, his father owned the local, rural, general store. With no more than an eighthgrade education, Kahn became a successful businessman who traveled the world.
He believed in the healing nature of honey, she says. In fact, Kaufman thinks he ate honey at most meals – and everyone knew it. The restaurant where he ate his ‘businessman’s lunch’ daily, served him his meal along with a honey bear that said, “I only want to bee Mr. Kahn’s honey.”
The honey bear is long gone, but Kaufman is fortunate to be the keeper of the honey pot that sat on the table in her grandparents’ home for as long as she can remember. It traveled with them wherever they moved and always found a place on their table. It’s now 90 years old, and she treasures it for the memories it brings of special times and loving family.
Bonnie Brand’s honey pot is part of her festive spread
Hosting a festive dinner erev Rosh Hashanah, when some of her adult children travel to Virginia Beach to celebrate the holiday, is one of Bonnie Brand’s favorite times. Along with this honey pot, purchased on Amazon after her ceramic one broke, she adorns her table with fruitfilled branches from her pomegranate tree.
Betsy Karotkin’s hand-made honey pot honors brother-in-law
This ceramic honey pot was created by Betsy Karotkin for the High Holidays during her years as a potter. The inscription, “Fred’s Honey,” refers to her brother-in-law, Fred Karotkin, a veterinarian who also raised bees and tended their hive.
Each year, Karotkin and her husband, Ed, would receive the fruits of this bee labor and enjoy Fred’s honey in his eponymous ceramic honey jar.
An expanding collection for Darcy and Robert Bloch
When Darcy and Robert Bloch got married 38 years ago, they received three glass honey jars as wedding gifts. They’ve used them all (only one broke). When hosting family and friends for Rosh Hashanah, they received four more honey pots as gifts.
The Blochs fill them all with honey and put them out, so everyone has easy access when they dip the apple into honey and to spread it on challah at the meal.
Nancy Peck’s heirloom honey pot
This bee honey pot is an heirloom handed down by Nancy Peck’s grandmother, Eva Botnick Davis of Nashville, Tennessee. The bee currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida, with Janet Peck, her daughter, and the fourth generation to use this now antique honey pot.