Transcript [00:00] Apples and honey, cute, sweet, nice [00:02] little [00:03] thing that we eat on the holiday. [00:06] It allows us to wish each other a sweet [00:07] new year, but not much more to it than [00:08] that. [00:10] Is that true? [00:12] I already know the answer. [00:13] >> [laughter] [00:14] >> A really a bit of a layup, Rabbi. [00:15] >> Thanks, it's a good one. So, I'm going [00:17] to slam [clears throat] dunk this one. [00:19] Nothing in Judaism is just a ritual. [00:22] >> [music] [00:22] >> Not one thing. There's nothing in [00:24] Judaism that is just a ritual that we do [00:26] cuz we do it. Everything has deeper [00:29] meaning. In fact, the word spiritual is [00:31] made up of two words, spirit and ritual. [00:34] >> Beautiful. [00:35] >> So, some people have the spirit. I used [00:37] to say this before I became religious at [00:39] the age of 29, 30, I said, "I'm [00:41] spiritual, not religious." I'm [00:43] spiritual, I meditate, I spent 6 years [00:45] in Asia [00:46] meditating, doing martial arts. [00:48] So, some people have the spirit, but [00:50] they've lost the ritual. [00:51] >> Yeah. [00:52] >> So, they're not [00:53] in this example, eating apple and honey, [00:56] or they're not putting on tefillin. Now, [00:57] it doesn't make you a bad person, [00:59] >> but I would think actually eating apples [01:00] and honey is the easiest thing to do. [01:02] Like, I would say, "What is the most [01:03] common custom that Jews do on Rosh [01:06] Hashanah?" It's probably eating apples [01:07] and honey. It makes you feel like in the [01:09] spirit of the holiday, very easy to do. [01:12] It's sweet, and it's reminiscent of the [01:14] blessing that we wish each other for [01:16] sweet new year. Something you did as a [01:17] kid. So, like, is it just for the kids? [01:19] Like, is there something greater or [01:21] deeper behind it? [01:22] >> So, this is what we're saying. Spirit [01:24] and ritual. So, some people have the [01:25] spirit, but they've lost the ritual. But [01:27] then there are other people, Orthodox [01:29] people, who have got the ritual, but [01:31] they've lost the spirit. [music] So, [01:32] we've got to get the balance. To be [01:33] spiritual, we have to do the ritual. [01:35] We're We're going to have apple and [01:36] honey. [01:37] But why? [music] That's your question. [01:39] Is it just cuz it's a nice thing to do? [01:41] So, there are We say it's cuz I'm [01:43] wishing you a sweet year. [01:45] The truth is there are many sweet [01:46] things. Why don't we have an apple with [01:48] sugar? An apple with [01:50] >> have pancakes with sugar. [01:51] >> Yeah, loads of favorite. [01:52] >> [laughter] [01:53] >> You can have that as well, by the way. [01:55] >> [clears throat] [01:56] >> So, honey is specifically what we use [01:59] because to get to honey, you have to get [02:02] through the bees. [02:04] So, true sweetness in life often comes [02:08] from overcoming something. So, people [02:10] think where I'm just happy, everything [02:12] goes my way, everything's nice, that's [02:13] happiness. It's a very external form of [02:15] happiness. But when we dip the apple in [02:17] honey, we're really saying, "No, I [02:19] believe that true happiness sometimes [02:22] comes through being stung in life. And [02:25] I'm not going to be a victim to the [02:26] bees. I'm going to [02:27] I'm going to get the true sweetness, the [02:29] true essence of what life is. And in my [02:32] personal growth, that's my own negative [02:34] character traits [02:35] >> [music] [02:35] >> and my own trauma in my life and my past [02:38] to be able to go through that and find [02:40] the sweetness that's in there and [02:42] actually was created by the bees. The [02:44] bees created that. [02:45] >> [music] [02:45] >> So, we've got to crave the idea here, [02:48] which is that anything that comes from a [02:50] non-kosher animal is non-kosher. [02:53] So, milk from a pig is non-kosher. [02:55] So, why is honey kosher? [02:57] It comes from bees. Yeah, cuz we're [02:59] saying firstly it's not part of the [03:01] animal's body. [03:02] That's the practical. But we're saying [03:05] that within our trauma and within our [03:08] stings and within our pain and within [03:10] our negative character traits and [03:12] everything, that's there's always [03:14] something sweet in there. Nothing's [03:16] meaningless. There's no such thing as [03:17] meaningless pain. Everything we go [03:19] through and everything that's happening [03:20] in our life is actually helping try [03:22] [music] to produce the honey, the dvash. [03:25] Hanukkah, you have the Greeks in the [03:27] temple and they went into the holiest [03:29] place in the temple and they defiled it [03:31] and they did all terrible things and [03:33] they smashed all the oil. [03:36] But then the the Maccabees, they came in [03:39] and they found out one jar of oil that [03:42] was untouched, perfect and pure. [03:44] So, that's actually teaching us about [03:46] trauma as well. [03:48] That however bad a trauma is, [03:51] there's always a place that's untouched. [03:53] There's always a place within you that [03:55] is beyond the trauma. And your your soul [03:57] your soul, so we want to tap back into [04:00] the light of the soul, which is always [04:02] untouched within the trauma. It's a very [04:04] similar idea. [04:04] >> Always perfect and pure. [04:05] >> It's always perfect and pure. There's [04:07] always there. Always So, that's what it [04:08] means to go back, [music] to start [04:10] again, to recreate yourself. And there's [04:12] this place within yourself. Many people [04:14] they identify literally with their pain. [04:16] I am the one who was bullied as a kid. I [04:20] am the one who's who's parents got [04:22] divorced. So, Judaism says no, go [04:24] deeper. Go deeper. People talk about [04:26] inner child work, and doing inner child [04:28] work. So, I'm going to that 5-year-old [04:30] kid who was abused. But there's [04:32] something called inner [music] inner [04:33] child work, which is hold on, let's tap [04:35] back into that [04:37] 2-year-old before it was abused. [04:39] It's always within us. So, and that's [04:41] what the honey is saying. Let's go [04:42] through deeper deeper and reveal [music] [04:45] the honey. [04:45] >> Artist. [04:46] >> Also, tapuach, the apple, specifically [04:49] in Kabbalistic writings and in the [04:51] Talmud is healing. [04:53] This one is very very healing. People [04:54] think that the fruit in the Garden of [04:57] Eden the of knowledge of good and evil [04:59] was an apple, cuz there's actually no [05:01] source for that. It's [05:03] It's made up of apples that represent [05:05] the healing and [05:06] >> When you say healing, I think an apple a [05:08] day makes the doctor go away. [05:10] >> My mom would used to say that. You [05:11] should eat apples. Apple a day keeps the [05:13] doctor away. So, I don't want to keep [05:14] you away. [05:14] >> I [05:16] >> And also, we don't want it to be bad for [05:17] her business if we all eat apples. She'd [05:19] have no patients. [05:20] >> [music] [05:20] >> So, you're saying so that actually comes [05:22] from the idea from Jewish wisdom says [05:24] that the apple is healing. [05:26] >> The apple is healing. There's is [05:27] actually an even deeper teaching, cuz we [05:29] can get deeper and deeper and [05:30] >> No, Kabbalah is like never-ending. Yeah, [05:32] just give us one little more. [05:33] >> There is the Garden of Eden is called [05:35] Hakel Tapuchin Kadishin, which really [05:37] means the apple orchard. [05:39] But why is it called the apple orchard? [05:41] Not cuz the fruit of the tree was an [05:43] apple tree, but because that's the place [05:45] of ultimate healing. [05:46] When we're all healed from our trauma [05:48] and all healed from everything. [05:49] >> So what the classic vision paintings [05:52] artwork there books and stories that [05:55] depict the Garden of Eden showed as an [05:57] apple? [05:58] >> I think it was Michelangelo who made all [06:00] of that stuff and that's why Moses has [06:02] got horns and [06:03] >> But I'm saying but maybe that apple [06:05] comes from the idea that the Garden of [06:07] Eden was healing and apples represent [06:09] healing. So it's that's where it comes [06:11] from. [06:12] >> We can judge Michelangelo favorably by [06:14] saying that he learned Kabbalah and [06:16] [laughter] [06:17] I love that. [06:18] >> Or it was just placed into him. [06:19] Obviously artists are [music] like [06:22] divinely inspired.
