Apples and Honey in the Bible

(1) Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that God יהוה had made. It said to the woman, “Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” (2) The woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. (3) It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said: ‘You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.’” (4) And the serpent said to the woman, “You are not going to die, (5) but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God who knows good and bad.” (6) When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. (7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.

Janum, Beit-tappuah, Aphekah,

(10) [God] found them in a desert region,
In an empty howling waste.
[God] engirded them, watched over them,
Guarded them as the apple of God’s eye.

(12) For thus said GOD of Hosts—whose Presence sent me —concerning the nations that have taken you as spoil: “Whoever touches you touches the apple of My eye.

(18) Cry aloud to the Lord.
O wall of Fair Zion,
Shed tears like a torrent
Day and night!
Give yourself no respite,
Your eyes no rest (OR "let not the apple of Your eye cease")

(13) Is it not enough that you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, that you would also lord it over us? (14) Even if you had brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and given us possession of fields and vineyards, should you gouge out the eyes of those involved? We will not come!”

(3) Obey, O Israel, willingly and faithfully, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in] a land flowing with milk and honey.

(6) For the Israelites had traveled in the wilderness forty years, until the entire nation—the men of military age who had left Egypt—had perished; because they had not obeyed GOD, and GOD had sworn never to let them see the land that GOD had sworn to their ancestors to assign to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

(15) However, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the fairest of all lands, that I had assigned [to them],

(25) Everybody came to a stack of beehives where some honey had spilled on the ground.

(26) When the troops came to the beehives and found the flow of honey there, no one put his hand to his mouth, for the troops feared the oath.

(17) He fed them [Israel] the finest wheat;
I sated you with honey from the rock.

But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us! We have stores hidden in a field—wheat, barley, oil, and honey.” So he stopped, and did not kill them along with their fellows.—

Rav Ami says: One who desires to know if he will live through this current year or not should bring a lit candle during those ten days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur and hang it in a house through which wind does not blow, and he should watch it carefully: If its light continues he shall know that he will live out his year.

And one who desires to conduct business and wants to know if his business will succeed or not should raise a rooster. If the rooster gets fat and beautiful he shall know that the venture will succeed... Abaye said: Now that you have said that a sign is a substantial matter, a person should be accustomed to eat, at the start of the year, gourd, fenugreek, leeks, beets, and dates.

And from this (what Abaye said) grew the [various] customs, every place according to its custom; as in Germany, where they are accustomed to eating sweet apple with honey at the beginning of the meal, to say, "Let this new year be sweet for us." And in Provence they are accustomed to bring all types of novelties [to the meal] and to eat a sheep's head and lung, to say, "Let us be at the head and not at the tail;" and the lung because it is light. And our teacher, Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg was accustomed to eat the head of a ram to commemorate the ram of Yitzchak.

(1) (1) One should eat beans, leeks, beets, dates, and pumpkin. And as one eats the beans (rubiya), they say: God, may our merits increase (yirbu)! Eating leeks (karti), they say: God, may our enemies be wiped out (yekartu)! Eating dates (tamri), say: God, may our enemies disappear (yetamu)! Eating pumpkin (kra), say: God, may our judgement be ripped up (yikra) and may our merits be called out (yikrau) before You! RAMA: Some have a custom of eating a sweet apple in honey, and saying: May a sweet year be renewed on us! This is what we do. Some eat pomegranates, and say: may our merits be as many as pomegranate seeds! And we are accustomed to eat fatty meat and all sorts of sweets.

It is customary to eat apples dipped in honey and to say afterwards:

May it be Your will, our God and God of our ancestors that we should have a good and sweet new year.

On Rosh Hashanah, one should eat in the following order (seder) on both nights: First, dates. One should recite the blessing of "creator of the fruit of the tree," and eat one date. After that, one should say: May it be your will that our enemies be destroyed (Yitamu = destroyed, sounds like tamar = date). The one should eat the second date, and have in mind "the enemies of the lower realms." After that, a person should eat fenugreek (rubya), which we call "luvya" in Arabic, and says "may it be Your will that our merits increase (yirbu)." But as Magen Avraham (17th century legal scholar) says, one should make requests in the language that makes sense wherever you are, and so we in Baghdad who call it "luvya" have to say, "that our merits may increase and and become beloved (tilvaveynu)....