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The Philadelphia Community Kollel wishes you a kesiva vechasima tova!
 
Rabbi Yechiel Biberfeld, Rosh Kollel
Rabbi Yoel Dovid Zeffren, Associate Rosh Kollel
Rabbi Yosef Prupas, Director of Community Programming
Kollel Rabbis and Staff
 
Dr. Israil Pendrak, President and the Board of Directors 
A Message from the Rosh Kollel

An almost universal minhag on Rosh Hashanah is dipping an apple into honey and eating it. This custom, albeit not brought in the Gemara, has great significance. The Chasam Sofer writes that the apple represents our good deeds, מעשים טובים, as we find in the Gemara (Shabbos 88a) “Why were the Jewish People likened to an apple tree at the time of Matan Torah? Just as the apple tree, its fruits grow before its leaves, so too the Jewish People said נעשה before נשמע, we will do and then we will hear.” Doing is the actions, mitzvos; hearing is the Torah. Honey symbolizes Torah wisdom [דבש, honey is an acronym for דעה, בינה, שכל, three terms for Torah knowledge]. We make the brocha over the apple [ho’eitz] and not on the honey [shehakol], further indicating that the apple is primary. This is in sync, writes the Chasam Sofer, with the mishna’s teaching (Avos, Chapter 3) “One whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom endures.”
We must ask: how can one’s deeds exceed his wisdom, i.e. how can one do more than he knows? Rabbeinu Yonah explains that if one accepts to do all that he will learn, it is considered as if he has done all that already. This was seen at Matan Torah where Bnei Yisroel said נעשה ונשמע and Hashem considered it as if they already fulfilled the mitzvos!
This is what Rosh Hashanah is all about. We want a new lease on life, but we may not have enough mitzvos to “afford” it. By accepting in our hearts to do more mitzvos this coming year, all the new ones we will learn about, it will be considered as if we have already done them and they go on our account. That’s the key.
When we dip the apple in the honey and recite the brocha over the apple, we should remind ourselves of נעשה ונשמע and that great acceptance of “we will do and we will hear.” That acceptance will give us the merits needed for a good and sweet new year!
 
Rabbi Yechiel Biberfeld,
Rosh Kollel 

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