Hashannah Tov! Happy Rosh Hashannah!

I must have been crazy! On September 11, 2001, I was glued to the TV like so many others around the world. At the time, my husband had a job in what must be the shiniest building owned by NSA, and I was unable to raise him on the phone. With multiple planes in the air, I was scared to death he would become one of the causualties that day. As it is, I lost colleagues in New York, Dave lost coworkers at the Pentagon, and my sister was on the DC Mall that day, close enough to hear the Pentagon collapse.

Ever since, I have been determined not to go into places like DC on certain days, like the 4th of July, or September 11. So what was I doing boarding a Metro car, 11:30AM on 9-11, heading towards Farragut North? Well, Rabbi Herzfeld talked me into it.

For those of you who may not know, Rosh Hashannah is the Jewish New Year. It is a time of reflection and remembrance. It is a time of well-wishing. And, one of the traditions is dipping apples into honey, to signify a sweet start to the New Year. Rosh Hashannah without apples and honey is like, well, Thanksgiving without the turkey.

Rabbi Herzfeld came up with what I consider a really "sweet" idea (no pun intended, really). He had 1,000 jars of honey from Israel (not from us!), and decided to distribute them on the corner of Connecticut and K Street in Washington DC, they day before Rosh Hashannah, at lunch hour.

So how did I get involved in this? Well, we were originally contacted by mutual acquaintances regarding a new radio program he started (Smoozin' with Shmuel). However, the topic quickly changed to the upcoming holiday, and we were invited to bring our honey tasters and help distribute the jars of honey. Rosh Hashannah started at sundown on 9/12, so that meant we were in DC on 9/11.

Despite my jitters while travelling, I had quite a bit of fun once I was there. Rabbi Herzfeld blew in the new year with a ramshorn, and over nearly 2 hours a dozen people showed up to help hand out the jars. One was dressed as an apple, another dressed as a honeybee. They made quite the pair, and certainly made people pause!

Afterwards, I stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and apple fritter before jumping on the Metro for the return journey, and reflected on the last two hours. I decided I was rather glad to have conquered my fears and participated in the day's distribution of well-wishes -- and honey!