Message for All
by Jesse Greist

Honey, It’s a New Year!

It was the start of a New Year for Rachel and her family.  Like many Jewish families, Rosh Hashanah had always been a time of celebration for them.  They shared new fruits like pomegranates and apples as well as bread dipped in honey around the table in anticipation of a sweet new year, and sang every evening for ten days right up to the close of the holidays on Yom Kippur.

This year was especially sweet for Rachel since she was just starting a new job as the building manager of a large apartment complex on the outskirts of New Haven, CT.  On one of her first days in the job she handled a few expected problems.  There was a door that was squeaking and needed oil.  She had to prune back an apple tree whose branches were scraping the side of the building, and collect the fruit that was falling onto the sidewalk.  She had to track down a lost package that had been accidentally delivered to the wrong floor.  But then came the call she could never have anticipated.  One of the first floor residents called because she’d been stung by a bee.  Rachel showed up at the door, first aid kit in her hand, and attended to Sophie Mensch’s sting personally.  But wait a minute, there were actually lots of bees in the apartment!  How strange!  No windows were open, and there was no hive visible outside.  Where were all these bees coming from?  She watched as one bee disappeared into a tiny hole in the wall.  All at once, her senses kicked in and she could hear the buzzing – low, steady, melodious – filling the space behind Mrs. Mensch’s floral wall paper.

Rachel realized that the whole wall was full of bees, and she had no idea how to deal with them.  She quickly researched the problem and found a local bee keeper who came that same day with a (and yes, this is actually real) special bee vacuum that sucked all the bees out of the wall and into a special container.  The bee keeper brought them back to her farm and helped them get re-established there.

Rachel was then able to extract a huge honey comb out of the wall, which she split in two.  Half of it was served to the residents of the apartment at a special dinner that evening.  The other half went home with Rachel, who served it to her family along with a bushel of apples she’d collected.  As she sat down with them she offered up a special wisdom prayer:

This year, when life stings us, may we find the courage to gently relocate the bees, and then dip apples in their honey.  L’Shana Tova!  Happy New Year!