Although beekeeping as an occupation is not mentioned in the Bible, bees are mentioned four times, honeycombs are referred to eight times and honey is referred to 26 times. Archaeologists actually discovered proof that there was beekeeping and honey 3,000 years ago in a site in northern Israel.
According to an article by Clara Moskowitz (June 9, 2010) in Life Science, “recently discovered beehives from ancient Israel, 3,000 years ago, appear to be the oldest evidence for beekeeping ever found, scientist reported.
“Archaeologist identified the remains of honeybees... inside about 30 clay cylinders thought to have been used as beehives at the site of Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley in northern Israel. This is the first such discovery from ancient times….
“The archaeologists used carbon dating on grains that had spilled from a broken storage jar next to the hives to estimate that they were about 3,000 years old.”
Among Ashkenazim, sweet desserts for Rosh Hashanah are customary, particularly lekach or honey cake, and teiglach, the hard, doughy, honey and nut cookie.
Some say the origin of the sweets comes from a passage in the book of Hosea mentioning “love cakes of raisins.” There is also a passage in Samuel II, which talks about the multitude of Israel, men and women, “to everyone a cake of bread and a cake made in a pan and a sweet cake.”
It was Ezra, the fifth century BCE religious leader, who was commissioned by the Persian king to direct Jewish affairs in Judea, and Nehemiah, a political leader and cup bearer of the king in the fifth century BCE, who told the returning exiles to eat and drink sweet things.
Honey cakes traditionally include honey, spices, coffee and brown sugar as major ingredients, but some contain cognac, brandy, orange or lemon peel and nuts. In Curacao, for example, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, raisins, nuts or currants, lemon or orange peel is added. In Zimbabwe, Jews include allspice, cinnamon, cloves, raisins, chopped nuts, brandy and chopped candied fruit in their honey cake.
In That Hungarian’s in My Kitchen, author Linda Radke includes a Hungarian recipe from her family which includes the basic ingredients and orange juice.
A cookbook of Russian recipes includes a Ukrainian honey cake recipe called medivik, with the basic ingredients as well as cardamom, orange peel, raisins, walnuts and apricots.
In The Jewish Book of Food, Claudia Roden writes that honey cake was a favorite in Germany since the Middle Ages. Roden writes that lebkuchen, honey gingerbread, was also mentioned as early as the 12th century.
According to John Cooper in Eat and Be Satisfied, a Social History of Jewish Food, references to honey cake were made in the 12th century by a French sage, Simcha of Vitry, author of the Machzor Vitry, and by the 12th century German rabbi, Eleazar Judah ben Kalonymos. Cooper writes that on the new moon in the month of Nisan little boys entered heder, Jewish school, and were given honig lekech, honey cake.
“Originally the names of angels were inscribed on the honey cake and amulets were attached to them, but later this practice was discarded.” Jewish teachers adopted the idea of making letters out of the cake to give to the heder boys.
According to Cooper, lebkuchen and honey loaf of Central Europe and lekach, the name for honey cake, all probably came to be related to the German term or possibly the German word for lick, lecke.
By the 16th century, lekach was known as a Rosh Hashanah sweet. It also became popular for other life cycle celebrations such as betrothals and weddings.
Malvin Liebman writes in Jewish Cooking From Boston to Baghdad that crypto Jews of 16th Century Latin America ate honey cake as a first course at weddings in memory of the honeycomb which an angel gave to Aseneth when she married Joseph.
Evelyn Rose, a maven of Jewish cooking from England, wrote in The Complete International Jewish Cook Book, that the first cakes made with artificial raising agents were honey cake, and honey was the chosen sweetener because sugar was not widely available until the end of the 19th century. She also recommends keeping a honey cake in a closed container for a week before serving, so it will “mature.”
In Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan, American Jewish cooking maven, shares a traditional honey cake recipe of a Portland, Oregon woman, made with almonds; and a tribute to Hungarian Jewry with a honey torte with a filling made of cream of wheat, milk, vanilla and apricot or cherry preserves.
Among the hassidim, it was customary for the rebbe to distribute lekach to his followers, and others would request a piece of honey cake from one another on Erev Yom Kippur. This transaction symbolized a substitute for any charity the person might choose to receive.
Gil Marks, in The World of Jewish Desserts, says fluuden, an Ashkenazi layered yeast cake, was traditional for Rosh Hashanah among Franco-German Jews, made with a cheese filling and could be eaten after a meat meal, since they only waited one hour between meat and dairy. Strudel, from the German word for whirlpool, was also common for Rosh Hashanah among European Jews.
As a variation on honey cake, Marks, in The World of Jewish Cooking makes honey cookies in the shape of a shofar. The most traditional cookie for Rosh Hashanah is undoubtedly tayglach, the dough pieces dropped into a hot honey syrup and simmered until brown then left to cool.
It has been suggested that this Eastern European sweet was probably invented by some housewife who had dough left over and dropped the pieces into a boiling honey syrup.
Many Jews of Sephardic background make tishpishti for Rosh Hashanah. This Sephardic nut cake with walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts or pecans, has a hot syrup poured over the hot cake.
The syrup can be made with sugar, water and liqueur, according to Rabbi Robert Sternberg in The Sephardic Kitchen. He suggests that this was a dessert served by Greek Jews, while another cookbook author identifies it with Syrian and Turkish Jews.
Rodanchas are also mentioned by Sternberg as a popular Sephardic Rosh Hashanah sweet. These spiral-shaped pastries of phyllo dough contain a pumpkin or hubbard squash filling because squash and pumpkin are harvest vegetables and the shape symbolizes the never-ending cycle of life and the ascent of the soul into heaven.
Regardless of whether one is Ashkenazic or Sephardic, sweets for a sweet New Year seem to be a tradition, and many people follow the traditions of their mothers and grandmothers.
Here are some honey cakes to try this year.
Tishpishti
This dish originated in Turkey and was popular for Passover because it has no flour. The dense cake is soaked in syrup. The Sephardi Jews who lived in Turkey after being expelled from Spain in 1492 adopted this dish whose words mean “quick and done,” a quickly baked cake. Some say it was always served on Rosh Hashanah.
2 cups ground almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios or walnuts1 cup cake meal1 t. ground cinnamon½ t. ground cloves or allspice6 separated eggs1 cup sugar2 T. orange juice½ cup vegetable oil1 T. g rated lemon or orange peel¾ cup honey½ cup sugar2/3 cup water ¼ cup lemon juice
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. grease a rectangular baking pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine nuts, cake meal, cinnamon and cloves or allspice.
3. In another bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar. Add to nut mixture along with orange juice, oil and lemon or orange peel.
4. Beat egg whites in another bowl until stiff. Fold into batter. Pour into cake pan and bake in preheated 350 degree F. oven 45 minutes.
5. Place honey, sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan. Stir until sugar dissolves. Increase heat, bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Let cool.
6. When cake is baked and cooled, cut into squares or diamonds. Drizzle syrup over cake.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Mom’s Honey Loaf Cake
I don’t recall my mom baking this, but it was in my collection of recipes as hers.
3½ cups flour¼ t. salt1½ t. baking powder1 t. baking soda½ t. ground cinnamon1/8 t. ground cloves½ t. ground ginger¼ t. ground nutmeg4 eggs¾ cup sugar¼ cup vegetable oil2 cups honey½ cup strong coffee½ cup raisins½ cup chopped nuts
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans or a rectangular baking pan.
2. Combine in a bowl flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.
3. Beat eggs and sugar in another bowl until fluffy. Add oil, honey and coffee.
4. Stir in flour mixture. Add raisins and nuts. Pour into two loaf pans or a rectangular baking pan. Bake in preheated 325 degree F. oven 1½ hours.
The writer is a journalist, author, compiler/contributor/editor of nine kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem where she has led weekly walks in English of Mahaneh Yehudah since 2009. She wrote the kosher Jerusalem restaurant features for Janglo.net, the oldest, largest website for English speakers from 2014 to 2020.