Honey Ceremony

In Medieval times, children coming to heder (Jewish school) in Europe for the first time would lick honey from the TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general. or a slate with the Hebrew Alphabet. The impact was to associate learning with sweetness. We think the message still applies in our time, and we revived the ceremony (with help from Dan Nichols’ Song Sweet As Honey and Lawrence Kushner’s Talmudic Blessing Translation) for our daughter Shalva’s first day of Kindergarten at Krieger Schechter Day School in Baltimore.