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A LETTER FOR ROSH HASHONO                                                         From  Hirschel Pekkar

On  Rosh Hashono, first evening meal, after washing our hands with it’s blessing, then making the blessing Hamotzy over the challahs, and dipping the bread into honey and eating it, we take slices of an apple and a dish of honey, we then dip a slice of apple into the honey, we make a blessing over the apple, we say the prayer of the “yehy rotzon” etc. – may it be your will, to renew on (for) us, shono toivo umsuko – a good and sweet year, we then eat the sweetened apple.
Some questions come to mind.
Question 1.
The word sweet expresses, a degree of an extreme good, so why do we not ask for a “sweet year”, which would automatically include “good”, but because we ask for both, “good” and “sweet” it seems that the “good” and “sweet” depend on each other for their being fulfilled, as being “good”, and as being “sweet”?
Question 2.
Since we ask for a “sweet” year, then, why not eat only the honey, why do we also need the apple, and if, by including also the apple your intention is to indicate the request of being fruitful, then why not take a sweeter fruit, like dates or figs, by which the Land of Israel is praised, the use of which, besides indicating to being fruitful, would also prompt for a blessing for our return to our Holy Land with Moshiach?
Question 3.
The Land of Israel is called The Land Of  Milk And Honey, there, “honey” refers to the honey of dates,
So why here, we use specifically the honey of bees?.
Question 4.
Why do we not find this supplication in the prayers, why specifically, we say at the meal?.
Quastion 5.
In the siddur nusach Ari, it says, that on the first night of Rosh Hashno, we take a sweet apple, etc.
why stress specifically sweet?.

Answer
It has been said in the name of The Shaloh Hakodesh, that an apple has in it the Name of Hashem, The YUD KEI VAV KEI.  Holding the apple by it’s stalk, you cut it through the middle horizontally, inside, you will find five seeds, and ten dark dots surrounding the seeds, this is YUD – ten, and KEI – five. These two letters indicate the hidden spiritual worlds, as explained in the teachings of chassidus, therefore they are found hidden inside the apple. These dark dots are found in sweet apples mostly,  On the outside, the stalk represents the VAV, and on the opposite side, there are five bumps, indicating the letter KEI, the revealed world. See chassidus for explanation.
In this way, the apple represents the Torah, the whole of which, is called “THE NAME OF HASHEM”
In short, the apple represents “Torah”. 
From this we understand why we ask for “good”, because the word “good” refers to Torah, like it says, “there is nothing good except Torah, and the word “good” is connected to the “apple” – Torah, without which, there cannot be “a good year”.
Honey, is the product of a community of bees,  to stress the aspect of a good life, that it can be only within a community, (that’s why we use the honey of bees, and not of trees) and the lesson is to bring the Torah into where the community is, (dipping the apple into the honey,).
The words “shono Toivo”, in Hebrew, has the same numerical value as the words “toiv hanireh vhanigle” which means – the good that is seen and revealed. Everything that is from “above” is good, but not always do we see the good inherent in it.  Here we are asking for the kind of good that we can see. That is why we pray for it at the meal, where we can see the good in front of us.
Our visible good, is our physical sustenance, which we derive from – domem –inanimate, - honey, tzome-ach – vegetation, - apple,  and chi – animal, represented by the bees.
That is why we need both “good” and “sweet”, Torah and community,  because they depend on each other for a good year.
The taste of sweet, is only when it is in your mouth, therefore, to be a good and sweet year, the Torah in your mouth, and going to the shool should also be an entire year, through this, will be revealed the YUD KEI VAV KEI on a physical level, with the coming of Moshiach, very very soon.  Shono tovo to all, 

Hirschel Pekkar.