Lekach

Lekach

The Rosh Hashanah is possibly the most festive event of the Jewish people. If you are not a Jew and happen to pay a visit to a Jewish country during Rosh Hashanah, you would be extremely delighted at the sight and the smell of the Lekach.

A Jewish culinary delight, the Lekach is actually a sponge cake, formed with the addition of honey, cinnamon and coffee or tea. It is one of the traditional dishes of Rosh Hashanah and symbolizes the Jewish desire of a sweet new year. it is believed that if you have the sweet Lekach on the first day of the year, the remaining days would glide by in as sweet a manner.

It is a popular Rosh Hashanah tradition to ask for and receive "lekach" from a guardian (such as your mentor or parent) on the Yom Kippur eve. This symbolic food represents the hope that if God wills that if a Jewish person needs a handout from others in the course of the year, it should be satisfied with this asking for food.

According to Lubavitcher Rebbe (Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch movement), the asking for Lekach on the day before Yom Kippur is a reminder to ourselves that whatever we recieve throughout the year and believe to be the fruit of our own actions, is actually God's gift to us. The Rebbe himself acted as a guardian to all those people who had not received Lekach before Yom Kippur and used to distribute the sweet dish to them on Hoshannah Rabbah.

The sweet Lekach is annually eaten on Rosh Hashanah by Ashkenazi Jews. Sweet apples and a carrot dessert forms the accompanying dishes to this traditional cuisine.