Are Apples and Honey Pagan?

Along with the shofar, the best-known Rosh Hashanah practice is the eating of apples (and challah) dipped in honey, for a sweet year. The Talmud in fact recommends several foods, chosen on the basis of puns involving their names, that are auspicious to eat on the holiday. As many commentators have noted, such a practice smacks of the pagan practice of predicting the future based on omens, or even a kind of magic—and should thus be banned rather than encouraged. Daniel Z. Feldman examines this paradox: