Less than two years ago my wife and I were visiting Buenos Aires for a week on a total whim, and really, because we love to travel.

We stayed in Recoleta, a well to do neighborhood near the center of town. For Shabbat we were set up with two families to have our meals.

For our lunch meal on Shabbat afternoon we were at a large Sephardic family that lived in a beautiful apartment with great views of the city.

After a long delicious Sephardi style meal, an intricate display of desserts were presented including something very curious: rounded pieces of Etrog soaking in Honey.

In my head I was thinking, “סוכות and ראש השנה were two months ago, what’s going on here?”

As it turns out, they had a custom of feeding childless married couples this Etrog & Honey concoction, which they believed will make the wife fertile and have a baby within a year. We, modern, young, Ashkenazim did not believe in such things, but we felt that it’d be impolite to turn down our gracious hosts.

Needless to say, almost to the day, a year later, our first son was born. And we couldn’t be happier.

Shared by: Dani (and Arielle) Klein, New York, USA