Coconut on Rosh Hashanah
Question
The rabbi wrote that some have the custom to refrain from nuts on Rosh Hashanah. In the year 5784, I was answered by the rabbi’s Beit Hora’ah that one should not bring a whole coconut to the table, but ground coconut is permitted, because its name has changed. I have now seen that botanically, coconut is not a nut but a drupe, like a peach, olive, mango, and cherry, and only in everyday language is it called a “coconut nut” because of its hard shell. According to this, does the custom to refrain from nuts on Rosh Hashanah also apply to coconut, or may one be lenient regarding it?
Answer
Hello and blessings
The reason is that in practice it is called a “nut,” and the rationale of the custom that was written—that the Hebrew word egoz has the same numerical value as chet, “sin”—applies to it.
