Judaism
Bee mindful
We dip into honey every New Year, never realizing the extraordinary kashrut conundrum it poses
August 23, 2018 15:03
We dip into honey every New Year, never realizing the extraordinary kashrut conundrum it poses
August 23, 2018 15:03There is an almost universal custom to begin the meal on Rosh Hashanah evening by dipping the challah into honey and then to follow with apple dipped in honey and the short prayer Yehi ratson milfanecho… May it be Your will… to renew for us a good and sweet year. Many continue with a variety of other special foods which symbolise sweetness, abundance and growth.
Undoubtedly, the custom is based on a Talmud passage (Horayos 12a). Abaye says: “Since symbols are significant, one should accustom oneself on Rosh Hashanah to eat gourd, fenugreek, leek, beet and dates”. Rashi comments: “Some of these grow abundantly and some are sweet — therefore they are positive symbols for the New Year”. The commentaries explain the practice should not to be seen as superstition, which is forbidden. Rather, as we find many times in Tenach, a symbolic act helps a heavenly decree to take effect.
Perhaps one might suggest, on a simpler level, that on the solemn Day of Judgement we want to ensure there is no dichotomy between shul and home. Rather we bring our tefillot home with us, back to the dining table. If we eat something sweet, we allow the taste to inspire us to pray: “Please God this should be a sweet year”. Even if the mere name of the food has a positive connotation (eg carrot which in Yiddish is merren, “increase”) we use it to trigger a prayer: “In the coming year may our merits increase”.
The custom of eating honey on Rosh Hashanah goes back many hundreds of years and, according to some sources, refers specifically to the honey made by bees, as opposed to, say, date honey (made by people!). Bees’ honey is a unique and fascinating substance and its production is truly one of the wonders of the world. To produce 1lb of honey, bees have to visit two million flowers and travel a distance equivalent to twice around the earth.
On their travels, the bees collect nectar, which they swallow and store in a body cavity — the crop or honeysac. Digestive enzymes, most importantly invertase, are added, which convert most of the sucrose in the nectar to glucose and fructose. Back in the hive, the bees regurgitate the nectar into honeycomb cells and, after a process of evaporation by rapid wing movement, honey is formed.
This raises the fascinating question: why is bee-honey kosher? Indeed the Talmud itself asks (Bechoros 7b): Why is it that bee-honey is permitted? Is there not a well-known rule: hayotse min hatomay — tomay: that which comes from a non-kosher source is itself non-kosher. And flying insects are the most non-kosher source of all. The Talmud records (Makkos 16b): “If one consumes waterborne insect life, one transgresses four prohibitions; insects that crawl on the ground, five prohibitions — but for flying insects, there are six prohibitions because of the extra verse referring specifically to winged insects”.
So the honeybee is the most non-kosher source there is and yet the honey it produces is kosher.
The reason is disputed. The Sages say (Bechoros 7b) it is merely a processing of nectar, not a production of a new substance. Rebi Yaakov learns however it is simply a gezeiras hakosuv, a decree of the Torah whose reason is unknown.
All halachists allow honey and beeswax; many allow propolis and beebread (made by bees from pollen, resin, beeswax and saliva and used in many homoeopathic medicines) and some even allow royal jelly (secreted by the bees from their mandibular glands) and honeydew honey (produced by bees not from nectar but from the secretions of aphids and scale insects).
Perhaps one might suggest Jewish tradition specifically selected the use of bees’ honey for Rosh Hashanah, rather than sugar, date honey or any other sweet substance, precisely because it comes from the most impure source and yet is kosher, healthy, sweet and delicious. Conceivably this is the perfect substance to represent teshuvah — repentance. Reish Lakish taught (Yoma 86b): “How great is teshuvah that even intentional sins are transformed into merits”. Or as Samson the Mighty put it in his famous riddle (Judges 14,9): “From the fierce came forth sweetness”. Even from transgression can come forth merit and the unique quality of honey, as pure from impure, is the ultimate representation of this.
The prayer …shetechadesh aleinu shana tova umesuka, then, is not just that the material blessings of the year ahead should be sweet but perhaps also a tefillah and a stimulus that we should merit through teshuvah, to transform all our transgressions into merits.
A shana tova umetuka to you all!
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