How is Honey Kosher?

Honey season has begun. Citrus honey, which blooms in early spring, has already been harvested from the hives a couple of months ago. In contrast, eucalyptus honey, which blooms in late spring, will be harvested in a few weeks. Incidentally, since eucalyptus groves are generally not sprayed, eucalyptus honey, which is naturally darker, is considered organic.

Sometimes when someone wants to express a lack of desire to maintain a relationship with a certain entity, such as the authorities, as mentioned in Avot (Chapter 2 Mishnah 3): "Be cautious with those in power; they only draw one close for their own needs. They appear to be friends when it benefits them, but they do not stand by a person in their time of need", you might hear them use the well-known phrase: "Neither from their honey, nor from their sting" to express the wish to avoid both receiving benefits from them and any obligations toward them.

Regarding the bee, the reality is quite different: we want the honey and not the sting. Yet, a significant question arises: it is a known rule that whatever comes from something impure is impure, and whatever comes from something pure is pure. In dietary laws, what comes from animals permitted for consumption, such as sheep's milk, is allowed; but what comes from non-kosher animals, like lioness milk, is forbidden. So, how is bee honey allowed for consumption, absolutely and indisputably, as accepted and practiced by the Jewish people for generations, while the bee itself is considered an unclean creature, forbidden to eat?! [Even if we assume that since the honey originates from flower nectar, which is permitted, so is the honey - this cannot be said; since though the honey originates from nectar, it undergoes a chemical process in the bee's body through enzymes and is transformed - it's no longer nectar, neither in name nor in properties, and the question remains.]

With technological advancement, science has also progressed, and the mystery unraveled, revealing the sting in the honey. In the last generation, science discovered that bees have two stomachs:

The first - the true stomach, is the food stomach, like all other animals. The second - the honey stomach, where nectar is collected, undergoing a chemical process with enzymes from the bee's body, transforming into honey. Amazingly, upon completing the honey production process, all the enzymes secreted into the honey stomach disappear as if they never existed. Just as the nectar was pure before the process, the honey remains free from any bee-derived elements, explaining why it is kosher. Then arises another question: How did the Jewish people know thousands of years ago that honey contains nothing forbidden? Did Moses have an advanced biochemical lab over 3,300 years ago?!

The answer: Certainly Moses wasn't a researcher; the source of all his knowledge is the Creator of the Worlds, blessed be His name, who told Moses: "This is how I created it". Moses, the faithful shepherd, passed this information on, as he received it from Hashem, exactly as written in Avot (Chapter 1 Mishnah 1): "Moses received the Torah from Sinai and passed it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, etc."

Another question: What depth does Torah knowledge have on this topic? Is it superficial, meaning that the information regarding the kosher nature of bee honey was passed on as a mere fact [despite the great wonder involved]? Or was the information accompanied by an explanation?

The answer: The knowledge that bee honey is kosher was given with an explanation. The source is found in the words of Rabbeinu Abraham Ibn Ezra [about nine hundred years ago], who answered a questioner on this exact matter. Bee honey is kosher for consumption, although it emerges from a non-kosher being [despite the nectar undergoing change and transforming in the bee's body into honey] because none of the substances from the bee remain traceable in the honey. Yet in his magnificent genius, Ibn Ezra responded with a magic puzzle, which is as follows:

His response: "We explained, the craving in the honey was removed and burned". Meaning, the substance [forbidden for consumption] from the bee's body, called "craving", which enters the honey [and hence called in his words "the craving in the honey"] - disappears, leaving nothing in the honey. Amazing, not only is the content of the answer incredibly surprising, proving the superiority of Torah scholars over scientists in natural wisdom; on inspection, this puzzle can be read uniformly in four directions, a genius feat in itself. Indeed, this is the wisdom of the Torah of Israel and its early sages - like angels.