What’s the buzz about dates versus honey?

Honey is “big” over Rosh Hashanah. From being a symbol of a “sweet” new year, to actually being the viscous fluid that you dunk apples in and then wonder how you’re going to get it off your fingers, it has an outsized presence at the table.

But consuming bee honey seems to be a relatively “new” and a particularly Ashkenazic practice that commenced only with the Maharil (Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin in Germany) around 1500, according to Q&A site Mi Yodea. Perhaps it’s because that was what was available in the areas in which Jews lived at the time – northern Europe. Ancient Israelites, on the other hand, were more likely to get their sweetness from dates.

“The Hebrew word for ‘honey’ [dvash] means more than just the ambrosial product we borrow from bees. In antiquity, it meant the sweet juice of almost any fruit,” says an article in Ha’aretz. It refers to the fact that in the Torah, the term is juxtaposed with all the other agricultural products grown in the field.

“That explains how honey was included in the ‘seven species’ of the land of Israel: ‘wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey’. (Deut. 8:8). Since honey is obviously not a plant like the other six, scholars believe the reference was to the sweet viscous fluid of dates.”

In fact, according to Rabbi Julie Zulpan, writing in JewishBoston, the description of the land in the Book of Exodus promised by G-d to the Jewish people: “A good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey”, refers to goat’s milk – and could even refer to white wine – and date syrup, not cow’s milk and bee honey, although there’s archaeological evidence of a bee-keeping industry in ancient Israel as well.

“Rashi tells us that it means the land is so lush that the goats grazing will be extremely plump, and the milk of the new goat mothers will leak causing a literal flowing of milk. And the dates will be so sweet and full that streams of honey flow from under the date trees,” Mi Yodea writes on this subject.

On the other hand, the rest of Tanach clearly alludes to bee honey, associating the term specifically with bees and honeycomb. Some examples include, “When Samson walked past the carcass of a lion he had killed earlier, in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along.” And, “In Psalm 19, David says that the decrees of the Lord are ‘sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb’.”

But maybe the phrase “land flowing with milk and honey” doesn’t actually refer to any literal agricultural products at all – or even to a particular geographic area – but to achieving a greater spiritual connection in the promised land.

And it’s in this symbolic realm where bee honey is more “on the money”. According to Mi Yodea, commentators on Jewish law write that bee’s honey is more aligned to judgement and renewal – bees sting, but they also produce sweet honey.

Date honey also generally doesn’t take much effort to obtain as the nectar often flows out of the fruit and coats each one with a sweet and sticky outer layer. Honey, on the other hand, takes a lot of work, organisation, and protection of the hive to make, which may be more attuned to the symbolism of what we are actually seeking in the new year: a successful life achieved through hard work, determination, and some pain, rather than something merely easy and pleasant.

Of course, there’s the question why bee honey is kosher in the first place if it’s made by bees, which aren’t kosher.

According to the Gemarah, honey is kosher since it’s not an actual secretion of the bee; the bee functions only as a carrier and facilitator. But we now know that bees have enzymes which break down the nectar to turn it into honey.

This is a much debated topic, but the bottom line, it seems, is that honey has been decreed kosher through Talmudic exegesis.

Ultimately, if it’s a toss-up between using honey and date syrup, dates win hands down when it comes to health benefits.

A tablespoon of date syrup contains more than twice the potassium, calcium, and magnesium levels of maple syrup or honey, with up to 10 times the antioxidants.

Honey has less fibre, copper, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, iron, and vitamin B3 than dates, and dates cover your daily need of fibre 31% more than honey.

The pectin in date skins is full of fibre, and has antioxidant and antidiabetic properties, according to ScienceDirect.com

So, this holiday, you may choose to go dark with dates for a golden new year.