TB Bekhorot 7b If bees are not kosher, why is honey kosher?

The Mishnah on daf TB Bekhorot 5b teaches a very important kashrut law. “that which emerges from the non-kosher animal is non-kosher and that which emerges from the kosher animal is kosher.” (Sefaria.org translation) We can logically deduce that camel’s milk isn’t kosher because a camel isn’t a kosher animal and cow’s milk is because a cow is a kosher animal.

The Gemara asks and then answers despite the fact that a bee isn’t a kosher animal is honey is kosher for our consumption. “For what reason did the Sages say that the honey of bees is permitted? It is because they bring the nectar from the flowers into their body, but they do not excrete it from their body as a bodily excretion.” (daf 7b, Sefaria.org translation)

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz explains:

“…bees don’t make honey the same way that animals make milk or eggs, i.e., it’s not a product of their bodies. Rather, they make honey the way that you or I might make bread or a cake, i.e., by taking the necessary ingredients and processing them. 

“Honey is made from flower nectar, which is kosher. Bees don’t digest the nectar, they just mix it with saliva and store it in their honey sacs. In the hive, the bee regurgitates the honey, where it’s sealed in the honeycombs. Bees don’t secrete honey; you can squeeze bees all day long and you won’t get a drop. (Note: Don’t squeeze bees all day long.)

“There is a second opinion in the gemara that honey is permitted because of an inference from Leviticus 11:20: we may not eat non-kosher winged insects but we may eat the product of a non-kosher winged insect, specifically bee honey. This dissenting position only disagrees as to why honey is kosher; no one disagrees that honey is kosher.

“Royal jelly is different. Royal jelly is a secretion from glands in the bee. Unlike honey, royal jelly is a real product of the bee, and is therefore generally considered to be unkosher. One must also be careful of unfiltered honey that contains bee parts, which are not kosher. Honey could also be sold with non-kosher additives. It is therefore advisable to look for honey with appropriate kosher supervision.” (https://jewinthecity.com/2022/09/why-is-honey-kosher-if-bees-are-not/)

Bee honey is mentioned in the Bible several times, but “never is there an implication that it is a cultivated product. Apiculture developed many centuries later and is referred to in the time it. The ‘Biblical’ bees were wild bees, the honey they produced was considered public property. Anyone finding honey was free to eat his fill:

‘If you find honey, eat only what you need,
Lest, surfeiting yourself, you throw it up.’ Proverbs 25:16

‘Returning the following year to marry her, he (Samson)  turned aside to look at the remains of the lion; and in the lion’s skeleton he found a swarm of bees, and honey. He scooped it into his palms and ate it as he went along. When he rejoined his father and mother, he gave them some and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey out of a lion’s skeleton.’ (Judges 14:8-9)

‘Everybody (Saul’s army) came to a stack of beehives where some honey had spilled on the ground. When the troops came to the beehives and found the flow of honey there, no one put his hand to his mouth, for the troops feared the oath.’ (I Samuel 14:25-26)” (Nogah HarreuveniHareuveni, Nature in Our Biblical Heritage, page 12)

Interesting rabbinic tradition, Rashi, and other commentators identify the honey in the Bible as date honey or what is known as silan today and not bee honey.

Part of the Israelite declaration when handing his firstfruits to the kohen, he says: “Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.” (Deuteronomy 26:15) “This refers to dates” (Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 1:3)

“So, when GOD has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which was sworn to your fathers to be given you, a land flowing with milk and honey…” Text (Exodus 13:5) Rashi: “זבת חלב ודבש FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY — milk flows from the goats and honey flows from the dates and from the figs.”