Q&A: Eating Honey and Karaite Interpretation
Eating Honey and Karaite Interpretation
Question
Hello Rabbi Michael,
Following the reading of this week’s Torah portion about the prohibition of eating creeping things and the like, I was reminded of a question a Karaite soldier asked me in the army. He quoted the verse in our portion that forbids eating a winged swarming thing with four legs:
“And every winged swarming thing that has four legs is detestable to you” (Leviticus 11:23),
and argued that according to this, it would seemingly be permitted to eat a bee, since it has six legs and not four.
According to him, this explains the well-known question of why it is permitted to eat honey.
(Here is a Wikipedia link showing that a bee indeed has six legs:
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%93%D7%91%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%93%D7%91%D7%A9 )
I looked into the words of the Sages and the commentators, and his question only became stronger, because I saw that Rabbi’s opinion in Sifrei on this verse is indeed that one can infer from the repetition in the verses in the passage that indeed, “if it has five, it is pure” (specifically five and not six?!)
It is indeed obvious to me that if there is a tradition prohibiting its consumption throughout all the generations, and in all the exiles no dispute about this ever arose (as far as I know), then it is indeed forbidden. The question is only how this fits with the plain meaning of the verse, and what we should answer to the heretic (and to ourselves).
Answer
It is unlikely that this is just an oversight, since all insects have six legs. See here:
http://www.daat.ac.il/he-il/kitveyet/bisde_hemed/vayikra11-sfekot.htm
Winged swarming things
With regard to winged swarming things, signs of purity were given, and four pure kinds were also listed by name: locust, bald locust, cricket, and grasshopper. As for these names, some say they indicate different species, while others say they refer to four stages in the development of the locust, and it is difficult to decide.
The wording of the verse, “Every winged swarming thing that has four legs,” is, at first glance, puzzling. It is well known that insects have six legs, and for this reason this class is also called “Hexapoda” (six-legged). The Sages tried to resolve the contradiction in various somewhat strained ways. In my humble opinion, however, the Torah intended only walking legs, and did not include the third pair, which in insects often serves special functions: digging, jumping, swimming in water, and the like. Support for this hypothesis may be found in what is said in verse 21: “which has jointed legs above its feet, with which to leap upon the earth”—”feet” (walking legs) are one thing, and “jointed legs” (jumping legs) are another. “Above its feet” means, in my view, that they rise above, higher than the other two pairs of legs, which are the walking legs as mentioned above.
This is indeed an old question, but it is a strong difficulty and there is an excellent answer to it, so for the benefit of whoever gets here:
Later in the verses it says, “which has four legs … up to every many-legged creature,” and the whole difficulty falls away.