In Parshat Bo, in Perek Gimmel Pasuk Chet, Seforno explains that when it says ״זבת חלב ודבש״ it is referring to the land having a great amount of cattle, food of good quality, and land of nutrimental properties. What are other ways to interpret the significance of the specific words milk and honey when it says ״זבת חלב ודבש״?
The Pussuk which describes Eretz Yisrael as “A land flowing with milk and honey” conjured up a desirable picture in the heads of Bnei Yisrael. The Gemara in Ketubot interprets the phrase as a land with an overflowing amount of milk from the goats udders and a vast amount of honey from the fruitful dates and figs.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the sarna when the pasuk says the land was flowing with milk and honey the honey was not referring to the honey made by bees. Rather it is referring to honey from dates and is mentioned because it praises the agriculture of the land of Israel.
ReplyDeleteAvdiel Ben Levi says on learntorah.blogspot.com says honey and milk are known as “complete foods” in the medical community. Honey has essential minerals and vitamins that keep you living and help your immune system and milk has things inside which strengthens teeth, bones and muscles. Therefore, in a certain way honey strengthens your exterior and milk strengthens your interior. The torah also compares milk and honey by saying “honey drips from your lips…honey and milk lies under your tongue” (king Shlomo). King Shlomo equates the properties that go along with spiritually healing (with Torah) and the properties that go along with physically healing (with milk and honey). So by saying the Israel is a land of milk and honey it’s as if its saying that through this land Bnei Yesroel can spiritually and physically heal.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Jonathan Cohen says that this phrase used to describe Israel is a metaphor for Israel having "all good things"- Hashem's blessing and that the land was extremely fertile. The hebrew word for "flowing" comes from the hebrew word "zoov", meaning to flow or gush.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Posner mentions that some point out that Israel is called the land of flowing milk and honey because honey is kosher but it is produced by a non kosher animal. Similarly, milk is Kosher but it comes from a cow whose meat cannot be eaten together with milk. The goodness will sometimes come from the least expected places just like milk and honey.
ReplyDeleteNachmandies explains that the key word is "flowing". Trees grow many places, but only overflow with nectar when the land is especially fertile. Similarly livestock live in many different places but only flow with milk on a fertile pasture. A land flowing with milk and honey is a promise for fertile land.
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ReplyDeleteRabbi Posner points out that milk and honey are similar in the way that they both come from non kosher animals; yet they are kosher. By comparing the land to milk and honey, it teaches us, that the goodness of Israel will come from places where it is least expected.
Chabad.org: The Midrash explains that milk symbolizes superior quality, richness of taste, and nourishment. Honey represents sweetness. The and of milk and honey shows that Israel is both nourishing and pleasant.
ReplyDeleteLiat:
ReplyDeleteParshat Bo question 4
Eretz Zivat Chalav Udivash literally means a flowing with milk and honey. Milk implies cattle and livestock, an abundance of animals, honey in the context of the seven species of Israel refers to date honey which is an oozey syrupy substance. The idea of anything flowing promotes and image of wealth and plenty since its not a trickle or a small amount but an abundance of substance. Milk and honey specifically are liquids. And in Sefer Divarim, Egypt is described as a land that depends on the flow of water from the Nile. Describing the land of Israel as a land flowing with milk and honey is twice as enriched as Egypt its flowing with liquids that are richer than water and the reason that it can flow with milk from animals and syrup from dates is because the animals and the plants are nourished by water otherwise they wouldn't be able to produce the milk or the honey.