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Why Am I Named After An Insect?


Yes, devorah is Hebrew for bee. It's also the name of two great women mentioned in the Torah. The first was the nursemaid of our matriarch Rebecca. The most famous Devorah, however, was Devorah the Prophetess, who judged and taught the Jewish nation for forty years (1107-1067 BCE). You can read more about Devorah here.

What is so special about a bee that these great women should be named after it? The Midrash1 says the Jewish people and the Torah are compared to bees in several ways; among them:

1) Just as bees swarm behind a leader,2 so too are the Jews led by the sages and prophets;

2) Just as the sting of the bee is bitterly painful yet its honey sweet, so too the Torah punishes those who disobey it, while granting sweet life to those who follow it;

3) Just as the nature of a bee is to collect pollen and nectar for others3, so do the Jews toil collecting Torah and mitzvot not for our own benefit but to give pleasure to our Father in heaven.

Nevertheless, writes the Maharsha, the fact that Devorah is also the name of an insect is also a reminder to its bearer to always remain humble.4

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FOOTNOTES
1.

Devarim Rabbah 1:6.

2.

Alternatively, the leadership mentioned in the Midrash may be a reference to the one queen bee in each hive.

3.

This is either a reference to the bees' work on behalf of the colony as a whole, or the fact that it collects though it knows that the owners of the hive will harvest the honey.

4.

See Talmud Megilah 14b, Maharsha, ad loc.


By Baruch S. Davidson   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Feb 4, 2010
the humble bumble bee
It's a beautiful name. For me, there was always something deeply wonderful about bees and I read Maeterlinck's The Children's Life of the Bee with interest and treasured this book. We do pun with the word "be" itself, because aurally the two words, "be" and "bee" are synonymous. To read about the bee, its life, about the way bees work together to make the honey, the organization, the communications among bees, is to be humbled in another way.

There are deep ongoing metaphoric connects. Things we can learn from these insects, and a story that is so much about the sting and the honey, being also about our very lives.
Posted By Ruth Housman, marshfield hills, ma

Posted: Feb 1, 2010
my name is devora, so this is especially nice 4 me! :)
Posted By devora



 


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