On the Bitter and the Sweet
Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet was on BBC Radio 2 – “Pause for Thought”, this past Thursday Morning, 3 July 2025.
“Pause for Thought” is a much-loved segment on Radio 2 that brings voices from different faiths and perspectives to offer wisdom, stories, and moments of calm.
This is what he said:
‘The first time I succeeded in resuscitating a bee, what really surprised me is how quickly it went from catatonia to contently flying away. It is currently the season of exhausted, stranded bees— perhaps you’ve seen them on pavements or gardens near you — often looking at first glance to be dead, with only the faintest buzzing audible from their tired wings.
Every year I’ve told myself I should carry around some syrup to help. This year, with the encouragement of my son, a budding naturalist, I actually put a little vial of sugar water on my keychain. So far I’ve only had cause to use it a few times; often we’re too late and the bees have died, and once we misinterpreted two bumblebees mating, uninterested in our refreshments.
Being on Bee Rescue every time I leave the house has made me reconsider my relationship with these little creatures. Having been stung very badly after disrupting a wasps nest when I was very young, I’ve always kept my distance and given bees a considerable buffer. But that is impossible when you need to revive one – you must get extremely close. Touching, holding – up against the fuzzy vibrating body, stinger and all.
There’s an Israeli folk song which is so universally beloved it has essentially entered the repertoire of traditional Jewish music called Al Kol Eleh. The song is a prayer – asking for god’s blessing and protection, and it starts in an unlikely place:
“Every bee that brings the honey
Needs a sting to be complete
And we all must learn to taste
the bitter along with the sweet.”
This poetic translation doesn’t do justice to the Hebrew’s startling simplicity. That first line – al haDevash veal haOketz – on the honey and on the sting – has become a widespread aphorism reflecting the Jewish approach to life. We bless the honey with the sting, accept the bitter with the sweet, embrace the complexity of life and find the divine presence in all its dimensions. I’ll probably never feel entirely comfortable picking up a bee and intimately nursing it back to full strength, but as long as I’m carrying around syrup for it’s sake, I’ll be humming those words to myself — on the honey and on the sting, on the bitter and the sweet, on all these I ask for god’s blessing and protection.’
