QUESTION: Why do bees sting?
ANSWER: It’s a great chessed. Bees are gizbarim of Hashem, they’re in charge of the honey. If anybody could come along and take the honey, there wouldn’t be any left for us. All the animals know that the bees sting. And therefore, they keep away from the honey. The sting of the bees is a miracle.
You know that when a bee stings it dies. It stings and leaves the sting in your body. And it flies away with at least part of its body open, and it dies. So, you can’t sting twice, it’s a miracle. A bee can’t sting twice. But it has to sting.
It’s like a man working in the street, and is working for the gas company. He takes off the lid and there is a hole in the ground. Watch Out! Men at work. He has to uncover that hole.
The bee is the men at work, it stings. He is at work for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he is supposed to sting. Keep away from the bees, that’s all. You can’t blame the bee for stinging.
But the Queen Bee can sting and sting and remain alive. The Queen Bee can sting and sting and remain alive. Because the Queen Bee has to be able to protect herself more than the other bees. She is the one that makes all the babies, the Queen Bee. And she stings again and again, and doesn’t die.
You see the Yad Hashem. So now you know why bees sting, to learn the Chochmas Hashem in the Briyah. That’s one of the things that we say, Melo Chol Haaretz Kevodo.
Reprinted from a recent email of Toras Avigdor based on a question asked to Rav Avigdor Miller in March of 1999..