Life in the hive: "When you look at the bees you remember that there is order in the universe" | Israel today

"As with any deep being, so it is with the bees. You have to learn to observe them. An inhabitant from another planet who would see humans walking slowly down the streets, clustering around certain buildings or certain squares, waiting in the depths of their houses, it is not clear exactly why, and without any visible movement , he would also conclude that they are still and miserable. Time is needed to decipher the multiple activity hidden in this stagnation."

These lines are taken from "The Life of the Bees", written in 1901 by Maurice Maeterlinck, playwright and Nobel laureate essayist.

This is not a scientific book;

It does not contain a summary of the current research at the time.

It was written from a naked, attentive and patient observation of the bustling activity of the beehive, which Maeterlinck was first exposed to as a child, when his father raised bees in the village where he grew up in Belgium.

Maeterlinck observes the worker bees, who sacrifice their bodies out of inexplicable self-forgetfulness for the sake of the queen and her children, and thinks of the human workers, who are also afflicted with a "false consciousness" as they continue their work despite class differences.

He contemplates the one and only act of love of the Virgin Queen, and ponders the generosity of nature which has given us the privileges of love, but has shriveled the organs of its realization.

He observes the lives of idleness and luxury of the gluttonous males, who are interrupted by a terrible slaughter carried out by the engaged women workers, and finds in their lives a cruel drama dripping with revolutionary fervor.

Hatching bees that will join the workforce in the hive, photo: Oren Cohen

"Surprisingly, despite the scientific progress since the book was written, almost everything he described from the life of the beehive is scientifically based," says Moore Cadishzon, who translated it into Hebrew and added an afterword and notes that describe some of the latest discoveries found in the research.

This is not the first translation of "The Life of the Bees" into Hebrew: in the 1960s, the book was translated by Haim Abrabaya, but according to Cadishzon, despite its beauty, its language has become obsolete and distanced itself from the French original, which remains accessible despite its poetry.

"The French text cruises through a kind of daydream, and I wanted to transfer this cruise to Hebrew."

Cadishzon herself came to the translation of "The Life of the Bees" as part of a wider research project on bees, which also includes a forthcoming book.

"I heard that there was a problem with the bees, and as someone who came from the world of homeopathy, I knew that in disease and epidemics the problem is not only in the symptoms, but it is a bigger problem. I realized that there is a wider mosaic here than is visible to the eye. I wanted to meet them, so I started sitting next to a beehive. And as soon as you sit down in front of The bees, it's hard to remain indifferent to their presence."

Is this admiration for the hidden order of the beehive?

"It starts from this hidden order. Even in front of the closed box of the beehive, your imagination works. You see the geometry of the honeycomb, and it already activates the imagination. When you look at the bees, you remember that there is order in the universe, that the earth is inside an array of stars that get along in a miraculous way that we He is not fully understood. Physicists and chemists know that the world is shaped by deep geometry - at the entrance to Plato's school there was a sign: 'Only geometricians can enter.'

"Another thing you see from looking at a hive is the cooperation. From the moment they are born, the bees fulfill a series of roles: art that takes care of the larvae and pupae, cleans, guards, collects nectar. Collecting the nectar is the last task of their lives, because it is terribly abrasive, their wings are completely destroyed when they Returning home with heavy 'baskets' - clumps of pollen that stick to their feet.

"When you see this, you realize that the beehive is a being that is first and foremost characterized by brotherhood. We live in a time of hyper-individualism, which has somewhat cut us off from our community and the fact that we are intertwined in mutual relationships, whether we like it or not. The bees remind us of that."

Cadishzon placed two beehives in the yard of her home in the community settlement of the deaf, and began to watch the bees - alone and with her daughters.

"I'm not a beekeeper. I didn't collect honey, I didn't open them. My intention was to write about the human imagination in front of the beehive, and I thought it would make sense to sit in front of a beehive myself so that my research would be complete."

In the process, she was exposed to a wide range of beekeepers in Israel.

"In some commercial hives, the bees are fed sugar water and treated with antibiotics. Sometimes leaves are moved from hive to hive to strengthen weak areas, which goes against the idea that a hive is one body.

"Sometimes they also change queens: queens are the heart of the hive, and since we are all obsessed with genetic improvement, beekeepers also want to strengthen their hives with queens from strong families. Then they don't understand why the immune system of the bees is much weaker than before, and they are more vulnerable to parasites.

Bees work on a honeycomb.

Kadishzon: "There is no one who raises bees and does not love them", photo: Oren Cohen

"On the other hand, in natural bees, we make sure to leave them the desired amount of honey, and do not interfere too much in their natural processes, such as the settlement - when the old queen retires from the hive with about two-thirds of her queens and they look for a new home.

"Such beekeepers are very particular about the materials of the hive, which should be made of straw or wood. There are also those who put zootcrabs in the hive - small, scorpion-like spiders that live in the hive and feed on the varroa parasite that bothers the bees. There are beekeepers who find it important to come to the hive naked, not in a combat outfit , like swordsmen, and there are those who caress bees with their bare hands.

"As in any microcosm, the variety of beekeepers is great and opinions differ, but you have to remember that the common denominator of all is the love for bees. There is no one who raises bees and does not love them."

Why did you stop raising bees yourself?

"I realized that the natural bee movement - like the 'Me Too' movement, which is respected in its place but does not do the best for the relationship between men and women - does try to heal a difficult history, but is taking us to extremes. I began to question, for example, if our concern for honey bees does not come At the expense of the wild bees, which no one cares about.

Bees making honey, photo: Oren Cohen

"Always when we humans start interfering, we move things out of place, so I was flooded with questions and wanted to take a break. I also realized that my house, which is in the middle of a forest, is probably not an ideal place for raising bees, because there aren't many flowers in it. It's also cold and rainy there in the winter , and this forced me to intervene more than I wanted, for example I had to arrange isolation or shelter for them, and sometimes I would feed them."

in honey?

Mor Cadishzon, photo: Private

"Yes. When they couldn't go out because of the rain. The cold doesn't have to be a problem for the bees, but it was a swarm that I didn't know what its origin was, maybe it was settled from some commercial hive, and I saw that I had to be very attentive. It confused me, it landed on me a cloud of sad thoughts Then one day a whole hive disappeared, like in the stories, and I saw it as a sign."

How did you know it wasn't a settlement?

"In a colony, bees are left in the hive for the next generation, who will continue to build and be built. On the other hand, one of the interesting phenomena in 'Colony Collapse Disorder' is that they leave behind the honey, the glory of the hive. It broke my heart."

Why do you think they left?

"I don't know. It's a big question, where do the bees disappear to. Nor do you find dead bees in or around the hive, which would indicate disease. Millions are invested in research, and many answers have been arrived at, but the bottom line is still unknown."

Maeterlinck has a phrase, "the beehive spirit", which in his eyes is the secret and intelligent force that enslaves even the queen herself.

"We live in a time that is getting further and further away from the immeasurable things. My first encounter with the bees moved me very much, and Maeterlinck gave it words. You cannot explain what a soul is, but when you have several children at home you know what a soul is. You see that each of the children comes with Its own spirit. The same thing with the beehive. You can try to define it in many words, each of which is silly in itself, but when you sit in front of the beehive - you see what it is all about."

shishabat@israelhayom.co.il

The cover of the book "Life of the Bees",

Maurice Maeterlinck, "The Life of the Bees",

translated by: Moore Kadisson, Babylon, 262 p.

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