Rav Yoel Bin Nun, "The Meaning of Shavuot and its Unique Offering" http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/shavuot/shav69-ybn.htm
Rabbi David Golinkin, "Shavuot: Torah as Sweet as Honey"
The Lubavitcher Rebbe
(11) More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
"Indeed, the Rebbe notes that honey is truly the culmination of all the species preceding it. Date trees take a long time to grow, symbolizing the effort we must make during exile, while the sweet honey symbolizes the spiritual fruits that we will enjoy in the messianic era as a result of that effort."
(11) No meal-offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven; for ye shall make no leaven, nor any honey, smoke as an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
(2) that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which thou shalt bring in from thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee; and thou shalt put it in a basket and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there.
...one could ostensibly dip into a thousand year old jar of honey and enjoy it, without preparation, as if it were a day old. Moreover, honey’s longevity lends it other properties-mainly medicinal–that other resilient foods don’t have. Which raises the question–what exactly makes honey such a special food?
Honey in its natural form is very low moisture. Very few bacteria or microorganisms can survive in an environment like that, they just die. They’re smothered by it, essentially.
Honey is also naturally extremely acidic. “It has a pH that falls between 3 and 4.5, approximately, and that acid will kill off almost anything that wants to grow there,” Harris explains. So bacteria and spoil-ready organisms must look elsewhere for a home–the life expectancy inside of honey is just too low."
When the bees regurgitate the nectar from their mouths into the combs to make honey, this enzyme mixes with the nectar, breaking it down into two by-products: gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. “Then,” Harris explains, “hydrogen peroxide is the next thing that goes into work against all these other bad things that could possibly grow.”
For this reason, honey has been used for centuries as a medicinal remedy. Because it’s so thick, rejects any kind of growth and contains hydrogen peroxide, it creates the perfect barrier against infection for wounds."
הורדוס עבדא דבית חשמונאי הוה. נתן עיניו באותה תינוקת. יומא חד שמע ההוא גברא בת קלא דאמר: "כל עבדא דמריד השתא מצלח." קם קטלינהו לכולהו מרותיה ושיירה לההיא ינוקתא. כי חזת ההיא ינוקתא דקא בעי למינסבה סליקא לאיגרא ורמא קלא. אמרה: "כל מאן דאתי ואמר מבית חשמונאי קאתינא עבדא הוא" דלא אישתיירא מינייהו אלא ההיא ינוקתא וההיא ינוקתא נפלה מאיגרא לארעא. טמנה שבע שנין בדובשא.
Herod was a slave of the House of Hasmonai. He laid eyes on a certain young girl. Once he heard a heavenly voice proclaim: Any slave rebels (now) against his master will succeed. He went and murdered all the members of his masters’ household, but spared the girl. When she realized that he intended to marry her she climbed up to the roof and cried: “Whoever says: I am (a descendent) of the House of Chashmonai is a slave,” since none of them were spared save for one girl, and that girl threw herself off the roof. For seven years (Herod) preserved her body in honey.
It is the custom of our ancestors that they bring children to learn [for the first time] on Shavout since the Torah was given then. At sunrise on Shavout, they bring the children, in keeping with the verse “as morning dawned, there was thunder and lightning” (Exodus 19:16). And one covers the children with a cloak from their house to the synagogue or to the rabbis house, in keeping with the verse “and they stood underneath the mountain” (ibid., v. 17). And they put him on the lap of the rabbi who teaches them, in keeping with the verse “as a nurse carries an infant” (Numbers 11:12).
And they bring the slate upon which is written “Moses commanded us the Torah” (Deut. 33:4), “may the Torah be my occupation”, and “The Lord called to Moses” (Lev. 1:1). And the rabbi reads every letter of the alef-bet and the child repeats after him, and [the rabbi reads all of the above and the child repeats after him].
And the rabbi puts a little honey on the slate and the child licks the honey from the letters with his tongue.
(ואמר) רבי חנינא בר אידי למה נמשלו דברי תורה למים- דכתיב: "הוי כל צמא לכו למים" לומר לך מה מים מניחין מקום גבוה והולכין למקום נמוך, אף דברי תורה אין מתקיימין אלא במי שדעתו שפלה
Rabbi Hannina Bar Idi said "Why are words of Torah likened to water, as it is written "woe, all that are thirsty go to water (Isaiah 55:1)"? To say to you just as water descends from a high place to a low place, so to words of Torah endure only in someone whose mind is lowly.
שיר השירים רבה א: יט
משלו דברי תורה במים:
מה מים, מסוף העולם ועד סופו [=יש להם התחלה וסופם אינו נראה בעין],
כך תורה, מסוף העולם ועד סופו.
מה מים חיים לעולם,
כך תורה חיים לעולם.
מה מים מן השמים,
כך התורה מן השמים.
ומה המים מטהרים הגוף,
כך תורה מטהרת הגוף.
ומה המים יורדין טיפין-טיפין ונעשים נחלים-נחלים,
כך תורה: אדם לומד שתי הלכות היום ושתים למחר,
עד שנעשה כנחל נובע .
ומה מים אין אדם גדול מתבייש לומר לקטן: השקני מים,
כך דברי תורה אין הגדול מתבייש לומר לקטן:
למדני פרק אחד, דבר אחד, פסוק אחד, ואפילו אות אחת.
ומה מים כשאין אדם יודע לשוט בהם, סוף שהוא מתבלע [=טובע],
כך דברי תורה, אם אין אדם יודע לשוט בהן ולהורות בהן, סוף שהוא מתבלע.
Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1:19
Torah is compared to water:
Just as water runs from one end of the world to the other, (both their start and end cannot be seen with the eyes), so to Torah runs from one end of the world until the other.
Just as water is life in the world, so too Torah is life in the world.
Just as water is from the heavens, so too Torah is from the heavens.
Just as water purifies the body, so too Torah purifies the body.
Just as water falls drop by drop and slowly makes streams, so too with Torah: A person learns to Halachot today and two tomorrow, until it becomes like a flowing stream.
Just as with water a great person is not embarassed to say to a small person (or child) "Give me water", so too with words of Torah a Great man is not embarrassed to say to a child: "Teach me one perek, one teaching, one verse, even one letter."
And just as water with water if a person does not know how to navigate within them, in the end he will drown, so too if a person does not know how to navigate within Torah and teach it, in the end he will drown.