The Hebrew word for dates (tamar) does not appear in the Biblical verse where HaShem lists the special fruits of the Land of Israel . Instead the verse mentions honey , and Moses informs us that this is not bee honey but date honey. The image of ripened dates oozing thick brown honey suggests a kind of self-transcendence. In the beginning, the transcendent light was too “sweet” for creation to bear, so it was withdrawn and concealed. Now, at the end of the ten-stage sequence of creation, it seeps back in, as the bountiful produce of the rectified world. The individual dates with their distinct shapes now dissolve into a mass of sweetness, as if merging back into the “One” that was their source. Thus dates relate to the sefira of Mastery (Malchut), for this is the final stage in the unfolding of worlds, where the kingdom of heaven finally dwells, fully embodied, in the earthly realm, as God's oneness shines unobstructed through the physical plane.