משך חכמה — כל שאור וכל דבש... קרבן ראשית

Q — Why are grapes inferior to their derivative (wine, offered on the altar) while figs are SUPERIOR to their derivative (honey, unfit even for bikkurim)?

A — The two fruits map onto two states of Klal Yisrael (per Hoshea 9:10): IDEALLY, parents are like grapes — and the next generation, like the wine that emerges from them, surpasses them; but the reality the navi laments is the fig-and-honey relation — the children are LESS than their parents, because the parents failed to teach them Torah and yirah. Spiritual ירידת הדורות falls on the heads of the parents.