be the word for "fat" (, chelev), and the word for honey (, devash) could indicate not bees' honey but a sweet syrup made from fruit. The expression evoked a general sense of the bounty of the land and suggested an ecological richness exhibited in a number of ways, not just with milk and honey. MacDonald noted that the expression was always used to describe a land that the people of Israel had not yet experienced, and thus characterized it as always a future expectation. Ephraim Speiser wrote that the word "Torah" () is based on a verbal stem signifying "to teach, guide," and the like, and the derived noun can carry a variety of meanings. Speiser argued that when the noun is applied to God in , its connotation is broadened to embrace a cherished way of life, but cannot be mistaken for the title of the Pentateuch as a whole. Jacob Milgrom taught that the verbs used in the laws of the redemption of a firstborn son (pidyon haben) in and and , "natan, kiddesh, he'evir to the Lord," as well as the use of padah, "ransom," indicate that the firstborn son was considered God's property. Milgrom surmised that this may reflect an ancient rule where the firstborn was expected to care for the burial and worship of his deceased parents. Thus the Bible may preserve the memory of the firstborn bearing a sacred status, and the replacement of the firstborn by the Levites in , 40–51; and may reflect the establishment of a professional priestly class. Milgrom dismissed as without support the theory that the firstborn was originally offered as a sacrifice. In April 2014, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism ruled that women are now equally responsible for observing commandments as men have been. Under this ruling, Jewish mothers are thus equally responsible for the covenantal naming of their daughters and redemption of their first-born sons and daughters (as called for in and 13–15) as fathers are. Terence Fretheim argued that give a special twist to the issue of the firstborn, teaching that Israel was to be attentive to its firstborn because of the suffering of the Egyptian firstborn. Fretheim noted that does not mention the redeemed Israelite children of Passover night but the sacrificed Egyptian firstborn, followed by "Therefore." Fretheim thus argued that the firstborn belong to God not only because