A Locked Garden and How Israel Guarded Their Purity in Egypt

"A locked garden is my sister, my bride; a locked spring, a sealed fountain" (Song of Songs 4:12). Rabbi Judah bar Simon in the name of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi gave a parable: To a king who had grown daughters and had not managed to marry them off, and he went off to a country across the sea. The daughters arose and saw to themselves and married men, and each one took her husband's signet and his seal. After some days the king came back from across the sea and heard the voice of people slandering his daughters, saying that the king's daughters had been promiscuous. What did he do? He issued a proclamation: Let everyone come out to the parade ground. He called his first son-in-law and said to him, Who are you? He said, I am your son-in-law. He brought out the signet and said, Whose is this? He said, Mine. He brought out the seal and said, Whose is this? He said, Mine. And so with the second, and so with the third. The king said: My daughters saw to themselves and married, and you say the king's daughters were promiscuous! So too: because the nations of the world taunted Israel, saying to them that they were the children of the Egyptians — for they had ruled over the bodies of Israel, all the more so over their wives — Rabbi Hoshaya said: At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, called to the angel appointed over conception and said to him: Go and form for Me the shape of the child in the likeness of its fathers. This is what is written, "of Reuben, the family of the Reubenites; of Simeon, the family of the Simeonites" (compare Numbers 26:7, 14). Rabbi Marinus son of Rabbi Hoshaya said: like a man who says, my son, my likeness, my image. Rabbi Iddi said: the letter heh at the head of the word [Ha-Reubeni] and the letter yod at its end — Yah testifies concerning them that they are the children of their fathers. And what is the reason? "For there the tribes went up, the tribes of Yah, a testimony for Israel" (Psalms 122:4) — that they are the children of their fathers. Another interpretation: "A locked garden is my sister, my bride, a locked spring" (Song of Songs 4:12) — these are the virgins; "a locked spring" — these are the married women; "a sealed fountain" — these are the males. It was taught in the name of Rabbi Nathan: "a locked garden, a locked spring," twice, [guarded] in the natural way and in an unnatural way. Rabbi Hunia in the name of Rabbi Hiyya bar Ba: Sarah went down to Egypt and fenced herself off from immorality, and all the women were fenced off by her merit. Rabbi Hiyya bar Ba said: It was worthy enough that he who fences off immorality for himself, that Israel should be redeemed by his merit. Rabbi Huna in the name of Bar Kappara said: By the merit of four things Israel was redeemed from Egypt — that they did not change their names, that they did not change their language, that there was no slander among them, and that there was no licentiousness among them. They did not change their names: Reuben and Simeon went down, Reuben and Simeon came up. They did not change their language: "for it is my mouth that speaks to you" (Genesis 45:12), and he spoke in the holy tongue. There was no slander among them: "Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask" (Exodus 11:2) — you find that the matter was entrusted to them a full twelve months and not one of them was found who informed on his fellow. There was no licentiousness among them: know that this is so, for there was one woman and Scripture publicized her, "and his mother's name was Shelomith bat Dibri of the tribe of Dan" (Leviticus 24:11). Rabbi Pinhas in the name of Rabbi Hiyya bar Ba: By the merit that Israel went down to Egypt and fenced themselves off from immorality, by that merit "your shoots" (Song of Songs 4:13) — your being sent forth [reread as your release]. Therefore it is said, "And it came to pass when Pharaoh let the people go."