Sustain Me With Apples and the Soul Sick for Torah

Rabbi Isaac opened: "Sustain me with raisin-cakes, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love" (Song of Songs 2:5). "Sustain me with cakes [ashishot]" means with two fires [ishot]: with the fire of Abraham and with the fire of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Another interpretation: "Sustain me with fires" means with two fires, with the fire of Moriah and with the fire of the bush. Another interpretation: "Sustain me with cakes" refers to the well-established laws. "Refresh me with apples" refers to the words of Torah, whose fragrance is good as apples. "For I am sick with love." Rabbi Isaac said: Formerly, when the coin was readily found, a person would crave a word of Mishnah and a word of Talmud; but now that the coin is not readily found, and especially since we are sick from the kingdoms, a person craves to hear a word of Scripture and a word of Aggadah. Another interpretation: "For I am sick with love." Rabbi Levi said: It is like a king's son who rose from his illness. His tutor said, "Let him go off to school." The king said, "The radiance of my son has not yet returned from his illness, and he is to go off to school? Rather, let my son be indulged two or three months with food and drink, and afterward he will go off to school." So too, when Israel went out from Egypt, they were fit to receive the Torah, but there were among them those with blemishes from the bondage of mortar and bricks. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: The radiance of My children has not yet returned from the bondage of mortar and bricks, and they are to receive the Torah? Rather, let My children be indulged two or three months with the well and the manna and the quail, and afterward they will receive the Torah. When? "In the third month" (Exodus 19:1).