Another matter: “Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates [shelaḥayikh]” – the Holy One blessed be He is destined to transform your desolation [sheluḥayikh] into a pomegranate orchard in the future. What is that? It is the stream, as it is written: “Along the stream upon its bank…and its leaf for healing” (Ezekiel 47:12). What is “for healing [litrufa]”?
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: It is for a laxative [litrafyon]; one sucks its leaves and his food will be expelled. Rav and Shmuel: one said it is to open the upper mouth, and one said the lower mouth.153Litrufa is a portmanteau of lehatir peh, to open the mouth. Rabbi Ḥanina and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi:154Their two opinions correspond to the opinions of Rav and Shmuel. one said: To open the mouth of the mute, and one said: To open the mouth of barrenness.