Your navel is a moon-shaped goblet wherein mixed wine is not lacking; your belly is a pile of wheat hedged with lilies (Song of Songs 7:3). “Your navel is a moon-shaped goblet.” “Your navel,” these are the Sanhedrin. Just as a baby, as long as it is in its mother’s womb, subsists only through its navel, so too Israel is unable to accomplish anything without their Sanhedrin.
“A moon-shaped [hasahar] goblet,” this is the round chamber of admonition.24This is a reference to the seat of the Sanhedrin, from which the Sanhedrin would issue rulings to Israel. The Sanhedrin would sit in a semi-circular structure (see Sanhedrin 36b). Avun bar Ḥisdai said: There are places that call and characterize the moon as sahara. “Wherein mixed wine is not lacking;” the Sanhedrin must not be any fewer than twenty-three.
Another matter, “wherein mixed wine is not lacking,” the Sanhedrin must not be lacking its most distinguished member. Another matter, “wherein mixed wine is not lacking,” the Sanhedrin must not lack the one who determines the halakha for it, like that which we learned there: “Diluted wine is two parts water and one part wine, from the wine of the Sharon” (Nidda 19a).25Just as one would prepare wine for consumption by mixing in the right amount of water, the leader of the Sanhedrin would analyze all the sides of an issue and give direction as to the ruling.
Alternatively, “wherein mixed wine is not lacking,” may the Butler of the world not be lacking, just as you say: “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” (Psalms 23:1).