Our exploration begins with a verse from the Song of Songs (7:3): "Your navel is like a round goblet... Your belly is a heap of wheat." The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) takes this evocative imagery as a starting point to explore the special relationship between God and Israel. Why wheat? What's so special about it?
Rabbi Idi offers one explanation: wheat is carefully sifted and chosen, just as Israel is distinguished among the nations. How? With the word "and" in the Shema prayer – Adonai Echad, God is One – and with the tzitzit, the ritual fringes on our garments. According to Rabbi Idi, everything else, all other mitzvot (commandments), are subordinate to these core identifiers.
Then Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish chimes in with a different perspective, focusing on the communal aspect of wheat. : wheat is sown and harvested in groups. Similarly, the Israelites went down to Egypt as a group – seventy souls, as Deuteronomy (10:22) reminds us – and they ascended from Egypt as a massive group, "about six hundred thousand on foot," according to Exodus (12:37). The idea here is that we are strongest together, that our collective identity is crucial.
Rabbi Chanina, elaborating on Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish's point, uses a powerful analogy: Imagine a homeowner reckoning with his son. Does he focus on the low-grade straw and chaff? No! He focuses on the valuable wheat, the essential grain that sustains life. In this analogy, the homeowner is the Holy One, blessed be He – as Psalms (24:1) states, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." The son is Moses, "trusted in all My house" (Numbers 12:7). God tells Moses to estimate the value of the nations. Israel isn't compared to chaff, which is soaked in water like Pharaoh's army in the sea (Psalms 106:11), or to thorns burned in fire (Isaiah 33:12). No, Israel is the wheat, the essential sustenance. "Estimate for yourself how many are in Israel," God says to Moses.
But the wheat imagery doesn't stop there. Rabbi Yudan suggests that the "heap of wheat" in your stomach refers to the Torah of the priests, the laws of offerings detailed in Leviticus. All the sins and guilt offerings are written there, linking our physical well-being to our spiritual obligations.
And then there's Rabbi Levi, who brings in a fascinating, and perhaps surprising, angle. He compares the words of the Torah to "roses" – specifically, "red roses" – representing the laws of purity and impurity. He gives the example of a man who, upon learning his wife is menstruating (and therefore niddah, ritually impure), immediately separates from her, not because of a physical barrier, but because of the laws of the Torah (Leviticus 18:19). Similarly, a person who is about to eat non-kosher meat immediately withdraws their hand upon learning about its impurity because of the laws against eating fat or blood (Leviticus 3:17). The Torah, even in its seemingly restrictive aspects, guides us toward holiness.
Finally, Rabbi Huna, citing Rabbi Idi, asks: why wheat and not something more aesthetically pleasing, like heaps of tarragon or pepper? The answer is simple yet profound: "Just as one cannot live without wheat, so too one cannot live without Israel." Israel is essential.
So, what does all this mean? It's about recognizing our value, our communal strength, our connection to Torah, and our essential role in the world. We are the wheat, the sustenance, the chosen people, connected by faith, tradition, and an unbreakable bond with the Divine. And that, my friends, is a pretty powerful image to carry with us.
"Kiss me, Bar." This is what the verse (Song of Songs 7:3) says: "Your navel is like a round goblet." Why is Israel compared to wheat? As it is written (ibid. 7:3): "Your belly is a heap of wheat." Rabbi Idi says, "Why is this wheat chosen? It is sifted from its middle and is consumed from among all the fruits, to teach that Israel is distinguished among the nations with the word 'and' [in the Shema prayer] and with the tzitzit fringes, and all [other mitzvot] are subordinate to them." Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says, "What is the meaning of these grains of wheat? When they go out for sowing, they go out only in a group, and when they come in, they come in only in a group. So too, Israel, when they descended to Egypt, went down in a group, as it is said (Deuteronomy 10:22): 'Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons,' and when they ascended, they ascended only in a group, as it is said (Exodus 12:37): 'And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot.' Rabbi Chanina says on this matter of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, "Why is Israel compared to wheat? To tell you, just as when a homeowner has a son, and he comes to reckon with him, he does not say to him, 'How much low-grade straw are you storing in the storehouse, or how many bundles of straw are you storing in the storehouse, or how many bundles of chaff are you storing in the storehouse?' Rather, he gives him the thorns to burn and throws the straw to the wind. And what does he say? 'Estimate for yourself how much wheat you are storing in the storehouse,' because they are vital forever. The homeowner is the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written (Psalms 24:1): 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.' The son is Moses, as it is said (Numbers 12:7): 'In all My house he is trusted.' And what did the Holy One, blessed be He, say to him? 'Estimate for yourself the value of the nations.' Not so are Israel compared to chaff, which is consumed like chaff. And what do they do to the chaff? They soak it in water, as it is said (Psalms 106:11): 'And Pharaoh's chariots and his army He cast into the sea.' And they are compared to thorns, as it is said (Isaiah 33:12): 'And the peoples will be like the burnings of lime; like thorns cut off, they will be burned in the fire.' But Israel is compared to wheat, as it is said (Song of Songs 7:3): 'Your belly is a heap of wheat.' Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, 'Estimate for yourself how many are in Israel.' Another thing, in your stomach you have a heap of wheat. Rabbi Yudan said that this heap of wheat refers to the Torah of the priests, as all sins and guilt offerings are written in it, as it is said (Leviticus 6:2): "This is the law of the burnt offering." (Leviticus 4:2): "This is the law of the sin offering." (Leviticus 7:1): "And this is the law of the guilt offering." (Song of Solomon 7:3): "Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil." These are the words of the Torah that are soft like roses. How many commandments and nuances there are in it, how many impure and pure things there are in it! Rabbi Levi said that in the custom of the world, when a man takes a wife who is 20 or 30 years old, and he has an emission, he comes to her for sexual intercourse, but she says to him, "I have seen a red rose." And he immediately separates from her. Who caused him not to approach her? Is it the wall between them, or the fence, or the snake that bit him, or the scorpion that stung him? No, it is the words of the Torah that are soft like a rose, as it is written in it (Leviticus 18:19): "You shall not come near a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness." And similarly, if someone brings him a piece of meat that is not kosher and he is hungry to eat it, and they tell him that milk has fallen into it, he immediately withdraws his hand and does not taste it. Who caused him not to taste it? Only the words of the Torah that are soft like a rose, as it says (Leviticus 3:17): "You shall not eat any fat or any blood." Another thing, in your stomach, there is a heap of wheat. Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Idi, "Are not heaps of estragon and pepper more beautiful than it, and why are they compared to wheat?" But just as one cannot live without wheat, so too one cannot live without Israel.
