I know, it sounds random. But stick with me. In Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Song of Songs, that very grain becomes a powerful symbol for the relationship between God, Israel, and the rest of the world.

The text starts with a seemingly odd question about a verse: "Your belly is a pile of wheat" (Song of Songs 7:3). Why wheat? Wouldn't something more... exotic, like pine cones, be a fairer comparison? The answer, our sages suggest, lies in necessity. The world could exist without pine cones, but it cannot exist without wheat. Wheat sustains life.

Rabbi Idi offers another insight: "Just as this wheat kernel is cleft, so Israel’s circumcision is cleft." This refers to peria, the crucial step in circumcision where the membrane under the foreskin is split and pulled back. A physical mark, a sign of the covenant, mirrored in the very structure of the life-giving grain.

Then, Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥananya brings in a slightly more… assertive comparison. "Just as wheat absorbs, so too Israel absorbs the property of the nations of the world." This isn't about literal theft, but about taking the best aspects of other cultures and integrating them. He backs this up with verses like, "You shall devour all the peoples…" (Deuteronomy 7:16) and "You will consume the wealth of the nations and in their glory you will revel" (Isaiah 61:6). It's a complex idea – inheriting and transforming, not just conquering.

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish adds, "Just as with wheat, its waste is measured with it, so too Israel, 'from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water' (Deuteronomy 29:10)." Even the seemingly insignificant members of the community are part of the whole, measured and valued.

And Rabbi Yitzḥak draws a beautiful parallel to the Exodus story. "Just as these wheat kernels, when they go out for sowing go out by measure, and when they enter from the grain pile they enter by measure, so too Israel..." He reminds us that when Jacob’s family descended to Egypt, they were counted: "With seventy people, your ancestors descended to Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:22). And when they left? Counted again: "some six hundred thousand men on foot" (Exodus 12:37). Each one precious, accounted for, from beginning to end.

Rabbi Ḥonya takes this idea a step further, contrasting Israel's meticulous accounting with God's view of the other nations. Just as a landowner doesn't keep track of manure, hay, or straw because they’re considered worthless, so too, God doesn’t monitor the nations of the world, because "All the nations are like nothing before Him…" (Isaiah 40:17). Harsh? Maybe. But the point is about focus. God's focus is on Israel, as it is stated: "When you take a census of the children of Israel…" (Exodus 30:12) and “take a census of the entire congregation of Israel” (Numbers 1:2).

Rabbi Neḥemya, quoting Rabbi Avun, drives the point home: "The nations of the world have no planting, have no sowing, and have no root..." He points to Isaiah 40:24: "It is as though they were not planted, as though they were not sown, as though their trunk had not taken root in the earth." In contrast, Israel does have all three: planting ("I will plant them in this land" - Jeremiah 32:41), sowing ("I will sow her for Me in the land" - Hosea 2:25), and root ("It is coming that Jacob will take root" - Isaiah 27:6).

The text concludes with a powerful parable. Hay, chaff, and straw boast about being the reason the field was sown. But the wheat wisely says, "Wait until the threshing arrives and we will know for whose sake the field was sown." When the time comes, the chaff is blown away, the hay is cast aside, the straw is burned, and the wheat is gathered into a pile – a treasure. People pass by and "Kiss the grain" (Psalms 2:12).

The parable continues: the nations claim to be the "true Israel" for whom the world was created. But Israel says, "Wait until the day the Holy One blessed be He will arrive and we will know for whose sake the world was created." Malachi 3:19 warns that the wicked will be like straw burned in an oven, and Isaiah 41:16 adds, "You will winnow them and the wind will carry them." But for Israel? "But you will rejoice in the Lord, you will be glorified in the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 41:16).

So, what does it all mean? It's a complex picture, isn't it? It's about chosenness, yes, but also about responsibility. About being sustained by God and, in turn, sustaining the world with goodness and righteousness. It's about being the wheat, not the chaff. And it all starts with a humble kernel. What will we grow from what we've been given?