Specifically, Song of Songs 7:10: “Your palate is like fine wine that goes pleasantly for my beloved, moving the lips of the sleeping.” A seemingly simple verse… but in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on Song of Songs, it becomes a portal into something profound.
Rabbi Yoḥanan, in this commentary, sees this verse as a moment of divine recognition. He says that God, blessed be He, summoned all the ministering angels. "Go down," He commanded, "and kiss the lips of the ancestors of these!" Why? Because, like Abraham who was thrown into a fiery furnace for smashing his father’s idols (as we learn in Bereshit Rabba 38:13), and Isaac who willingly bound himself on the altar, these ancestors acted with fiery devotion before God. And so, their descendants, too, acted with fire.
Rabbi Azarya, quoting Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon, takes it a step further. God tells the angels, "Go down and kiss their lips, for had they not accepted My Torah and My dominion at Sinai... I would have become the enemy of those who sleep in the Cave of Makhpela.” The Cave of Makhpela, of course, is the burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs in Hebron. This is powerful stuff. It suggests that the very foundation of God's relationship with the Jewish people rests on the words spoken at Sinai — their acceptance of the Torah, their declaration against idolatry.
But what about that last bit of the verse, "moving the lips of the sleeping?" What does it mean that even the dead have moving lips?
Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Toreta offers a startling image: Even in death, a person's lips move in the grave. Shmuel compares it to a basket of grapes whose liquid continues to flow on its own. It’s a beautiful image of sustained impact.
Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa and Rabbi Simon offer similar comparisons. One says it's like someone who drinks spiced wine, the other, aged wine. Even after the wine is gone, its taste and fragrance linger in the mouth. The taste… the fragrance… remains.
The message? Even after someone dies, the Torah they studied, the words they spoke, the actions they took… it all continues to resonate. It impacts their very being, even their mouth, which moves even in the grave.
Think about that. The things we say, the commitments we make – they have an enduring power, shaping not only our lives but potentially reverberating through eternity. Our words become a legacy, a fragrance that lingers long after we're gone. What fragrance will you leave behind?