Today, we’re diving into Shir HaShirim Rabbah 9, a section of the rabbinic commentary on the Song of Songs, and trust me, it’s not always what you’d expect.

The verse under discussion is "I have likened you, my love..." (Song of Songs 1:9). Now, the Rabbis of the Midrash weren't always literal in their interpretations. Sometimes, they saw hidden meanings, allegories, and connections to other parts of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. And that's exactly what happens here.

One interpretation gets pretty intense. The Rabbis suggest that Israel appeared to the Egyptians like mares, female horses, and the Egyptians, wicked as they were, were aroused stallions, chasing after them right up until the moment the sea swallowed them whole. A bit… graphic, right?

But hold on, Rabbi Simon has a different take. He says, "Heaven forbid!" It wasn’t Israel looking like mares, but rather the waves of the sea themselves! The waves were the mares and the Egyptian horses, well, they were still those aroused stallions, pursuing the Israelites until their demise.

And the Midrash doesn't stop there. It even imagines a conversation between an Egyptian soldier and his horse as they're drowning! The Egyptian complains that the horse wouldn't even go near the Nile the day before, and now it’s dragging him to his death in the sea. The horse, in response, quotes Exodus 15:1, "He cast into the sea..." and then adds, "See what is in the sea! A trap is prepared for you in the sea."

Rabbi Yishmael offers another vivid image. "The Lord overthrew Egypt in the midst of the sea" (Exodus 14:27), he says, means that the horse would throw its rider upwards, so the rider would fall down with the horse on top of him! Rabbi Levi compares it to stirring a pot – what’s on the bottom comes to the top, and what’s on the top goes to the bottom. Justice, perhaps, turned upside down in a moment of divine retribution.

The text then shifts to another interpretation of the word "rayati," or "my love." Rabbi Yonatan says it means "my benefactor." How so? Because the Israelites provided God with two daily continual offerings, the korban tamid. “The one lamb you shall offer in the morning,” Numbers 28:4 tells us. Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon explains that one offering was for transgressions committed at night, and the other for sins done during the day. The idea was that no one in Jerusalem would go to sleep with iniquity still clinging to them. Imagine a city where "righteousness would dwell there," as Isaiah 1:21 puts it.

Finally, the Midrash offers one more interpretation: "rayati" refers to the "shepherds [rayata] of My world," meaning the Israelites who accepted the Torah. This is a big one. According to Rabbi Ḥanina in the name of Rabbi Aḥa, if Israel hadn't accepted the Torah, God would have returned the world to emptiness and disorder, to tohu va'vohu. As Psalm 75:4 says, "The earth and all its inhabitants melt away; I set its pillars firm, Selah." It was because Israel stood at Mount Sinai and declared, "Everything that the Lord has spoken we will perform and we will obey" (Exodus 24:7), that the world remained intact.

The world is sustained through covenant. Through relationship. Through our willingness to say "yes."

So, what do we make of all this? It's a reminder that scripture is rarely simple. It can be interpreted in countless ways, each offering a different perspective on our relationship with God and with each other. It's also a reminder of the power of stories, of vivid imagery, to convey profound truths. Whether it's horses and riders drowning in the sea, or the foundation of the world resting on our acceptance of divine law, these ancient rabbis knew how to make a point that resonates even today.