The apple tree in Shir HaShirim Rabbah is not decoration. It is Sinai in bloom.
Rabbi Aḥa ben Rabbi Ze'eira notices the order of the tree: blossom first, leaves after. Israel, he says, did the same. At Sinai they said na'aseh v'nishma, "we will do and we will hear" (Exodus 24:7). The commitment came before the explanation. The fruit had not yet ripened, but the people had already stepped under God's shade.
Rabbi Azarya keeps the image alive. An apple tree needs fifty days from blossom to fruit. Israel needed fifty days from the Exodus to the giving of the Torah. The month was Sivan, the season of Shavuot, when a liberated people became fragrant with covenant. Freedom was not the finished fruit. Torah was.
Then Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon turns from apples to hyssop. Moses tells Israel that redemption can begin with a small act: take "a bundle of hyssop" and place the blood of the Passover offering on the doorposts (Exodus 12:22). Hyssop is cheap. The people can almost hear the absurdity of it. Can a plant worth a few coins open the gates of Egypt?
Moses answers with the logic of faith. Even one humble bundle can lead to the plunder of Egypt, the sea, Sihon, Og, and the thirty-one kings. A little thing, done at the commanded hour, can carry more than it seems able to hold.
The same lesson returns with the palm branch of Sukkot (Leviticus 23:40). Some commandments cost money and public effort. Others begin in the hand, small enough to dismiss. Shir HaShirim Rabbah refuses to dismiss them. At Sinai, Israel answered before understanding. At Passover, a bundle of hyssop marked the door. The fruit came after the act.
Rabbi Aḥa ben Rabbi Ze’eira said another: Just as this apple tree produces its blossom before its leaves, so too, Israel put performance before hearing, as it is stated: “We will perform and we will heed [nishma]” (Exodus 24:7).35Although translated here as “heed,” the term nishma can be translated “hear.” The point here is that Israel committed to following God’s commands even before hearing what they were. Rabbi Azarya said two [statements]: Just as the apple tree produces is ripened fruit only in Sivan, so too, Israel emitted a good fragrance only in Sivan.36Sivan is the month in which Israel received the Torah. Rabbi Azarya said another: Just as this apple tree, from the time it produces its blossom until it produces ripened fruit is fifty days, so too, from the time that Israel departed from Egypt until they received the Torah it was fifty days. When did they receive it? It was “in the third month from the departure of the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:1). Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said two [statements]: Just as this apple, you give an isar for it37An isar is a coin of relatively little value. and you can smell its fragrances numerous times, so too, Moses said to Israel: ‘If you wish to be redeemed, you can be redeemed with a simple matter.’ [This is analogous] to one who was injured in his legs and he circulated among all the doctors to be cured, but he was not cured. One came and said to him: ‘If you seek to be cured, you can be cured with a simple matter, attach animal dung to it.’ So too, Moses said to Israel: ‘If you wish to be redeemed, you can be redeemed with a simple matter: “You shall take a bundle of hyssop and dip”’ (Exodus 12:22). They said to him: ‘Moses our master, this bundle of hyssop, how much it its value, four ma’a or five ma’a?’38It is of little monetary value. He said to them: ‘Even if it is one [ma’a], and it will cause you to acquire the plunder of Egypt, the plunder at the sea, the plunder of Siḥon and Og, and the plunder of the thirty-one kings. Regarding a palm branch,39The reference is to the four species taken on Sukkot. on which a person is required to expend much money and it is associated with many mitzvot, all the more so.’ Therefore, Moses cautions Israel: “You shall take for you on the first day” (Leviticus 23:40).
