In this lesson, we examine a single verse from Shir HaShirim: "Sweetness drops from your lips, O bride" - and the profound Midrash based upon it, which teaches a tremendous principle in the way of the righteous: that with the very thing in which they faltered, with that very thing they make amends. We will follow the words of the author of the Zera Shimshon, who elucidates this Midrash from beginning to end, uncovering within it a complete progression regarding the redemption from Egypt and the splitting of the Sea.
נֹפֶת תִּטֹּפְנָה שִׂפְתוֹתַיִךְ כַּלָּה דְּבַשׁ וְחָלָב תַּחַת לְשׁוֹנֵךְ וְרֵיחַ שַׂלְמֹתַיִךְ כְּרֵיחַ לְבָנוֹן׃ (ד, יא) - Sweetness drops from your lips, O bride; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon. (4:11)
The Midrash Rabbah on the verse "Then Moshe sang" opens: This is what is written, "Sweetness drops from your lips, O bride." Moshe said: Master of the Universe, with that which I sinned before You, with that very thing I praise You. That is to say, in the exact manner that the sin occurred, precisely in that manner will be the praise to the Creator of the world.
The Midrash brings a parable in the name of Rabbi Levi bar Chiyya: To what is this comparable? To a province that rebelled against the king. The king said to his general - to his minister: "Let us go and wage war against it." The minister said to him: "You cannot do it; you will not succeed." The king remained silent, went at night by himself, and conquered it. As if to say: "You do not place trust in me - I will show you that I can do it alone." In the morning, the general learned what had happened; he went, fashioned a crown, and brought it to the king. This crown was an expression of "May my lord the king reign for many days," a royal crown testifying that the king truly possesses the power and capability. The king asked him: "Why this crown?" He replied: "Because I sinned in this matter and told you, 'You cannot do it' - therefore, I now bring you a crown."
So said Moshe before the Holy One, Blessed be He: I know that I sinned before You with "az" (then), as it is stated, "For since (ume'az) I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought harm upon this people" - not only did he not release them, but furthermore, "straw is not given to your servants, yet they say to us: Make bricks!" I said: Master of the Universe, You are not redeeming them - yet You proved to me that You are indeed redeeming them, and behold, You drowned him in the sea. I sinned with "az" - therefore I praise You with "az": "Then (az) Moshe sang." The rectification corresponds directly to the flaw. And the Midrash concludes: Come and see the way of the righteous: with that in which they falter, they make amends; hence - "Sweetness drops from your lips, O bride." The Maharz"v explains that the Midrash derives this from the end of the verse: "Honey and milk are under your tongue."
Seemingly, there is a great difficulty here. Regarding the Holy One, Blessed be He, it is understandable to say that with the very thing that brought the wound comes the remedy, for through this we see the principle of measure for measure from Hashem. But how does this apply to a person - that because he faltered with "az", he therefore rectifies it with "az"?
The author himself raises three questions: First, in the word "az" of the Song, there is no implication whatsoever that Moshe was retracting what he had said in "For since (ume'az) I came to speak to Pharaoh" - the homiletic link seems tenuous. Second, even if it were so, how does this "az" atone for that "az"? And third, where is this alluded to in the verse? The Midrash says, "Hence - 'Sweetness drops from your lips'", but where in the verse is the concept of flaw and rectification to be found?
The author explains: This can be understood through what the Sages stated in the Midrash regarding the verse, "Come, and I will send you to Pharaoh." Moshe said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Did You not promise their father Yaakov, "I (Anochi) will surely bring you up again"? If so, "Who am I (anochi) that I should go to Pharaoh" - am I the "Anochi" who made that promise? You said it, Master of the Universe, and You are the One who is meant to redeem them. You Yourself must go, for then You will surely save Israel; through me, it will be difficult to accomplish anything - only through You.
Ultimately, when he went at the command of the Omnipresent and saw that, on the contrary, the yoke upon Israel only grew heavier and straw was no longer given to them, he said to the Holy One, Blessed be He, "For since (ume'az) I came to Pharaoh..." And "az" denotes nothing other than trust, as the Midrash notes on "Then (az) Moshe sang," and as it is written, "Then (az) you will walk your way securely." That is to say, Moshe's complaint was: You did not fulfill what You promised. Had You descended Yourself, then, securely, they without question would have been redeemed, for when one relies on the Holy One, Blessed be He, salvation is certain. But now, since I went, the situation has only worsened: straw is not given to Your servants, and Pharaoh tightens his grip. You have not rescued Your people at all.
Now, however, when Moshe witnessed the Splitting of the Sea, he recanted and acknowledged that he had erred regarding "az" ("then"), and he began to rectify it with "az", which is an expression of trust and promise - seeing that Hashem had indeed fulfilled His promise. How so? For it is related in the Yalkut on the verse "For He is highly exalted" (ki gao ga'ah): When Israel departed from Egypt, the guardian angel of Egypt said before Him: "Master of the Universe, You created the world with the attribute of mercy, yet You display Your pride with force?" Meaning, why act against them with such lethal force? Immediately, the Holy One, blessed be He, summoned all the guardian angels of the nations and set the entire case before them, like judges. They said before Him: "Master of the Universe, justice is on Your side and truth is with You - You are indeed correct that Israel must be redeemed and that the Egyptians mistreated them - but if it pleases You, save Israel without destroying Egypt." Out of loyalty to Egypt, they proposed a compromise: redeem Israel, but do not drown the Egyptians.
When Gabriel saw that the nations of the world were pleading Egypt's defense, and understood that an impasse had been reached - raising the risk that the Egyptians might survive despite all they had done - what did he do? He flew to Egypt in a single flight. As Chazal famously taught: Gabriel travels in one, Michael in two, and Eliyahu in four. Rav Dessler explains that this refers to how many stages must be traversed before an angel's mission is accomplished; the more direct and immediate the action, the greater the stature of the angel, whereas needing intermediary stages reflects a lower level. Here, it was a single flight, a single action, without layovers and without mid-air refueling.
Gabriel snatched a clay brick containing one of the babies that had been embedded into the building - for whenever the Israelites fell short of their daily quota, the Egyptians would embed their children into the wall. Gabriel drew out this brick and cried: "Master of the Universe, with this they enslaved Your children! Look at this cruelty and wickedness!" When the Attribute of Justice saw this, it demanded: "Execute strict justice upon the Egyptians, for the vast majority are guilty, and do not accept the plea of the guardian angels who sought to spare them!" Immediately the Egyptians drowned, as it is written: "You trod through the sea with Your horses, churning the mighty waters" - "mighty waters" alluding to the Egyptians, while the sea became like mortar and clay in which they sank, measure for measure for having enslaved Israel with mortar and bricks. Regarding this it is said, "and under His feet was the likeness of sapphire brickwork," for that brick stood as a constant memorial of their iniquity before the Holy One, blessed be He, so that He would exact punishment from the Egyptians and redeem His people. (Incidentally, that baby rescued from among the bricks was Michah, who later forged the idol; the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe: "I know best whom I leave behind.")
We see from this that the Egyptians were drowned in the sea solely because they had entombed Israelite infants within the buildings. And that horror occurred only because they stopped providing them with straw. Since the quota remained unchanged, the people had to scatter and gather straw in frantic haste, making the work unimaginably grueling, and whoever fell short had their children embedded into the wall. Had Pharaoh continued providing straw, they would not have embedded their little ones into the building, and the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have been able to exact vengeance upon them, for it would have sufficed merely to rescue Israel without destroying the Egyptians - exactly as the guardian angels had argued, and the Attribute of Justice would have had no ground to demand their destruction.
Had that been the case, the promise the Holy One, blessed be He, made to Avraham - "And also that nation whom they shall serve, I will judge" - could never have been fulfilled. For one could argue that the plagues inflicted upon Egypt were not on behalf of Israel, but because Pharaoh refused to acknowledge the Almighty, as the Midrash notes: "The mouth that said, 'I do not know Hashem,' was the mouth that ultimately conceded, 'Hashem is the righteous One.'" The Ten Plagues were sent to compel them to release Israel, not as retribution for what they had done to Israel, and Avraham could well have argued: this is not the fulfillment of "I will judge." Where, then, was the true retribution? At the Splitting of the Red Sea, in the drowning of the Egyptians. And on what account did they drown? On account of the brick, which itself was brought about by the decree: "No straw is given to your servants."
Here Moshe Rabbeinu saw the exact opposite of what he had feared: I assumed Hashem was not fulfilling His promise, but in truth, He was fulfilling it all along. The intensification of the servitude was the very catalyst that made it possible to fulfill the promise to Avraham: "And also that nation whom they shall serve, I will judge." The entire sequence was designed for this: Moshe had to appear before Pharaoh, Pharaoh's heart had to harden and intensify the labor, so that "I will judge" would be fulfilled through their drowning in the sea. When Moshe witnessed the miracle of the Splitting of the Sea and realized that without the decree regarding straw Avraham's promise could not have been fulfilled, he sang to Hashem with the word "az" ("then"), thereby rectifying all that he had faulted regarding trust and the divine promise. At first, his trust in Hashem had wavered and he had protested that the promise to Yaakov was unfulfilled; in the end, he recognized and understood that the Holy One, blessed be He, first needed to fulfill His promise to Avraham.
Our Sages taught in the Mechilta (Parashat Beshalach): A maidservant at the sea beheld what even Yechezkel the prophet did not see, as it is written: "This is my God, and I will glorify Him." A difficulty arises: Why was such an immense revelation of the Shechinah necessary specifically at this place? No such statement is made regarding the plagues of Egypt, nor even the Plague of the Firstborn, but only at the Splitting of the Red Sea.
According to our approach, this resolves beautifully. Once the promise to Avraham had been fulfilled, the promise to Yaakov had to be fulfilled as well - that Hashem Himself would be the Redeemer and Savior, as it says: "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up." As it were, Moshe pleaded about wheat and was answered about barley: Moshe raised the promise to Yaakov, while the Holy One, blessed be He, answered regarding the promise to Avraham. Yet Yaakov's promise was also fulfilled, for what was the true moment of redemption? It was not the Exodus from Egypt itself, for seven days later they encountered them once more at the sea; rather, it was the moment they parted from them forever - "you shall never see them again, forever." Only when the sea split and they witnessed the drowning of the Egyptians was the redemption truly realized, as it is written: "And Hashem saved Israel on that day from the hand of Egypt." For this reason, the Shechinah revealed Itself with immense clarity at that hour, so that all would know that He alone is the Redeemer and Savior - behold, "I will also surely bring you up" was fulfilled, and the redemption was visibly from Him before the eyes of all.
Yet a difficulty remains: Why did the Midrash link this drashah to the verse, "Your lips drip flowing honey"? And what hint is there in this verse that the righteous rectify the very matter in which they stumbled? We understand well what the word az was through which Moshe stumbled and how he rectified it, but what is the connection to the verse before us?
One can explain that the Midrash deduces this from the fact that Scripture needed to state that her speech is sweet - which implies that one might have thought otherwise. For if this were speaking of fine speech of a mitzvah, it is obvious that it is sweet, as it says, "The orders of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart," and "sweeter than honey and the drippings of the comb" - there would be no need to inform us of this. Rather, we must say that this was not initially pleasant speech. But if so, it is difficult: Why did Scripture call it nofet, an expression of sweetness, when in fact it was bitter? Perforce, we must say that at first it was bitter, and afterward it turned and became sweet.
And this is self-evident: If someone offers you sugar and says, "Taste it, it is sweet" - he has said nothing novel. But if he offers salt and says, "Look, this salt is strange; taste it, it is sweet" - that is a statement! To say of a bitter thing that it is sweet is a novelty; to say of something sweet that it is sweet means nothing. Therefore, it is certain that the verse is speaking of harsh speech, of bitter speech, yet Scripture nonetheless says, "Your lips drip flowing honey" - meaning it was sweetened. And when does it make sense to emphasize this? When it was bitter at first and in the end became sweet. How? Because the righteous rectify the very matter in which they stumbled: he damaged with az, and he rectified with az. This is the bitter speech that was transformed into sweetness - "And from the time (u'me'az) I came to Pharaoh" turned into "Then (az) Moshe will sing."
Once rectified, both became equally good - even the initial stumbling is incorporated into the rectification, and everything is sweetened. This is similar to a bitter peel: when it is candied in honey, it turns into something like flowing honey. By contrast, something that is inherently sweet, even if candied in honey, does not delight the palate as much as the bitter that has been sweetened. So it is with an orange peel: whoever tries to make candied peels from it will get something very bitter, so in the factory they boil it several times to remove its bitterness. And similarly with an etrog: one who wants to make jam from it boils it once, twice, and three times, depending on the level of bitterness, drains the water, and only then cooks it in honey. Come and see: a peel that was sweet to begin with, even if you sweeten it further, will not be as delicious as a bitter peel that was sweetened. If you will, this is akin to: "In the place where penitents stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand."
Similarly, the Ben Yehoyada cites on Sanhedrin 37 that a pomegranate that was sour at first, after remaining on the tree for a long time, becomes sweeter than a pomegranate that was sweet from the beginning. Again, the same principle: something that was bitter or sour and became sweet is superior to something that was inherently sweet. And so here, the rectification of az is sweeter than the beginning.
And this is the meaning of "Honey and milk are under your tongue": something that was bitter in the beginning is sweetened to the highest degree through honey. And what is the meaning of "under your tongue" (tachat leshonech)? Like the phrase "I was in your place (tachtecha)," and like "he shall go out and [another] shall enter in his place (tachtav)" - meaning in place of it. The honey and milk come in place of what you previously expressed with your tongue in bitterness.
These things then become a pure garment for his soul, for the difference between the righteous and the unlearned is their chaluka derabbanan (spiritual robe of the sages) - from the mitzvot a person performs, he merits a garment of holiness and elevated stature. And this is "and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon": what you previously spoke that was negative has now become a positive garment for you; "like the scent of Lebanon (Levanon)" - for it whitens (malbin) the sins of Israel, and transgressions are transformed into merits. For when one repents out of love, even transgressions turn into merits. And Moshe Rabbeinu, who stumbled with az, now that he rectified it, that very az itself was rectified, and what had previously been a fault turned into a merit and a mitzvah. How wondrous!
In summary: "Your lips drip flowing honey, my bride" - Scripture is not speaking of words that were inherently sweet, for there would be no novelty in that, but of bitter speech that was sweetened. Moshe Rabbeinu stumbled with az - "And from the time (u'me'az) I came to Pharaoh... he has brought harm upon this people," claiming that the Holy One, blessed be He, had not fulfilled His promise to Yaakov, "I will surely bring you up again." Yet when he witnessed the Splitting of the Red Sea, he understood that it was specifically the decree, "Straw is not given to your servants," that led to children being embedded in the walls of the buildings, from which Gavriel retrieved the brick, on the basis of which the Attribute of Justice made its claim and the Egyptians were drowned - and thus Avraham's promise was fulfilled: "And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge." Moreover, in the revelation of the Shechinah at the Sea, where a maidservant saw what Yechezkel did not see, Yaakov's promise that He Himself would redeem and rescue was also fulfilled. Therefore, Moshe rectified this with az - "Then (az) Moshe will sing" - and the bitterness of the speech was turned into flowing honey. This is the way of the righteous: they rectify the very thing in which they stumbled, and like a bitter peel sweetened with honey, even the faults themselves become a pure garment for the soul and are transformed into merits.