“Under the Apple Tree, I Roused You”

THE DAILY CHIZZUK WITH RAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A – THURSDAY 27 NISAN 5782, EDITED FROM A SHIUR WHICH THE RAV GAVE ON 25 NISAN.

These are his holy words:

WHAT IS THE RELEVANCE OF THE APPLE TO CHAROSET?  BEHOLD, CHAROSET IS MORTAR; IT NEEDS TO HAVE MORTAR IN IT.  [THEY] SUNK IN THE MORTAR, DESCENDED INTO THE MORTAR.

Like Rachel bat Shutalach, at the time when she was trampling the mortar, the baby became mixed into the mortar. [From Pirkey D’Rabbi Eliezer 48 – Rabbi Akiva says: Pharaoh’s taskmasters would beat the Jews in order to make the double quota of bricks, as it says, ‘The quota of bricks which they made yesterday and before yesterday,’ and the Egyptians wouldn’t give straw to the Jews, ‘Straw wasn’t given to your servants,’ and the Jews would gather the straw in the desert and would load their donkeys, wives, children, grandchildren, and daughters, and the straw of the desert would pierce their heels and blood would come out and wallow in the mortar.  Rachel the daughter of the son of Meshutelach was pregnant and ready to give birth, and trampled the mortar with her husband, and the baby came out from her loins and became mixed into the mortar, and her scream ascended before the Throne of Glory, and that night the angel Michael descended and brought him up [the baby] before the Throne of Glory, and that night G-d descended and struck down the firstborn of Egypt, as it says, ‘It was midnight, and Hashem struck down every firstborn.’]

And this is Livnat HaSapir (Sapphire Brickwork), “And under His feet was the likeness of Sapphire Brickwork” (Shemot 24:10).  The Livnat HaSapir was Maoz Yedidot [?].  Rather the apple is “under the apple tree, I roused You.” (Shir HaShirim 8:5).

It’s written in Hagahot Maymoniyot, “Under the apple tree” – that no woman was barren, “there will be no barren man or woman amongst you and amongst your animals” (Devarim 7:14).  There was no barren woman in all the Land of Egypt.  All the women conceived.

All the women conceived.  They ran to the fields.  The Egyptians put guards over all the women giving birth.  The second that the baby popped out, immediately the commando, the parachuter, the flotilla arrived.  [They] snatched the child and threw it into the river, or would bring it to Pharaoh to slaughter it.

Like the seven maidens of Batya.  They saw a Jewish child in the middle of the river.  They said, “What fun!  What a wonder!  We’ll bring it to Pharaoh so he will slaughter it and bathe in its blood.”

Rashi says that the angel Gavriel came, and what did he do to the maidens?  He sent them to the Garden of Eden or to Gehinnom – it’s still not known exactly.  At the moment that they wanted to take the baby – Moshe, they ran to throw him into the river.  They said to her, “You are the daughter of Pharaoh.  What about honoring one’s father and mother?”

Why didn’t she listen to the voice of her father?  Because she had mercy upon him [Moshe].  She took him, rescued him.  Instead of suffocating him, she saved him.

What kind of daughter is this?  A wayward and rebellious daughter!  She didn’t listen to the voice of her father.

On that day, Batya converted and became totally [inflicted with] Tza’arat.  Somehow, she touched Moshe’s basket, and the Tza’arat disappeared.

Behold, “under the apple tree” – they hid under the shrubs, and there the baby was born.  “On the day you were born, your umbilical cord was not cut” (Yechezkel 16:4).  There is a dagesh (emphasis) on both the first Reish and the second Reish [of לֹא-כָרַּת שָׁרֵּךְ – your umbilical cord was not cut], to teach that the angels descended, cut the umbilical cord, and diapered the babies.

“He would suckle him with honey from a stone, and oil from a flinty rock” (Devarim 32:13).  All of them swam in a sea of oil, in a sea of honey.