Today we will study the song of the pomegranate.
The Pomegranate says,
כְּפֶלַח הָרִמּוֹן רַקָּתֵךְ מִבַּעַד לְצַמָּתֵךְ: (שיר השירים ד
ג)
Like a piece of a pomegranate are (what
Rashi calls) your cheeks….
Shlomo Hamelech in Shir Hashirim is talking about
physical features, saying that part of
the face, the high part of the cheek, is pomegranate-like.
We're going to focus on the word רקתךrakatech,
which literally means cheek. The root of the word is /רקReik-
which means empty
A famous Gemara tells us in Sanhedrin 37A Afilu, Reikim,
shebachem/Even the empty ones of the Jewish people are full of Mitzvot
like a Rimon
That's what Rashi brings down from the Gemara in Sanhedrin.
The obvious question is, if they're full of mitzvot, why are we calling them empty?
Why does it say, "The empty ones are full of mitzvot like Rimon?"
If they're empty, how can they be full
of mitzvot?
The Kli Yakar on Shemot 30,34 says that the rule is that when
a person does teshuva, his sins turn into mitzvot, and the sin
itself is like a korban, because the sin causes him to do teshuva
and come closer to God. So, The people were empty doesn't mean that they are currently
empty; but rather, through teshuva,
they turned into full. That is one explanation.
Based on this, a question is asked-Why do we say, in our Rosh Hashanah request, when we eat the Rimon,
that we should be full of mitzvot
k'Rimon/we should be full of mitzvot like a Rimon if we just saw a statement that all
Jews, even the empty ones, are full of mitzvot like a Rimon? We can answer based on this Kli Yakar that,
No, you're only full of mitzvot after you do
teshuvah.
The depth of the Yehi Ratzon of Rosh Hashanah is that we should be
full of mitzvot like Rimon, meaning that all of our sins should turn to Zechuyot,
and that way we'll be full of
mitzvot; This is one of many explanations of the contradiction of how can one be empty and full at the same time.
Interestingly, the Gemara in Berachot 57A says, If
you dream of pomegranates, that is a
sign that you will be successful in your religion. If you're a Talmid
Chacham, you'll be successful in your learning, and if you're an
unlearned person, you'll be successful with mitzvot. Why? Because the
pomegranate is a symbol of being full of mitzvot.
The Emek D'Avar has a different answer. He says, there are
two kinds of mitzvot. There are mitzvot
that we do between man and God and mitzvot that we do between man and his
fellow. So when we're saying Even the ones that are empty, we mean even
the Jew who is empty of mitzvot Ben Adam l'Makom- meaning he might not be the most religious person, but
he's still full of mitzvot, because even the Jew who's
empty is still involved in acts of Sedaka and Chesed. So he's full,
due to his benevolence that comes from those deeds.
The Siftei Hachamim, Masechet Megillah says something
very interesting. He asks what it means to be Malei- He says when you do
a mitzvah, you can be empty of emotions.
Maleh, to be full means to be full of passion. So we are asking that we should be full, that
our mitzvot should be done with passion. And he brings a proof,
because the Gemara in Mesechet Pesachim 74A says that when they
would roast the korban pesach, they would specifically use pomegranate wood for the pole of the rotisserie, and no other wood, because
pomegranate wood is very, very dry. It doesn't have any moisture and therefore
it's very good for cooking.
So when we say we should be full of Mitzvot like a Rimon, we
mean that we should be doing the mitzvot in a full way, like the
firewood that's created from pomegranate wood.
The Maharal Diskin, in his
commentary on Tetzaveh, has a beautiful explanation of full of
mitzvot like a Rimon. He says a Rimon is full of pits, but you don't
see them. They're covered. So too, the rasha is full of mitzvot.
That means he has a lot of potential, he's full of mitzvot, but he's like a Rimon-covered
with a thick shell, and therefore we don't see them. We don't appreciate his mitzvot,
because they're covered up with his sins or whatever else it may be. But deep
down inside, he's full of mitzvot, like the Rimon. When you look
at the Rimon from the outside, it doesn't look like anything. But even
the empty people are really full with mitzvot, like the Rimon is
full, although you don't see it.
And as to our question Why, on Rosh Hashanah, do we say we should be filled with mitzvot, like a Rimon, if we said, it sounds like all Jews are empty that
way?
The Pri Hadash in Or HaChaim 683 answers that it means a
person is full of mitzvot over a lifetime. We are requesting that this
year, our mitzvot should increase in such a way. That's our song of the
pomegranate, that sings the song of the beauty of the Jewish people.
