5784/2024
Shir HaShirim 2:13 -
The fig tree has produced its green figs, and the grapevine's tender grapes give out their fragrance; arise my beloved, my fair one, and go forth.
Figs are surprisingly useful, considering I can't recall ever having seen one. Figs help keep baked goods fresh, are a food source for thousands of different species, can be made into honey, and are of the Seven Fruits of Eretz Yisrael. That's not all, though; on the not-so-bright side of things, one species of fig literally strangles its host tree, killing and replacing it. Like the fruit itself, figs in Tanach have a mixed reputation. Rashi cites a Midrash that cites Rabbi Nechemya, in Masechet Sanhedrin 70b, writing of the Tree of Da’at that "This was the tree of which they had eaten; by the very thing through which their ruin (exile from Gan Eden) had been caused was some improvement (clothing) effected in their condition". The fig tree is also synonymous with prosperity throughout Tanach, being used both as the symbol of a gluttonous civilization and of the future messianic era.
This duality, of being used both for wrong and right, is also apparent in Shemot Rabbah. Even though in 1:36, Chazal write that the unripe figs in our Pasuk represent the wicked who were lacking in Teshvua when leaving Mitzrayim, in 15:1 they are said to represent the righteous!
One possible way to tie the two together is as follows: 1:36 mentions that the wicked did Teshuvah in their hearts, but were not wholehearted in their Teshuvah, because of future treason of the Cheit Ha’Eigel. That Medrash focuses on the evil; 15:1 is focusing on the good. The former theme, when applied to the theme of prosperity, exists only when the fruit is eaten mindlessly, but the latter application is when the people's hearts are directed to a Higher Power. The same with the example of Adam HaRishon; the fig was first used for earthly gain, but later for the Tzni’utdik pursuit of clothing.
Just as in the fig fruit, the flowers are only on the inside of the fruit, not the outside, so too, the hidden goodness in wrongdoers, past and present, is banished from sight; may it be revealed once again, soon in our days.