Kommentar zu Schir haSchirim 6:11

I went down to the garden of nuts. This too is the words of the Divine Presence, “Behold, I have come to this second Beis Hamikdosh, to you.”

I went down into the garden of nuts: Shekhinah says: “My eyes and heart are toward Israel, to see among them an enlightened person who seeks God.” This refers to the Second Temple period. Israel are compared to a nut because they are all responsible for one another.¹⁹⁹Nuts grow in clusters that cannot easily be separated. Of this Scripture says: “They stumble, each over his brother” [Lev. 26:15]. Thus it was during the Second Temple: there were righteous and pious among them, but they were punished because of the audacious. Israel replied: “I do not know what my soul has done to me;” I myself caused “my people’s chariots to be given freely” [Cant. 6:12]. Those who behaved toward me with abusive power, the kings of Greece.²⁰⁰The text is somewhat obscure, but seems to mean that Israel, because of the way they related to one another, brought upon themselves the Seleucid oppressor.

To see the moist plants of the valley. What moisture, [i.e.,] good deeds I would see in you.

Whether the vine has blossomed. Whether you would blossom before Me [into] Torah scholars, scribes, and teachers.

If the pomegranates had sprouted. Those who fulfill the commandments are full of merits. Why are [Bnei] Yisroel compared to a nut? Just as this nut, you see it entirely of wood [shell], and what is inside is not discernible, and you crack it and find it full of compartments of edible food, so are the [Bnei] Yisroel modest and humble in their deeds, and the students among them are not discernible, and they do not boast by announcing their own praise. But if you examine him, you find him full of wisdom. There are many additional Midrashic interpretations of this matter. Just as if this nut falls into mud, its inside does not become sullied, so are the [Bnei] Yisroel exiled among the nations and they suffer many blows, but their deeds do not become sullied.