Midrash sobre Cantares 2:3

“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the boys. In its shade I delighted and I sat, and its fruit was sweet to my palate” (Song of Songs 2:3).
“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,” Rabbi Huna and Rabbi Aḥa in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: Just as this apple tree, everyone flees from it during the heat, and why is that, because it does not have shade to enable one to sit in its shade, so too, the nations of the world fled from the shadow of the Holy One blessed be He on the day of the giving of the Torah. Is, perhaps, the same true regarding Israel? The verse states: “In its shade I delighted and I sat,” it is I who delighted in Him and not the nations.
Rabbi Aḥa ben Rabbi Ze’eira said two [statements]. He said one: This apple tree³³See Tosafot (Shabbat 88a) who argue that the tree referred to here is a citron rather than an apple tree. produces its blossom before its leaves; so too, Israel, when they were in Egypt, achieved faith before hearing. That is what is written: “The people believed, and they heard that the Lord had remembered” (Exodus 4:31).³⁴The Israelites had a tradition from their fathers that they would be redeemed, and they believed that would occur even before they heard that God had spoken to Moses and said that He would redeem Israel (Midrash HaMevoar).

Rabbi Aḥa ben Rabbi Ze’eira said another: Just as this apple tree produces its blossom before its leaves, so too, Israel put performance before hearing, as it is stated: “We will perform and we will heed [nishma]” (Exodus 24:7).³⁵Although translated here as “heed,” the term nishma can be translated “hear.” The point here is that Israel committed to following God’s commands even before hearing what they were.
Rabbi Azarya said two [statements]: Just as the apple tree produces is ripened fruit only in Sivan, so too, Israel emitted a good fragrance only in Sivan.³⁶Sivan is the month in which Israel received the Torah. Rabbi Azarya said another: Just as this apple tree, from the time it produces its blossom until it produces ripened fruit is fifty days, so too, from the time that Israel departed from Egypt until they received the Torah it was fifty days. When did they receive it? It was “in the third month from the departure of the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:1).
Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said two [statements]: Just as this apple, you give an isar for it³⁷An isar is a coin of relatively little value. and you can smell its fragrances numerous times, so too, Moses said to Israel: ‘If you wish to be redeemed, you can be redeemed with a simple matter.’ [This is analogous] to one who was injured in his legs and he circulated among all the doctors to be cured, but he was not cured. One came and said to him: ‘If you seek to be cured, you can be cured with a simple matter, attach animal dung to it.’ So too, Moses said to Israel: ‘If you wish to be redeemed, you can be redeemed with a simple matter: “You shall take a bundle of hyssop and dip”’ (Exodus 12:22). They said to him: ‘Moses our master, this bundle of hyssop, how much it its value, four ma’a or five ma’a?’³⁸It is of little monetary value. He said to them: ‘Even if it is one [ma’a], and it will cause you to acquire the plunder of Egypt, the plunder at the sea, the plunder of Siḥon and Og, and the plunder of the thirty-one kings. Regarding a palm branch,³⁹The reference is to the four species taken on Sukkot. on which a person is required to expend much money and it is associated with many mitzvot, all the more so.’ Therefore, Moses cautions Israel: “You shall take for you on the first day” (Leviticus 23:40).

Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said another: This is analogous to a king who had a gem and pearls. His son came and said to him: ‘Give it to me.’ He said to him: ‘It is for you, it is yours, and I am giving it to you.’ So too, Israel said before the Holy One blessed be He: “The Lord is my strength [ozi]⁴⁰This is expounded to mean that the Israelites were asking that the strength of the Lord be given to them. and song” (Exodus 15:2). The Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘It is for you, it is yours, and I am giving it to you.’ Oz is nothing other than Torah, “The Lord will give strength [oz] to his people” (Psalms 29:11).
Rabbi Levi said: There were three great expectations that Israel anticipated at the sea. They anticipated the Torah, they anticipated the banners, they anticipated the Tabernacle. They anticipated the Torah, as it is written: “In its shade I delighted and I sat.”⁴¹The connection between shade and Torah is based on the verse: “I placed My words in your mouth and with the shade of My hand I covered you” (Isaiah 51:16). They anticipated the banners, as it is written: “I delighted.”⁴²This is derived in conjunction with the next verse, which states “his banner over me is love” (Song of Songs 2:4) (Matnot Kehuna). They anticipated the Tabernacle, as it is written: “And I sat [veyashavti],” just as it says: “For I have not dwelt [yashavti] in a house from the day I took the children of Israel up from Egypt [to this day; I have moved about in a tent and a Tabernacle]” (II Samuel 7:6). This is similar to what Rabbi Menaḥaman said: “They went out to the wilderness of Shur” (Exodus 15:22); it teaches that they prophesied about themselves that they were destined to align according to their various camps, banners, and rows [shurot], like the alignment of a vineyard.
“And its fruit was sweet to my palate,” Rabbi Yitzḥak said: These are the twelve months that Israel stayed before Mount Sinai, reveling in the sweetness of the Torah. What is the reason for “and its fruit was sweet to my palate”?⁴³Clearly if someone is sensing the sweetness, they are sensing it with their palate. It was sweet to my palate, but to the palate of the nations of the world it was bitter as wormwood.