V’rav, and many: There are several problems with our understanding of the proof text from Song of Songs. The sages commented on the proof text, b’aday adaim, they became fully adorned, rather read this as b’adarim adarim, flocks and flocks of sheep.” Why was it necessary for the Midrash to interpret this expression in this way rather than leaving it in its plain sense? Furthermore, this verse uses a strange word in conjunction with this expression: v’tavo’i b’aday adaim, literally “you came fully adorned,” when the word vatehi, and you shall be, would have been a better choice. The expression aday, is usually used to describe beautiful adornments such as clothes or jewelry, but here this verse goes on to say, “But you were completely naked.” So aday cannot mean adorned in the normal sense of the word. That is why the sages interpreted the word to be adarim, flocks, instead. We can now begin to understand what this verse is speaking about. The verse from Deuteronomy contains the word v’rav while the proof text contains the word r’vava. While these words are connected (they both come from the same root word) r’vava implies an increase in number while the word v’rav implies a growth in strength. Both of these meanings are implied in the proof text, v’tarbee vatigdalee, “they grew mighty and greater.” According to the Midrash when the Israelite women gave birth they would go out and give birth in the field. God would then put a rock in the hand of each infant from which it would imbibe on milk and honey. From this we learn the Israelites became not only many but mighty, well beyond the normal dictates of nature. When the children were old enough they would enter the cities and join their families in flocks like sheep. Their great increase in number allowed them to reach the allotted number at which God promised to redeem them sooner than was originally anticipated. According to the Midrash, Shadaim nachonu, “breasts well fashioned,” is a reference to Moses and Aaron. “Your breasts are like two doves” – these are Moses and Aaron because through them Israel nursed from the divine blessings above. Rabbi Moshe Alshich, the great Torah scholar, explained that because Moses and Aaron taught Torah to the people of Israel, they were compared to great towers, as in “My breasts are like towers:” these are scholars of Torah. Another reason the people were able to leave Egypt sooner is because of the severity of the oppression. The verse says, “Your hair grew long.” The word for hair, sai’ar, is similar to the word sa’ar as in sa’ar binafsho , troubled soul. Rashi interprets this word to mean bitterness of soul. It was the bitterness of their experience which caused God to redeem them sooner. The people of Israel had no commandments to their credit that would give them the merit of redemption; there needed to be some type of arousal from below. This is what the text means when it says they were naked and bare. God gave Israel two mitzvot – the blood of the pesach offering and the blood of circumcision – to bring about this arousal from below that would motivate God to redeem Israel.