Welcome to our Perek Shira class. Today's song is the song of אֵלִים שֶׁבַּשְּׁרָצִים ,the powerful strong rodents. And they say . אֶשְׁתְּךָ כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה בְּיַרְכְּתֵי בֵיתֶךָ בָּנֶיךָ כִּשְׁתִלֵי זֵיתִים סָבִיב לְשֻׁלְחָנֶךָ: (תהילים קכח ג) Your wife is like a fruitful vine, on the side of your house. Your sons are like olive saplings around your table. (Tehilim 128,3) What do these rodents have to do with this healthy pregnancies and children? So to say? We go back to the Gemara in Masechet Sotah that tells us that in the merit of the righteous woman we left Mitzrayim. What did the righteous women do? They convinced their husbands to have children even in extenuating circumstances with all the challenges that went with being in Mitzrayim with all the back breaking labor. The sefer Kol Rina says that the husbands told their wives, I'm working hard. You are working hard. Who says that your pregnancy will be successful? What, are we doing here?" And the ladies told their husbands, אֶשְׁתְּךָ כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה : Your wife is like a vineyard . The Midrash Raba in Shemot Raba perek 16 tells us that one who that sees grapes in a dream, his wife will not miscarry, as the Gemara in Berachot 47A says. So the wife was telling her husband, Don't worry, I'm like a vineyard where the grapes are attached to the cluster very strongly and they don't fall down. And when the husband said, How am I going to support them , his wife said, Don't worry, your sons are going to be like olive saps, as it says, one who sees an olive in his dream will have many children and these many children, סָבִיב לְשֻׁלְחָנֶךָ they will be like olive saplings around your large table. You'll have money to support them. Additionally , the term Sheratzim also refers to the Jewish wives in Mitzrayim (although rodent is a negative term), as it says וּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל פָּר֧וּ וַֽיִּשְׁרְצ֛וּ וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ they multiplied like rodents, six at a time. So –although it doesn't sound nice to us , we're referring to the Jewish woman who had the strength to give birth to six at a time, like these rodents do, with very healthy offspring. Furthermore, the Midrash Raba says on the pasuk Shemot 31 וּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל פָּר֧וּ וַֽיִּשְׁרְצ֛וּ וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ that there is a machloket among the Amoraim. One says, we're compared to the strong Sheratzim, which gives birth to six at a time. Others say it's to the smallest Sheratzim , that give birth to 60 at a time. Regardless, the point is that like little scorpions that come out as teeny little things, but yet strong and healthy, so too we're being told that even though they were six at one time, they were healthy. It wasn't like modern times, where if someone had sextuplets, they'd be weak. פָּר֧וּ וַֽיִּשְׁרְצ֛וּ וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ וַיַּֽעַצְמ֖וּ ׃ They were very strong. They're very powerful. The sefer Kenaf Rananim asks why it says אֶשְׁתְּךָ כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה בְּיַרְכְּתֵי בֵיתֶךָ /she's all over the different sides of your house? Because sometimes when a lady many children, she's tired, she's in bed, she's too weak to take care of the household. But here, we're saying, No, she's all over the house. She's taking care of everything. Rabbenu Bachye adds beautiful thought on Bereshit 34,1 from Midrash Tanhuma on Vayishlach chapter six that says that when a lady is , אֶשְׁתְּךָ כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה בְּיַרְכְּתֵי בֵיתֶךָ which means she's on the side of her house, she's inside, she's modest, she's sanua . She brings kapara because it uses the term yerech which is the side, and it says in Vayikra 1,11 yerech Hamizbe'ach-, so the lady who's a modest lady is like an altar that brings kapara and she will have children. The next term talks about the olive sprouts because the children will be fit to be anointed with the holy anointing oil, which is made out of olive oil. He continues on, to tell us that Masechet Yoma daf 47 describes the lady called the Kimchit who had seven sons that all became Kohanim Gedolim because of her tremendous modesty. And again, this goes back to the modest woman of Mitzrayim . It says none of them did anything improper. There was only one lady Shlomit bat Divri that was called out. All the other ladies were modest. And that's adds to the, the, the tremendous beracha that came upon the ladies of Mitzrayim and allowed them to raise these wonderful families. In their merit, we were saved from Mitzrayim. So again, this pasuk captures the greatness and the righteousness of the Jewish women at that time. And that is the strength of the rodents. The Chatam Sofer, in his commentary on Tehilim on this pasuk, adds something beautiful. And he says that a lady is compared to a vine because wine is easy. You put the wine in the barrel and you sit it and it develops. SO she'll have children easily, but raising children is not as easy. If you want to turn an olive into olive oil, you have to crush it and smash it and push it. It's not as easy to make olive oil from olives as it is to get wine from grapes (a little hinuch hint) And finally, a beautiful thought from the Midrash Shemuel in his commentary on Pirkei Avot 3,1 He's bothered by the word אֶשְׁתְּךָ which has a segol with three dots rather than the typical spelling of wife which is Ishtecha - with a hirik - which has one dot . He says that there are three partners in a person- a husband, wife and God. And so we put the three dots there to tell you that if you want to have a successful marriage, we need the Shechina to come down. He says, that's why it says כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה It could have said porah. Why is there an extra Yud there? Because then פרעה jas a Yud and Heh and as we know, it says that when the Jewish people left Mitzrayim, God Himself testified on the kashrut of the Jewish people. If one would say, " Oh you Jewish people were in Egypt all those years, and you think your lineage is pure?" God testified, הַפָּלוֹי , all the names have a ה in the beginning and a י at the end , and they're called Shivteh Yah tribes of God , עדות לישראל the tribes of God. God came down and testified that, that they all proper couples. And that's why this pasuk specifically referring to those ladies, is Ishtecha not Eshtecha and Gefen Poriah, not Porah . Rashi brings down this point that Hashem testified to the fidelity of the Jewish people. (See Rashi in Bamidbar 26,5 and Tehilim 122,4)