json/Midrash/Aggadah/Midrash Rabbah/Shir HaShirim Rabbah/English/The Best Guarantors.json

{
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Shir HaShirim Rabbah",
    "versionSource": "http://www.breslov.org/the-best-guarantors/",
    "versionTitle": "The Best Guarantors",
    "actualLanguage": "en",
    "languageFamilyName": "english",
    "isBaseText": false,
    "isSource": false,
    "direction": "ltr",
    "heTitle": "שיר השירים רבה",
    "categories": [
        "Midrash",
        "Aggadah",
        "Midrash Rabbah"
    ],
    "text": [
        [
            [],
            [],
            [],
            [
                "“Draw me after you / we will run” (Song of Songs 1:4). At Sinai, when the Jews were ready to receive the Torah, God said to them, “What? Am I supposed to give you the Torah without any security? Bring some good guarantors that you will keep it properly, and I will give it to you.” Jews: Our ancestors will be our guarantors. God: They themselves need a guarantor! Avraham questioned Me: “How will I know?” (Genesis 15:8). Yitzchak loved Esav although I hate him (Malachi 1:3). Yaakov thought I mistreated him (see Isaiah 40:27). Jews: Our prophets. God: I have complaints against them, too: “The shepherds sinned against Me” (Jeremiah 2:8). “Israel, your prophets were like foxes…” (Ezekiel 13:4). Jews: Our children are our guarantors. God: Now, that’s a guarantor! “From the mouth of infants and babes You founded oz (strength)” (Psalms 8:3)—this is Torah (ibid., 29:11). What happens if the borrower doesn’t pay? The lender collects from the guarantor. “If you forget [My] Torah, I will ‘forget’ your children” (Hosea 4:6). Therefore a person has to bring his child into the Torah and educate him in it (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:4:1)."
            ]
        ]
    ],
    "sectionNames": [
        "Parasha",
        "Chapter",
        "Midrash"
    ]
}