הַבָּאִים יַשְׁרֵש יַעֲקֹב יָּצִיץ וּפָּרַח יִשְׁרָּאֵל וּמָּלְׁאוּ פְׁנֵי תֵבֵל תְׁנוּבָּה
“Those who came, whom Yaakov caused to take root, Yisroel flourished and blossomed and they filled the face of the world with produce”
The opening verse of the Haftorah refers to the Jewish people coming down to Egypt. Like a seed, the Jewish people took root in Egypt, flourished and multiplied until they filled the land.
The Exile and subsequent Exodus from Egypt was a necessary preparation for the Jewish people to be able to receive the Torah and Mitzvos on Har Sinai. As such, the planting of a seed is also a metaphor for Mitzvos.
The seed of a tree is inedible. It has neither taste nor smell. But it has the power to produce a tree that will bear large volumes of edible and tasty fruits year on end.
In order to grow, the seed must be planted in fertile ground. If the seed is planted in unfertile land, like a desert, it too will fail to germinate.
The Mitzvos come from a lofty source Above. They are revelations of the Divine Will. But the Mitzvos descend into our world to be expressed in physical form, observed through simple physical actions. In this physical form, they have no resemblance to their original lofty state, like a seed which is incomparable to the fruit.
The ‘seed’ of the Mitzvah needs to be ‘planted’ in fertile soil. This is the Jewish people, whom Hashem describes as His “Land of desire”.
When a Jew performs a Mitzvah, the “seed” takes root. Like the seedling emerging from the ground, the G-dly energy hidden within the Mitzvah emerges to a state of revelation within the world.
The full revelation of the G-dly light of the Mitzvah will be experienced in the times of Moshiach, when we will taste the sweet fruits, delighting in the revelation of the essence of the Mitzvos and their hidden meaning.
