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“Catch you on the flip side” is an English idiom based on technology that is disappearing. How many
people still know what a phonograph record is? Or a 45? Or a 78? Or an LP? How many people can picture
a stack of vinyl records on a spindle waiting to drop into place to take their turn under the needle on the
turntable? How many of us still have records or a turntable? A CD or DVD doesn’t have anything on the
flip side. An mp3 doesn’t have any sides and a collection of mp3s is a collection of singles randomly
shuffled or organized into playlists. As the technology for the phonograph becomes rarer, fewer of us will
remember the flip side and while the idiom may remain with us for a long time, attaching the idiom to the
actual action of flipping a record will be forgotten.

Other idioms have already been separated from their origins. The pupil, the central aperture of our eye,
was known as the “apple” in the Old English of the 9th century and before, because apples would have
been the most readily available spherical object of comparison. When we speak of the “apple of our eye”
we speak of someone or something that we cherish and that is precious to us. This idiom combines an Old
English description of our eye with a meaning derived from the Hebrew Scriptures.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ha’azinu, we read of God’s care for Israel, and that God kept Israel
as “the ishon of His eye”. The Hebrew word ishon means the dark area of the eye, according to the
medieval commentator Rashi, based on the use of the word in one place in Proverbs to mean “darkness”. It
was translated as the English “apple” at the time of the earliest translations of the Bible into English,
resulting in the phrase “the apple of His eye”. The image of the pupil of the eye in this verse clearly speaks
to God’s care, God’s protection of Israel as something precious. Jeffrey H. Tigay notes in his commentary
on the Book of Deuteronomy, that since people protect the eye reflexively, comparing someone to the
pupil or “apple” of the eye indicates that they are under constant protective care. From this idea of the
constant care of something precious, the idiom “the apple of my eye” developed in English.

When we see those who are the “apple of our eye”, we may also see ourselves. Rabbi David Kimchi, a
medieval commentator, notes that the Hebrew word ishon “pupil” is like the Hebrew word ‘ish “man,
person”. He extends the similarity of the words to say that the word ishon, refers not to the color of the
dark part of the eye, but the tiny reflection of ourselves that we see in the pupils of others. Being “the
apple of God’s eye” is then more than being protected or cherished, it is a reminder to us that however
small our actions for good, they are a reflection, an imitation of God’s actions.

With so much happening in the world around us and the measure of uncertainty that each of us may face,
it can be comforting to remember that we are “the apple of God’s eye”. It can be reassuring to be reminded
of God’s care and protection. But our comfort can also come from looking at those who are “the apple of
our eye” as well as those who are not, seeing the small reflection of ourselves in their eyes, and
remembering that each of us has the power to comfort, to protect, to assist, and to aid those around us.

Temple Talk is a recap of sermons given from the Bimah for those who missed a Sermon or who wanted to revisit the words spoken at a previous sermon.