Another Use for Apples

This is from Sefer Lekutei Segulos Yisrael– Yisrael Lisegulaso (Feldheim, 2008), based on the sefer of Rav Shabsai Lipshitz (Dayan of Yulnitza) zt”l.  Thank you to Rabbi DK for permission to post this.

Translation of  Segulah #4: For love between man and wife, take a new needle and a new apple, inscribe a circle on the apple, write inside the circle the man's name and beneath it the word "Adam", and the wife's name and beneath it the word "Chava" (Eve), and both should eat the apple.

 I don't know exactly what he means by having them both eat the apple.  Simultaneously? Sequentially?  The same day?  One thing I do know:  I wouldn't leave any pieces of that apple lying around where the poilishe shikseh might find it.  By the way, the association of apples and love is not unique to our tradition: See, e.g., here.


Maybe this is connected to the passuk in Shir Hashirim 8:5

 מִי זֹאת, עֹלָה מִן הַמִּדְבָּר, מִתְרַפֶּקֶת עַל דּוֹדָהּ; תַּחַת הַתַּפּוּחַ עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ
( Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple-tree (Tapu'ach) I awakened thee)

On the other hand, we are far from certain as to the identity of the "Tapu'ach."  Although this has meant "apple" in the past two millennia, there are many good reasons to suspect that the Biblical tapuach refers to a completely different species.  See, for example, Tosfos Shabbos 88a d'h Piryo, who brings evidence that tapuach means the citron/esrog, which at least has a strong gender symbolism in the sefarim that discuss such things.  But try eating one with your wife!  Some modern writers suggest that the tapuach of Tanach is the apricot.  I certainly would say that eating an apricot together, especially a magic apricot, is a more sensual experience than eating an apple or an esrog.  Make sure that neither of you inhale the pit.

I also liked the segula (#5) that to eradicate an inappropriate love, drink water in which willow twigs have been cooked.  I knew it would cure headaches and fevers.  Nice to know that it cures a very different kind of fever as well.  My only quibble is that in the sense that Hashem always provides the cure before creating the disease, I would have put #5 before #4.

The Sefer is available here  and, as of this posting, it's on sale.

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N.B.

This remark is in the comments, but I wanted to emphasize it.
Despite the tone of this post, I want you to know that the individual that edited this book for Feldheim is a Talmid Chacham muvhak and an exemplary yarei shamayim.  If there were more like him,  we would be zocheh to Achishenu.  With the current events surrounding the EJF, and the encouragement and occasional participation of allegedly honorable individuals in the mob-action lynchings of the principals of that organization (example: Rav Elya Ber Vachtfogel agreed to affiliate himself with the EJF after Rabbi Tropper resigned, and he was immediately called by the henchman of a certain gadol in Eretz Yisrael who explicitly threatened him with public humiliation if he didn't not only retract his acceptance but also claim to have never agreed to join the organization), it is only the adinus (tranquility) and the rei'ach Gan Eden of such people as this book's editor that clears the stink from my nostrils and protects my faith in the concept of of the spiritually salutary effects of a life of Torah.