Schir haSchirim 1:17 Kommentar: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Ezra ben Solomon

“The beams of our house” [1:17]. The Talmud writes in tractate Yoma chapter three. Someone called Nicanor traveled to the distant city of Alexandria to bring back beautiful boards to make doors for the Temple. On his way back home with the boards, waves rose up in the sea and threatened to drown him. He took one of the boards and threw it into the sea, but the waves continued to grow and the people wanted throw another board into the sea in order to lighten the ship. Nicanor cried and said to the people, throw me also into the sea along with the boards. It is better that I die. As soon as he said that, the sea became calm. Nonetheless, he was still anguished about the first board that had been thrown into the sea. When he came to the shore, he was anguished and looked out to sea for the board and the board swam in from the sea. Some scholars say that a sea creature brought the board from the sea.¹³B. Yoma, 38a; Yalkut Shimoni, Song of Songs, Remez, 985.

The beams of our houses are cedars. This is in praise of the Tabernacle.⁶⁶Alternatively, the beams whose function is to support the structure, symbolize the righteous whose concerns and desires are that their actions benefit and protect their entire generation. (Sefer Duda’im)

Cedars are the beams of our house: The beams of the tabernacle were of acacia wood, cedar being a type of acacia. So it is written: “I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias and myrtles and oleasters” [Isa. 41:19].

Our panels. I do not know if this רָהִיטֵנוּ is a term referring to boards or a term referring to bars, but I do know that also in the language of the Mishnah, we learned, “the רָהִיטֵי⁶⁷The text of the Mishnah referred to by Rashi as we have it does not mention רהיטי at all, rather the text reads, the אבנות [stones] of a person’s house and the קורות [beams] of his home, testify against him.” However, the text that Rashi had [רהיטי ביתו של אדם] can be found in Dikdukei Sofrim and also in Radak’s Sefer Hashoroshim. [panels] of a person’s house testify against him.”⁶⁸Maseches Chagigah 16a. ⁶⁹Alternatively, רהט means “hasten” in Aramaic. The Targum for רץ [=run] is “רהט,” see Bereishis 18:7. It therefore symbolizes the Beis Hamikdosh which King Shlomo hastened and completed in seven years.