Kommentar zu Schir haSchirim 1:11

Circlets of gold we will make for you. I and My tribunal decided before Pharaoh’s arrival that I should entice him and harden his heart to pursue you with all the best of his hidden treasures; so that we should make circlets of golden ornaments for you.

We will add wreaths of gold to your points⁵³ Points or studs (nekudot). The term is used as well to designate the vowel signs that are placed above and below the consonants of the Hebrew alphabet and look very much like points (nekudot). R. Ezra will construct an elaborate exegetic pun upon the multiple meanings of the term in which the studs (nekudot) of silver—the teachings of written Torah—will serve as the animating force of the wreaths of gold—oral Torah—just as the vowels (nekudot) transform inert consonants into pliable words and living discourse. of silver. The parable conveys that both written and oral Torah are conveyed by the shekhinah. The two are compared to gold and silver: “I prefer the teaching You proclaimed to thousands of gold and silver pieces” [Ps. 119:72]. Similarly, they are compared to wine and milk, and honey and milk, as in “All who are thirsty, come for water … buy … wine and milk without cost” [Isa. 55:1]. And “Sweetness drops from your lips O bride; honey and milk are under your tongue” [Song of Songs 4:11]. That is to say that they are all the image and appearance: water from wind and fire from water. Because redness is closer to us, the verse gives precedence to the red. But the Holy One gives precedence to the white, as it says: “Mine is silver and mine is gold” [Hag. 2:8].⁵⁴“Wine,” “red,” and “gold” are symbols of the left side, while “white,” “milk,” and “silver” symbolize the right. Isa. 55:1, referring to human access, mentions wine before milk. The Haggai verse, referring to God, reverses the symbolic order: God prefers silver (ḥesed) to gold (din).

With spangles of silver. That were already in your possession, that you took out of Egypt; for the plunder at the sea⁴⁵Symbolized by gold. (Sifsei Chachomim) was greater than the plunder in Egypt.⁴⁶Symbolized by silver. (Sifsei Chachomim)

To your points of silver: Oral Torah is emanated from the written and it sustains her, just as the spirit upholds the body. Thus written Torah has been compared to points [nekudot], since the vowels [nekudot] function among the consonants like the spirit in the body, as our sages say.⁵⁵See Ecclesiastes Rabbah 8:11, where R. Haninah interprets Zach. 12:1 “God created [yatzar] humanity’s spirit within it” as meaning that the spirit has been tied or bound up within the body in order to animate. See Chavel (cited on page 10 of the editor’s note above), note 39 ad locum. Both Torahs, oral and written, were given through the shekhinah as they state in the Midrash to Psalms, “The Lord gives a command; the women who bring the news are a great host” [Ps. 68:12].⁵⁶Concerning this verse, the Midrash states: “As for the Holy One, blessed be He, His name and might, when He declaims in enunciated speech, the sound is divided into seven voices.” Divine speech creates the cosmogenerative septet ranging from ḥesed to the shekhinah. However, it only becomes audible, giving rise to the differentiated cosmos and producing prophetic discourse through the aegis of the shekhinah, the final rung in the chain of divine being. From here it is clear that the innermost voice was not differentiated and rendered audible until it reached the end of the chain of emanation, the tenth sefirah.
Of this Scripture says: “They dance about, dance about; the beautiful one of the house divides the spoils” [Ps. 86:13].
Now you have to know that which is taught in the Tractate Berakhot⁵⁷b. Berakhot 6b.: “Whoever partakes of a wedding-feast and does not make the bridegroom rejoice transgresses five ‘voices,’ as Scripture says: ‘The voice of gladness, the voice of joy, the voice of bridegroom and the voice of bride, a voice saying “Praise to the Lord”’ [Jer. 33:11], and so forth. And if one does give joy to the bridegroom, what is his reward? He attains Torah, which was given with five ‘voices,’ as its says: ‘It was morning on the third day and there were thunderings⁵⁸The term for “thunder” and “sound” throughout this passage is kol, the same as “voice” in the Jeremiah passage. The thunderbolts are the “voice” of God as Torah is given. From the reading of the Jeremiah passage it appears that the five “voices” are the five lower sefirot from tiferet to malkhut, or from bridegroom to bride. … and the sound of the shofar …’ [Exod. 19:16]. ‘There was the sound of the shofar … and God responded in thunder’ [Exod. 19:19].” Is it true that there are five? Does it not also say: “And all the people saw the thunderbolts?” [Exod. 20:18].⁵⁹This might mean there were six or seven, thus breaking the parallel of five (wedding shouts) to five (Torah-sounds). Sinai is frequently depicted in the Midrash as the marriage of God and Israel. Those had already occurred previously.
Here they spoke of five voices. But we have also noted seven voices, those mentioned by King David in the Psalm [29]: “Render unto the Lord, O sons of gods!” Our sages have said that the divine Word was divided into seven voices.⁶⁰Shemot Rabbah 28, end.
In the Mekhilta [to Exod. 15:26] it says: “If you surely listen to the voice of the Lord your God.” These are the ten commandments, given from mouth to mouth by ten voices.
Now you attune your ear and listen to my words, so that the words of the sages be fulfilled. That which Moses and all Israel attained on that occasion, when they saw eye to eye, was only five voices, no more. That is why they forced Rabbi Helbo to admit that “And all the people saw the thunderbolts” referred to previously heard voices. These five are the totality. Moses asked to attain more, but was not answered. These five voices contain all seven extensions of space.⁶¹North, east, south, west, up, down, and inward. These will be associated below with the seven lower sefirot. From them are derived the seventy divine names that are appointed over the seventy nations. Together with the innermost voice they comprise seventy-one. That innermost voice split [into seventy] as it addressed the seventy nations. Every nation heard the Word, and that is the “great voice that did not cease” [Deut. 5:19]. All this is compared to a hammer, whose power is one but which fragments the rock into multiple pieces. So the totality of all is five voices, their specification is seven, except for the innermost voice, parallel to the singular nation. Of this it says: “A great voice that did not cease.” But the one who refers to ten voices holds fast to the highest total, that of the ten sefirot. All these lead in the same direction, having been “given by a single shepherd” [Eccles. 12:11].

Spangles. Silver objects studded and decorated with stripes and hues.