Commentary for Song of Songs 1:2

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. She recites this song with her mouth in her exile and in her widowhood, “If only King Shlomo would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth as of yore,”⁷“With the kisses of his mouth” is obviously superfluous, therefore Rashi explains that it refers to the days of yore. (Sifsei Chachomim) because in some places they kiss on the back of the hand or on the shoulder, “but I desire and wish that he behave with me as his original behavior, like a bridegroom with a bride, mouth to mouth.”⁸If it were not mouth to mouth the verb נשק [=kiss] would be followed with a lamed as in Bereishis 27:26 and Ibid. 29:11, and in many other places. (Sifsei Chachomim)

Oh let him kiss me: These are the Glory’s³⁷The Glory is tiferet, the masculine pole of creative energy in the realm of divine emanation. words, full of longing, desiring to make its ascent, to adhere to the light of the supernal luminescence to which nothing else is like. It ascends in thought and idea and thus speaks in third person. The kiss symbolizes the joy attained by the soul in its adhesion to the source of life and the additional infusion of the holy spirit.³⁸Source of life (mekor ha-ḥayyim) and holy spirit (ruaḥ ha-kodesh) generally symbolize ḥokhmah in Geronan sources. Thus the verse specifies “kisses.” For each and every sefirotic power³⁹Literally sibah or cause. receives consciousness and a superabundance from that sweet light and pure refulgence. When it speaks to the Glory, gateway to the entities [i.e., the sefirot], it speaks in third person.

For ... is dearer. Your love [is dearer] to me than any banquet of wine or than any pleasure and joy. In the Hebrew language, every feast of pleasure and joy is called after the wine, as the matter is stated, “to the house of the wine feast,”⁹Esther 7:8. [and as in,] “They shall not drink wine with song,”¹⁰Yeshayahu 24:9. [and as in,] “And there were harp and lute, tambourine and flute, and wine at their drinking parties.”¹¹Ibid. 5:12. This is the explanation of its apparent meaning. And according to its allegorical meaning: It was said in reference to when He gave them His Torah and spoke to them face to face. And that love is still more pleasant to them than any pleasure, and they are assured by Him that He will appear to them again to explain to them the secret of its reasons and its hidden mysteries, and they beseech Him to fulfill His word. This is [the meaning of], “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.”

For your love is better [tovim] than wine: This emanated light expands over me because it comes from You, that is to say, it is derived from “wine,” from divine Wisdom called “I,” the rung of supernal luminescence. All desire and will is to ascend and adhere to Wisdom.

For your love is better [tovim] than wine: The phrase “is better” [tovim] refers to the outpouring and amplification of that clear light, which divides and shines in all directions.⁴⁰The word tovim is plural: your love is an improvement upon the wine of ḥokhmah, as it flows in multiple directions. As it says: “when Aaron lights [behetivo] the lamps” [Exod. 30:8]—which the Aramaic translation renders as “kindles.” Such also is the meaning of “God saw that the light was good” [Gen. 1:4].⁴¹“Goodness” is the ongoing flow of light from lamp to lamp, the ceaseless flow of divine life, through the sefirot and into the world.