Commentary for Song of Songs 8:5

Who is she. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, and His Tribunal, say about the congregation of Yisroel, “Who is she?” How very worthy she is, who was ascended from the wilderness with all the good gifts. There she became elevated at the giving of the Torah and cleaving to the Divine Presence, and her love was visible to all, and while still in her exile—

Who is she who comes up from the desert?: This is the tenth of the ten journeys which the shekhinah undertook. As our Sages said: “The shekhinah undertook ten journeys when she departed the Temple: from the altar cover to the cherub, from the cherub to the threshold of the Temple, from the threshold to the court, from the court to the altar, from the altar to the Temple roof, from the roof to the wall, from the wall to the city, from the city to the mountain, from the mountain to the wilderness. From the wilderness she ascended and dwelt within her place as it is written: ‘I will go and return to my place’ [Hosea 5:15].”²⁰³Rosh ha-Shanah 31a.

Clinging to her beloved. She is attached to her Beloved, admitting that she is His companion and attached to Him. “רפק” [is found] in the Arabic word “רפקתא,” [which means] attachment.

Yearning for her beloved: Yearning for and bemoaning her beloved’s separation from her.

Beneath the apple tree I aroused you. So she says as she seeks the affection of her Beloved; “Beneath the apple tree I aroused You.” Remember that under Mount Sinai, which was suspended over my head like an apple,³Bereishis 50:21. there “I aroused You.” This is an expression of the affection of the wife of one’s youth, who arouses her beloved at night when he is asleep on his bed, and she embraces him and kisses him.

As for the text’s statement, under the apple tree I roused you, this parable refers to the Cherub of the Left Side, that is the locus of the beginning of form. The usage “roused you” alludes to the intimacy and the awakening of love during the time when Israel are present in their land, performing the will of the Omnipresent, as our Sages said: “One verse states: ‘Their faces were directed towards each other’ [Exod. 25:20]. The other verse stipulates: ‘they were standing up facing the House’ [II Chron. 3:13]. There is no contradiction here. Their countenances face each other when Israel are performing God’s will. Their faces are directed towards the House when Israel are not performing God’s will.”²⁰⁴Baba Batra 99a.

There [your mother] had birth pains. We have already stated that the Holy One, Blessed Is He, called her [Yisroel] His mother.⁴Above 3:11. There she became to You as a mother.

It is there your mother conceived you: The spirit of the living God.

Birth pains. An expression of birth pangs. Birth pains. Birth pangs came to her from You, as in, “my children have left me,”⁵Yirmiyahu 10:20. [i.e.,] they went away from me.

There she who bore you conceived you: The spiritual entities [i.e., the sefirot]. Given that we had been intimate and had aroused love, having been emanated from a single place, she said: