Comentario sobre Cantar de los Cantares 3:14

On my bed at night. In my distress, when I lived in the darkness¹The Bnei Yisroel were left in darkness after the Clouds of Glory had withdrawn from them and the holy crown that had been given to them at Mt. Sinai was taken away. (Targum) for the entire thirty-eight years²After the sin of the spies it was declared that the Bnei Yisroel would wander in the wilderness for forty years. Since two years had already past, they had to wander for another thirty-eight years and during this time the Divine Presence was hidden from them. that the [Bnei] Yisroel were under reproach.

Upon my couch: “Couch” refers to Israel’s forty year sojourn in the wilderness, when they were denied permission to enter the land of Israel.

I sought him but did not find him. “For I will not go up in your midst,”³Shemos 33:3. This was on account of the golden calf. [and] “for I am not in your midst.”⁴Devarim 1:42. This was on account of the spies.

At night: When Israel was in trouble, distress, and darkness.

I sought: Israel said: “I have repented in order that the Glory might return to me as at the beginning.”

I sought him but found him not: Throughout those forty years, the shekhinah had departed and prophecy had ceased. As it is written: “When all the warriors among the people had died off, the Lord spoke to me, saying …” [Deut. 2:16–17]. To me was the Word. This reveals that Moses had not prophesied until this moment.

I will rise now ... I will seek. “And Moshe prayed,”⁵Shemos 32:11. [and] “I will go up to the Adonoy.”⁶Ibid. 32:30.

I must rise and roam the town: Israel adds further, saying: “I engaged in many supplications and circumambulated the Throne of Glory, but to no avail.”

The watchmen found me. Moshe and Aharon.⁷They guarded the Bnei Yisroel from sin during the Egyptian exile. Also in reference to Ezra and Nechemyah who watched over the Bnei Yisroel during the exile of Bavel. (Alshich)

I met the watchmen who patrol the town: These are Moses and Aaron, engaged in holy service, as it is written: “You and your sons shall take care in performing your priestly duties in everything pertaining to the altar” [Num. 18:7]. I asked them: “Have you seen the one I love?”

Him whom my soul loves, have you seen him. What [message] did you find in His mouth?

Scarcely had I departed from them. Shortly after their parting from me,⁸I.e., shortly after the deaths of Moshe and Aharon. at the end of the forty years.

Scarcely had I passed them: When Moses died I departed from them until I found Joshua. As it is written: “After the death of Moses, the servant of God, the Lord said to Joshua” [Josh. 1:1] and it says: “Now, cross this river Jordan” [Josh. 1:2].

When I found. That He was with me in the days of Yehoshua to conquer the thirty-one kings.

I held him fast, I would not let him go: A parabolic metaphor, indicating that I (Israel) did not stumble in sin until I entered the land during the days of Joshua.

I grasped him and would not let him go. I did not loosen my grasp on Him until I brought Him to the Tabernacle at Shiloh because of all this that He had done for me.

To my mother’s house: This is Jerusalem, “within which Righteousness resides” [Isa. 1:21].⁸³Righteousness [tzedek] symbolizes the shekhinah.

To the chamber of her who conceived me: This is the Temple.

I bind you under oath. The nations, while I was exiled among you.

I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem: Since I stand in glory and a lofty state, take care that you not sin and cause the departure of the Glory.

That you do not cause hatred nor disturb the love of my beloved from me through seduction or enticement, to forsake him and to turn away from following him.

While it still pleases. As long as I still desire his love.

Who is this ascending from the wilderness. When I was traveling in the wilderness and the pillar of fire and the cloud were going before me, killing snakes and scorpions and burning the thorns and thistles to make a straight path, and [when] the cloud and the smoke were ascending, the nations saw them, and marveled at my greatness, and they would say, “Who is this?” i.e., “How great is she [Bnei Yisroel] who is ascending from the wilderness, etc.!”

Who is she who comes up from the desert like columns of smoke: When journeying before the Israelite camp, the shekhinah seemed like a column of smoke, rising upwards and ascending. The verse states “smoke” for she is derived from fire, as it is written: “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the Lord had come down upon it in fire, the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln” [Exod. 19:18]. The shekhinah receives her emanative energy primarily from the left side, from darkness.⁸⁴“Darkness” and “fire” here refer to din, the force of divine judgment. Darkness is elemental fire, as it says concerning it: “Let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die” [Deut. 18:16]. And it says: “When you heard the voice from amidst the darkness” [Deut. 5:19].

With palm-like pillars of smoke. Tall and erect as a palm tree [=תָּמָר.

Perfumed with clouds of myrrh and frankincense: The verse states “perfumed” for she is energized through her reception of emanative energy from the other sefirot. Myrrh and frankincense are visual polarities, myrrh being red, frankincense white.⁸⁵Red=din; white=ḥesed or divine love. Attend and carefully contemplate the wonders of this parabolic image. It refers to the two cherubim, the world’s fathers. She is situated and receives emanation from both of them.

In a cloud of myrrh. [It is so called] because the cloud of incense which would rise straight up from the inner altar.

With all of the powders of the merchant: The verse says that while all this is true, she includes all of the other spiritual entities and is sealed with them all. To this point we have the enquiry of the questioner, the order of the sefirotic entities, and an account of their likeness.

Perfume seller. A spice merchant who sells all types of spices.

Powders. [It is so called] because they crush it and pound it [until it becomes] as fine as dust.

Behold the bed of Shlomo. The Tent of Meeting and the Ark,⁹This is in accordance with Rashi in 1:1 above that Shlomo refers to God, thus “the bed of Shlomo” refers to the resting place of the Divine Presence. which they carried in the wilderness.

Now for the answer to the question: This is Solomon’s couch: Of the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Sixty mighty men are around it. Sixty myriads surround it.

Encircled by sixty warriors: The verse designates sixty corresponding to the six directions.⁸⁶The six sefirot from ḥesed to yesod. The ten sefirot are reflected in each of them. Since the seventh is an intermediate boundary, a spiritual entity upholding them all, and from it all things derive nurturance, it is not included in the sum, as we will explain further on. The verse designates them as warriors as they receive their being from the side of divine justice. And it enquires further over what they are appointed—over justice.

Of the mighty men of Yisroel. Of those who went into the army, excluding those under twenty and those over sixty.

Skilled in battle. The battle of Torah, and likewise, the kohanim who surround it, who camp around the Tabernacle, are skilled in the order of their service.

All of this constitutes the context of the parable, as we explained earlier in the introduction to the text. As a similar example we find: “From the mouths of infants and sucklings you have founded strength on account of Your foes, to put an end to enemy and avenger” [Ps. 8:3]. And “Mighty king who loves equity” [Ps. 99:4].

Each with his sword. His weapons are the Masorah [i.e., tradition] and the mnemonics, by which they preserve the correct version and the traditional rendition, so that it will not be forgotten.

Because of terror by night: The Sages said: “from the terror of hell which is likened to night.”⁸⁷Midrash Yalkut Shim ‘oni ad locum. This is said in truth for it is from night (divine Justice) that the shekhinah receives her emanation. The text begins to set forth the hierarchy of emanation.

For fear of the nights. For if they forget it, and troubles will befall them. And similarly it states, “Arm yourselves with the grain lest He become angry and you lose the way.”¹⁰I.e., study the Torah.

A canopy has [King Shlomo] made. This refers to the Tent of Meeting, which was established in the Tabernacle at Shiloh; He made for Himself a crowning canopy for [His] glory.

Behold King Solomon made for himself a palanquin. From the outpouring of Wisdom and its luminescence, He radiated light, and from it drew forth emanation. Concerning this it states in Genesis Rabbah [3:4]: “Whence was the light created? The Holy One, blessed be He, enwrapped Himself as in a robe, and radiated His luster from one end of the world to the other.” The robe designates the invocation of the emanation of wisdom which encompasses the totality of all things. The act of enwrapping conveys that He received radiance from that emanational outflow and literally sparked forth light. This is furthermore the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer the Great who said:
Whence were the heavens created? He took from the light of His garment; He wrapped Himself as in a robe. The light extended outwards, as it says: “wrapped in a robe of light, You spread the heavens like a tent cloth” [Ps. 104:2]. Whence was the earth created? God took hold of some of the snow underlying the Throne of Glory and cast it downwards. As it says: “He commands the snow: ‘Fall to the ground!’” [Job 37:6].⁸⁸Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, 3. Havei aretz, “fall to the ground,” means literally “become ground.”
This accords with the opinion of Plato, who argued that it was vain to believe that the Creator created something from nothing, but rather there was a preexistent matter. This is not the same as clay in the potter’s hands or the smith’s iron, who shape from them whatsoever they desire, so that the Creator, be He praised, shaped heaven and earth from primordial matter, but sometime might create something else of it. That God does not create something from nothing should not be considered a diminution of His power, just as there is no diminution in His inability to create logically impossible entities, such as a square whose diagonal is equal to its side or the simultaneous conjunction of two opposites. Just as in these cases, there is no diminution in His capacity, so too there is no denigration if He does not emanate something from nothing, but rather uses a primal element. For this too is included in the general category of impossibility. Solomon too spoke of this, revealing lucid wisdom and sound reasoning, through the aegis of the holy spirit of prophecy.

Of wood from Lebanon: Thence originates the emanation of all, including the [sefirotic] existences. [There] emanation began, as our sages say: “‘Let there be light and there was light.’ Not ‘then there was light,’ but ‘there was light’—light which already existed.”⁸⁹Gen. Rabbah 3:2. For it was already emanated from the supernal light which existed in the transcendent potentiality.

Its covering. His resting place and His dwelling were on the Ark cover, which is gold.¹¹See Shemos 25:17, 22.

He made its posts of silver: This is the “right hand” of the Holy One, blessed be He, which the Book of Creation [2:1] designates as the “scale of merit.”

Its curtain of purple wool. This is the dividing curtain,¹²Separating the “Holy Place” from the “Holy of Holies,” See Shemos 26:31,33. which hangs and “rides” on poles from pillar to pillar.

Its back of gold: This is the left hand, designated “the scale of guilt.”⁹⁰Ms. reading is quite different here: the right hand is “water from air,” the left is “fire.” The central pillar is “truth, justice, peace, seal of the structure, the seal of God.”

Its interior bedecked. It was arranged with a floor [displaying] love;¹³Alternatively, “its interior filled with burning love.” In Yeshayahu 6:6, “רצפה” means “burning coal.” (Tzror Hamor) the Ark and its cover, cherubim and Tablets.

Its seat of purple wool: This is the central pillar designated as the central “tongue of the statute” mediating between them. So our Sages say: “‘Upon this semblance of a throne, there was the semblance of a human form’ [Ezek. 1:26]. It was designated as purple,”⁹¹In Numbers Rabbah 12:4? for just as purple wool is woven out of many types of colors, so too the central pillar receives from this one and that. And so it states: “like the appearance of the bow in the cloud was the appearance of the likeness of the Glory of God” [Ezek. 1:28].

From the daughters of Yerusholayim. These are the [Bnei] Yisroel, who fear and are wholehearted toward the Holy One, Blessed Is He.

Within, it was decked with love: This is the shekhinah.

By the maidens of Jerusalem: The Central Column. This is the meaning of “a man’s wife,” concerning which the prophet said (of those men who brought home foreign wives): “Has not one done this out of excess of spirit? What does one seek but godly seed?” [Mal. 2:15].⁹²The obscure passage seems to mean that shekhinah is wife to the Central Column, source of godly seed; so too should Israel, husbands and wives, bear godly seed.

Daughters of Tzion. Children who are distinguished מְצוּיָנִים=צֻיָּן as His, through circumcision, phylacteries, and ritual fringes. Upon the crown

King Solomon: The king of peace.

with which his mother adorned him. The Tent of Meeting, which was adorned with hues of blue, purple, and scarlet. Rabbi Nechunya said, “Rabbi Shimon son of Yochai asked Rabbi Elazar the son of Rabbi Yose, ‘Perhaps you heard from your father what is meaning of “upon the crown with which his mother adorned him”?’ He replied, “This is a parable of a king who had an only daughter of whom he was very fond. He could not stop loving her until he called her “my daughter,” as it is stated, “listen daughter and see.”¹⁴Tehillim 45:11. He could not stop loving her until he called her “my sister,” as it is stated, “Open for me, my sister, my love.”¹⁵Below 5:2. He could not stop loving her until he called her “my mother,” as it is stated, “Listen to Me, My people, and My nation וּלְאֻמִּי give ear to Me.”¹⁶Yeshayahu 51:4. “וּלְאֻמִּי” is written [without a vav and can be read as “וּלְאִמִּי” “and to my mother”]. Thereupon Rabbi Shimon son Yochai stood up and kissed him on his head, etc.

The crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day: The entire sefirotic edifice coheres and is unified and ascends towards infinity, nor does it suffer a departure of the holy spirit. The crown stands for the emanation of blessing and superabundance from the spirit of the living God designated as the mother in the Midrash to Proverbs,⁹³Midrash Mishle, ed. B. Wissocsky, p. 57. in the Rabbis’ exegesis of “May your father and mother rejoice” [Prov. 23:25]. Rabbi Akiba states: “Even the Holy One, blessed be He, rejoiced in him, as Wisdom rejoiced in him. As it says: ‘Let your father rejoice’: this is the Holy One, blessed be He. ‘And your mother’: this is that wise woman of whom it is written: ‘You shall call understanding a mother’ [Prov. 2:3].” Consequently, blessing, sanctification and unification which draw energy from the negation of thought are designated as the diadem and crown. Our sages say in the Midrash to Psalms [19:2]: “The angel assigned to Israel’s prayers waits until her final congregation has prayed and weaves them into a crown for the Holy One. As it says: ‘Blessings alight upon the head of the righteous, the life of all worlds’ [Prov. 10:6].” For this reason, the sages ordained the Sanctus and blessing within the blessings attached to the recitation of the shema, and placed the unification of shema in close proximity to them. And they ordained that all three⁹⁴Sanctification [kadosh], blessing [barukh], and shema‘. should be recited in the great Sanctus of the Additional Prayer. For these three enter under the rubric of the unity of divine Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge, the emanational edifice containing the seven (lower) sefirot. Because all of the ten sefirot are included within the (upper) three: Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding, the three recitations of the Sanctus⁹⁵This could refer either to the threefold repetition of “Holy” or to the three kedushot of the daily morning service. exist to unify them. Within their totality, all things are included. So we have found in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer:⁹⁶Chapter 3, end. “The world was created with ten statements but these were included in three. As it says: ‘God established the earth in wisdom, founded the heavens in understanding, through His knowledge the depths were split and the heavens shower dew’ [Prov. 3:19].”

On the day of his wedding. The day of the giving of the Torah,¹⁷See Mishnayos Ta’anis 4:8. when they crowned Him as their King and accepted His yoke.

And on the day his heart rejoiced. This is the eighth day of the installation,¹⁸See Vayikra 9:1. on which the Tabernacle was dedicated in the wilderness.