Commentaire sur Le Cantique des Cantiques 3:6

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.