Commentaire sur Le Cantique des Cantiques 5:7

I sought him, etc. The watchmen found me, those who go about the city. And apprehend thieves who prowl at night.

Consequently, upon the departure of the shekhinah, many and horrific troubles befell me, caused by the watchmen patrolling the town. These are the seventy angels who surround God’s Throne of Glory; through them harsh decrees enter the world. As it states in the Chapters of R. Eliezer [chap. 24] concerning: “‘Let us, then, go down and confound their speech …’ [Gen. 11:7]. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the angels surrounding His Throne of Glory: ‘let us go and confound their speech.’” They are similarly called shomrei homot: “the guards of the walls.” This passage is a parable for the evil decrees and persecutions which befell the Jewish people during the period of the Second Temple by the hands of the Greeks.

They struck me they wounded me. They inflicted a wound upon me.¹⁹I.e., by striking me they inflicted a wound. Alternatively, the double expression [struck, wounded] represents the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdosh and the second Beis Hamikdosh. Every “פֶּצַע” denotes a wound [inflicted] by a weapon,²⁰Rashi in Shemos 25:21 defines “פצע” as “a wound that draws blood.” navredure in O.F.

One thing you need to know is that a decree was enacted that Israel would be subjugated to four kingdoms, not counting the period of servitude in Egypt, for Israel was not yet a people and not designated as the people of God until they entered the land and constructed the Temple. These four nations were revealed to our father Abraham during “the covenant between the pieces” [Gen. 15], just as they were shown to Daniel.¹⁴⁰See Daniel 8. The three year old calf of Abraham’s vision is the kingdom of Babylon, that is to say Nebuchadnezzar its king; the three-year old goat is Greece, that is, Alexander the Macedonian, and he is the ram [tzfir ‘izim] mentioned in Daniel [8:4]. The turtledove represents Rome, also known as Edom.

My ornament. My jewelry that was hammered and beaten out, upon me. The entire episode is an expression [using the terms] of the wife of one’s youth who grieves for the husband of her youth and searches for him. The following is the allegorical meaning:

The kingdom of Babylon is referred to as being threefold because three kings arose from it: Nebuchadnezzar, Ebel Merodach, and Balshezzar. Thus it is written in Jeremiah [27:7]: “All of the nations shall serve him, his son and grandson, until the turn of his own land comes, when many nations and great kings shall subjugate him.” Greece is referred to as a three-year old goat because Alexander was the king of the north who conquered the other three directions of the world and governed them just as Nebuchadnezzar had ruled the entire world. As it is written: “raising from their thrones, all of the kings of the nations” [Isa. 14:9]. The three-year old ram represents the Medeans, these being the kings of Assyria, Cyrus and Darius. As it is written: “They joyfully celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, for the Lord had given them cause for joy by inclining the heart of the Assyrian king toward them so as to give them the support in the work of the House of God, the God of Israel” [Ezra 6:22]. Because they were Shem’s descendants, they merited that the Temple be constructed on their account, and it was not destroyed by the hand of Senacherib.

My beloved sent forth his hand from the portal. When I said, “I have washed my feet,”²¹Above Verse 3. and I will not open for You, and I will not repent of the idolatry that I have chosen.

Scripture refers to them as a three-year old [ram] for they were the kings of the east, who conquered the other three directions of the world. As we find in Isaiah [46:11]: “I summoned that swooping bird from the east” and “Who has roused a victor from the east?” [Isa. 41:2]¹⁴¹The verses refer to Cyrus. He conquered the three remaining directions of the world, as it states: “I saw a ram butting westward, northward, and southward” [Dan. 8:4]. And it says: “So says Cyrus, the king of Persia: ‘The Lord, God of heaven, has granted me all of the kingdoms of the world’” [II Chron. 36:23]. The turtledove represents the wicked one, the fourth awful and mighty beast viewed by Daniel. He desired to comprehend its true meaning, as it is written: “I approached one of the attendants and asked him the true meaning of all of this” [Daniel 7:16]. It is said concerning this beast: “it will devour the whole earth, tread it down and crush it.” R. Yohanan said: “It is requisite that Rome’s nature spread throughout the entire world.”¹⁴²b. Avodah Zarah 2b. “Rome” and “Edom” for the medieval Jews refer to Christendom, which they view as a continuation of the Roman empire.

Sent forth his hand. And He demonstrated His vengeance in the days of Achaz, and He brought upon him the king of Aram’s army. [It states,] “and they smote him and captured from him a great captivity, etc. And Pekach the son of Remalyah slew in Yehudah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day.”²²II Divrei Hayomim 28:5-6.

Israel underwent subjugation to these nations in accord with the following order. Senacherib, king of Assyria, who was also king of Medea, exiled the ten tribes. “He settled them in Halah, along the Habor [and] the river Gozan, and in the towns of Media” [II Kings 18:11]. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, at the appointed time, exiled Judah and Benjamin. Isaiah the prophet forecast the downfall of Babylon by the hands of the Medeans, just as he forecasted Cyrus’ command for Israel’s manumission. “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who do not value silver or delight in gold” [Isa. 13:17]. At the prophecy’s conclusion he states: “And when the Lord has given you rest from your sorrow and trouble, and from the hard service that you were made to serve, you shall recite this song of scorn over the king of Babylon” [Isa. 14:3–4]. Then follows the song’s content until it comes to its conclusion “I will rise up against them … and will wipe out of Babylon name and remnant, kith and kin …” [Isa. 14:22]. Isaiah similarly prophesied regarding Cyrus’ decree concerning Israel: “So says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I strengthened” [Isa. 45:1], “He will build my city” [Isa. 45:13]. We find similarly in Daniel [5:30–6:1]: “During that very night Belshazzar the King was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom.” He reigned one year to complete the seventy years apportioned to the sovereignty of Babylon.¹⁴³See Megillah 12a. During the first year of Cyrus’ reign, the decree concerning Israel was issued and Israel came under the jurisdiction of the kingdom of Medea. Afterwards, the kingdom of Greece arose, that is, Alexander the Macedonian, the three-year old goat and Daniel’s tzfir ‘izim.¹⁴⁴See p. 96 above. He fought with the ram [Dan. 8:7], these being the kings of Medea, Darius the Persian, putting him to the sword, as it is written: “There was no one to rescue the ram from his power” [Dan. 8:7]. Israel, both those in Babylon and those in Jerusalem during the period of the second Temple, came under the rule of the king of Greece. The rule of the kings of Greece lasted one hundred and eighty years, as it states in the tractate Avodah Zarah [9a]. At that time war broke out between Greece and Rome, as our sages taught in Avodah Zarah [8b]: “The Romans engaged in thirty-two battles with Greeks and were not able to overcome them until Israel allied itself with Rome.” Israel revolted against the Greeks during the period of the second Temple, coming under Roman authority and keeping faithful alliance with them for twenty-six years. Then the Romans turned against them, destroyed the second Temple, and the kingdom of Greece was subjugated by the Romans. Nor will the son of David come until the dominion of the kingdom of Rome spreads over the entire world for nine months, just as the other three kingdoms spread over the entire world. For this reason, our sages ordained the drinking of four cups of wine,¹⁴⁵On the eve of Passover, celebrating the first redemption but anticipating the last. corresponding to the four terms for redemption appearing in the pericope Va‘era [Exod. 6:6–7], conveying the glad tidings to Israel that they will go forth from their subjugation to the four kingdoms.

And my innards longed for him. Chizkiyahu, his son, came and repented with all his heart to seek the Holy One, Blessed Is He, and his entire generation was wholehearted; there never arose a generation like them in Yisroel, as is explained in “Cheilek,” “They searched from Dan to Be’ersheva and did not find an ignoramus, from Gabas to Antochya, and did not find a man or a woman who was not proficient in the laws of ritual contamination and purity.”²³Maseches Sanhedrin 94b. The eleventh chapter in entitled “Cheilek.” This is [the meaning of], “my hands dripped myrrh, etc.” Also, regarding Yoshiyahu it is stated, “Before him there had never been a king like him, etc.,”²⁴II Melochim 23:25. Because he saw the punishment which had come upon Menashe and upon Ammon, thereby fulfilling [the words], “he sent forth his hand from the portal, and my innards longed for him.”

I have written all of this because I have seen an interpretation in Genesis Rabbah in which the three-year old goat is correlated with the kingdom of Greece, with the two-horned ram appearing in Daniel [8:3] brought as corroborating evidence. This seems to me to be either a mistake or a case of scribal error, for it is clearly stated in Daniel that the two-horned ram represents the kings of Medea and Persia.

I opened for my beloved but my beloved had vanished and gone. He did not annul His decree, as it is stated about Chizkiyahu, “Behold, days are coming when everything in your palace will be carried off, etc. ... [some] of your sons ... whom you will beget.”²⁵Yeshayahu 39:6-7. These are Doniyeil, Chananyah, Misha’eil, and Azaryah, and also concerning Yoshiyahu, through Chuldah the prophetess [it states], “Behold, I am bringing calamity upon this place and upon its inhabitants, etc.”²⁶II Melochim 22:16. And it states, “Before him there had never been a king like him... Nevertheless, God did not relent from His great wrath, for His wrath burned against Yehudah, because of all the provocation with which Menashe had provoked Him. And Adonoy said, ‘I will remove Yehudah, too, from My Presence as I have removed Yisroel, and I will reject this city.’”²⁷Ibid. 23:25-27.

I have also seen someone dispute the words of our Sages and state that the fourth beast shown to Daniel represents the kingdom of Ishmael, for they have expanded throughout the majority of the inhabited world, their kingdom being great and widespread. They find it difficult to refer to Greece [and Rome] as representing two kingdoms when they really are one nation. Thus it states: “the offspring of Greece [Yavan] are Elisha, Tarshish and the Kittim” [Gen. 10:4]. The Kittim are the Romans. So we find in the first chapter of Josippon:¹⁴⁶The popular medieval Hebrew adaptation of Josephus’s History of the Jews. “And Sappho the son of Eliphaz ruled there.” If this is the case, the Greeks and the Romans constitute one people. All of this is found in his commentary to the Pentateuch and also at the conclusion of the pericope Balak, concerning the verse: “Ships come from the quarter of Kittim” [Num. 24:24].

My soul departed as he spoke. It left me when He spoke of this matter.²⁸Alternatively, my soul departed as a result of my intense prayers by which I sought to annul these harsh decrees.

The essential interpretation is in accord with the words of our sages. Since the verse mentioned the kingdom of Babylon, it has already mentioned Ishmael, for Babylon stands at their head; all are under its dominion and conform to its discipline.¹⁴⁷Babylon equals Baghdad, the capital of Islam. Furthermore, although the Greeks and Romans constitute one ethnos, they are two distinct kingdoms, and in the past they engaged in war with one another. Similarly, the kings of Judah and Israel were one people who split into two kingdoms.

I sought him but could not find him. Now if you should ask, “Was not Yirmiyahu standing and prophesying during the days of Yehoyakim and Tzidkiyahu,²⁹See Yirmiyahu 3:14, 22. [And similarly Malachi said,] ‘Return to Me, and I will return to you’³⁰Malachi 3:7. This indicates that their sincere repentance would completely have annulled the decree. Therefore, Rashi explains that repentance would “not nullify the decree entirely, but to lighten, etc.” ”? [This was] not to nullify the decree, but to lighten the punishment and to prepare their kingdom upon their return from the exile, to plant them without uprooting and to build them without demolishing.

It is said in Daniel [7:25] concerning the fourth beast: “He will speak words against the Most High,” that is, he will say words that can not conceivably be said: “these are my words.”¹⁴⁸This would seem to be Christianity’s appropriation of Jewish scripture. There has been considerable censorship of the manuscript in the following lines. “And he will harass the holy ones of the Most High” [Dan. 7:25]: Israel. This is the meaning of “in the presence of the vengeful foe” [Ps. 44:17]. “He will think of changing times and laws” [7:25]: in their interpretation and to change the law. “And they will be delivered into his hands for time, times and half a time” [Dan. 7:25]: that is to say that redemption will not come to Israel until “time, times and half a time.” As it is said: “the beast was killed … its body was destroyed and it was consigned to the flames” [Dan. 7:11]. It is written afterwards: “As I looked on in the night vision,”
One like a human being
Came with the clouds of heaven …
Dominion, glory, and kingship were given to him
All peoples and nations of every language must
serve him [Dan. 7:13–14].

The watchmen found me. Nevuchadnetzar and his armies.

Those who go about the city. To wreak the vengeance of the Omnipresent.

They stripped my ornament. The Beis Hamikdosh.

[Even] the guards of the walls. Even the ministering angels, who were guarding its walls, as the matter is stated: “On your walls, O Yerusholayim [I posted guards], etc.”³¹Yeshayahu 62:6. They ignited the fire upon it, as the matter is stated, “From above He has hurled fire, etc.”³²Eichah 1:13.