Commentaire de citation sur Le Cantique des Cantiques 4:12

A Midrashic approach (Tanchuma 11): Betzalel, Oholiov, and all the artisans were endeavouring to erect the Tabernacle but were unable to do do so. This is the meaning of the words in 39,33: “they brought the Tabernacle to Moses.” The reason they brought it to Moses was their inability to erect it so that it would remain standing. Moses felt very badly about all this, seeing he had not had a personal share in working on the Tabernacle. G’d consoled him telling him that no other human being would be able to put up the Tabernacle, whereas as soon as Moses would begin to busy himself with erecting it, it would erect itself. This would teach the Jewish people that if Moses would be unable to erect the Tabernacle it would never become functional. G’d told him that He would record in the Torah that the Tabernacle had been erected by Moses personally, unassisted. This is the meaning of our verse in which Moses is instructed to erect the Tabernacle on the date mentioned. After hearing this, Moses said to G’d: “I do not know how to put it up.” G’d answered him: “you begin to busy yourself with it, and seeing that you have been shown it when it stood, it will stand by itself corresponding to the vision you have had.” This is the meaning of the words הוקם המשכן, “the Tabernacle was erected” (verse 17). G’d added further that He would write that the erection of the Tabernacle was credited to Moses. This is why the Torah also wrote: “Moses put up the Tabernacle” (verse 18). This is also what Psalms 45,15 may have had in mind when the sons of Korach wrote “the princess wearing an embroidered dress is led inside to the king;” this is a reference to the Tabernacle which contained many colours as we know from Exodus 35,35: “and embroider it with blue wool, purple wool and red wool.” The words תובל למלך in our verse from Psalms are a reference to Moses of whom the Torah says in Deut. 33,5 “he was king in Yeshurun.” The words בתולות אחריה “maidens in her train” in the same verse, refer to the Jewish people who are referred to as maidens in Song of Songs 4,12, seeing they are also defined as companions to the Lord, based on Psalms 122,8 where they are described: “for the sake of my kin and friends;” in each instance the Hebrew word for “my friends” being ריע. Finally, the last words in that verse in Psalms 45,15 are מובאות לך “brought to you,” a reference to Moses to whom the Tabernacle was brought in order for him to erect it.

בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל “When Israel's went out of Egypt.” When Beit Ya’akov and Beit Yisrael are mentioned together, Beit Yisrael refers to the Jewish men and Beit Ya’akov refers to the Jewish women, as Scripture states, “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel…” (Ex. 19:3) as Rashi writes.³⁰⁴Exodus 19:3 Rashi - “To the house of Jacob:” This denotes the women — to them you shall speak in gentle language “And tell the children (sons) of Israel:” explain to the men the punishments and the details of the commandments in words that are as hard (distasteful) as wormwood.” In Rabbinic literature Bayit, house, is often used to refer to one’s wife. When the Israelites left Egypt the other nations said, “Are the offspring really related to the house of Jacob? If the Egyptians ruled over the men, how much more so (did they rule over) the women? It was as if, God needed to prove the Israelites were of proper lineage, as is stated, “the tribes of Yah gave testimony for Israel,” (Ps. 122:4) Yah, God, testified about them that they were the children of (Israelite) fathers, as is written, “Enochites…. Pelluites…” (Nu. 26:5) That which is stated, “When Israel left Egypt…” The House of Jacob, the women, left Egypt when the non-Jews were spreading rumors that they were the illegitimate children of a foreign nation. The women of Israel were righteous and closed their door (to everyone but) their husbands, as is written, “ A garden locked is my own, my bride, a fountain locked, a sealed-up spring.” (Song 4:12) There was but one among them and Scripture publicized it!³⁰⁵See Lev. 23:10-12 The (faithfulness of the Israelite women) caused the elevation of the Divine Presence, so to speak, because all the commandments which Israel performs adds to the power of might above, as is written, “With God we shall create might.” (Ps. 60:14) Thus the Psalm continues, “Judah became His holy one.” (Psalm 114:2) If it was speaking about the tribe of Judah it should have said, “Judah was…” Rather, Judah is a combination of the two names of God: the tetragrammaton (Havayah) and Adonai. The letter dalet alludes to the four letters of Adonai. It is called dalet because it is needy and has no powers of its own, like the moon which has no light of its own except for the light it receives from the sun.³⁰⁶This expression is commonly used in Kabbalah to describe Malchut or Shechinah. “When Israel left Egypt,” then the Shechinah also left with them and She was their holy place for she was sanctified.

A kabbalistic approach to our verse: We need to understand why the Torah used the letter ה each time at the end of these words. The normal grammar would have required the letter ו each time, i.e. לעבדו ולשמרו, seeing the words refer to the garden which is masculine in Hebrew. Actually, both the letters ה in this instance are an allusion to the two letters ה which are part of the four-lettered ineffable name of Gd. Concerning such considerations, the Torah wrote in Exodus 23,21 השמר מפניו, “take heed on account of the letters ו which have been replaced by he letters ה. The intelligent reader will understand to what I refer. [according to תורת חיים, the word in Exodus should be read מפני-ו, “on account of the ו.]