פירוש על שיר השירים 6:2

My beloved has gone down to his garden. He commanded us to build His Temple, and He will be there with us.⁴Alternatively, He has gone to the “Garden” of Eden. (Gra)

My beloved has gone down to his garden: An all-encompassing entity does not differentiate between such distinctions as “above” and “below.” Descent is equivalent to ascent; ascent to descent. Because exile has caused it to be occulted amidst its sefirotic manifestations, Scripture refers to it as engaging in an act of “descent.”¹⁵⁵A radically different and ironic reading. At the time of exile, the omnipresent divine “descends” as it were back into its recesses—the source of creative manifestation—divine Wisdom, from whence it must be reinvoked through prayer and the performance of the commandments. Whence has it [descended] to the garden?

To the beds of spices. The place where the incense is burned.

To the beds of spices: That is to say, [from] transcendent Wisdom, the locus from which this aroma and emanative energy spread forth.

To graze in the gardens. And further, He has gone to graze His sheep in the gardens where they were scattered, [i.e.,] those who did not come up from the exile, He rests His Divine Presence upon them in the synagogues and in the study halls.⁵He occupies Himself by delighting in the presence of the righteous. (Gra)

To browse in the gardens: To provide nurturance for itself and to pour forth its luminescence to the gardens and the shekhinah.¹⁵⁶Tiferet, the Beloved, “descends” from ḥokhmah, bringing sustenance for Himself and shekhinah, His garden.

And to gather roses. He listens and hearkens to those who speak His Torah, to collect their merits and to inscribe them in a memorial book before Him, as the matter is stated, “Then the men who fear Adonoy spoke, etc.”⁶Malachi 3:16. And concerning your request to seek Him with us, and to build with us, “I am my Beloved’s,” but you are not His, and you shall not build with us, as the matter is stated, “It is not for you and for us to build a House for our God ,”⁷Ezra 4:3. and it states [further], “and you have no portion or right or memorial in Yerusholayim.”⁸Nechemyah 2:20.

And to gather the lilies: This is Thought, the luminescence of Wisdom flowing forth to the six cosmic boundaries [ketzavot]. All this takes place during the period of exile, a time bereft of festal offerings, sacrifices of thanksgiving and the meal offerings. The spiritual entities ascend and are drawn to that place from which they nurse. This is the meaning of: “on evil’s account, the righteous one dies” [Isa. 57:1].¹⁵⁷Because of this cosmic exile, the sefirot turn “upward” and tzaddik, the righteous one [yesod] is not nourished by them. For this reason, one must strive to invoke and emanate an outflow of blessing to the Fathers,¹⁵⁸Ḥesed, gevurah, tiferet, symbolized by the Patriarchs. so that the sons too be imbued with emanative energy. In this verse this process of emanation and outpouring is referred to as “gathering.”

Our sages have likewise referred to the emanation of the sefirot and their revelation as an act of displacement [‘akirah]. It states in Genesis Rabbah [15:1]: “‘The Lord God planted a garden in Eden’ [Gen. 2:8]. As it is written: ‘Let the trees of the Lord be sated, the cedars of Lebanon, his own planting’ [Ps. 104:16]. R. Hanina said: ‘They were like the antennae of locusts [karnei hagavim]. The Holy One uprooted them and replanted them in the Garden of Eden.’” Comprehend this wondrous statement. The planter must have in his hands a plantling. Similarly, the emanation and manifestation of the divine entities [havayot] was like an act of “displacement” while their creation and nurturance in their respective places was an act of planting. Those who plant “seedlings lovingly attended”¹⁵⁹Neta sha ‘ashuim, after Isa. 5:7. need to water them regularly. This is the meaning of R. Haninah’s statement. It states further in the Midrash: “Let the trees of the Lord drink and be sated” [Ps. 104:16]: “May their lives be sated; may their waters be sated; may their planting be sated.” The meaning here is that each sefirotic power receives its energy from the power above it, life drawing from the source of life, water from life, and the plantlings drawing from water. All this is intimated here. And it is also germane to the next verse which states: