Chasidut su Cantico dei cantici 6:78

This shall be the Torah concerning the one struck with skin blanch [metzora] on the day he becomes clean. He shall be brought to the priest (Lev. 14:2), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted metzora as one who speaks evil [motzi ra], for afflictions come through the sin of evil speech. But the matter is according to what is written, When God began to create etc. (Gen. 1:1), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “For the sake of Torah and for the sake of Israel” (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.); so we find that Israel is something very important to Blessed God, since for their sake all of the Worlds and all the Creations were created. And Blessed God takes pleasure from each one of Israel, even from a greatly wicked person: “Your temples [rakatekh] are like a pomegranate (Song of Songs 6:7) – even the empty ones [reykanim] among you are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a). And when a person speaks evil about one of Israel, even if he speaks truth, he nullifies the Blessed Creator’s pleasure (if it were possible) and causes Him sadness (if it were possible) as is stated, [And the Lord …] was saddened in to His heart (Gen. 6:6), and inverts the pleasure [oneg] into affliction [nega]; therefore his “wage” is measure for measure, affliction comes upon him. And our Sages of Blessed Memory said: “Evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b). But we must be precise: what connection does idolatry have to evil speech? But the matter is according to what is written, By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made (Psalm 33:6), that all of the Worlds and all of the Creations were created through speech comprised of the 22 letters of the Torah, which is called Heavenly Sovereignty. For when the Sovereign does not speak, no one knows how to do His Will; and when he speaks His Will is revealed, and that is Heavenly Sovereignty whose Sovereignty is in all jurisdictions. And we find in Sefer Yetzirah that [the letters] are established in the mouth, that Blessed God established the 22 letters: the World of Speech, Heavenly Sovereignty, the Attribute of ADONAI-ness, ADONAI, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), were established in the human mouth.

However, each and every person must come into trial – even if he receives God’s Godliness into his thoughts as we have explained above – nevertheless each person is tested with ten trials, as they said about Abraham, “Abraham was tested with ten trials and withstood them all” (Mishnah, Avot 5:3). And the trial is that they strip him of the Connection with which he was connected to Blessed God through Awareness. At the moment when he comes into the trial, only Free Will remains with him; for without this it would not be called a trial. For certainly through the Connection the tzaddik holds his path (Job 17:9), and in this way his Awareness is diminished – though not completely removed – and if he withstands the trial, it is because it was already fixed in his heart from before when he had expansive Awareness.

It is written in the Zohar (Yayehi, 223b): Since Shlomo HaMelech inherited the moon in its state of completeness, he needed to inherit it in its state of deficiency. He strove to understand spirits and demons (i.e. the forces of evil) in order to inherit the moon in all its aspects. For this reason, in the days of Shlomo HaMelech the moon shone in all its aspects. And in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 26, p. 71b): Clearly The Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shekhina have not changed. Yet from an outside perspective, they do change. That is to say, (in this world) they are concealed in layers of garments and shells. This is why Shlomo HaMelech said (Shir HaShirim, 7:11), “I descended to the egoz⁵⁵Egoz means “nut,” in Hebrew. garden.” He had a complete knowledge of the kelipot (impure shells), which gave him a thorough knowledge of all forms of sorcery. The faithful shepherd⁵⁶The faithful shepherd, here, is the Messiah. The Zohar also refers to Moshe Rabeynu as Raya Mehemna which means, “the Faithful Shepherd.” One of the books that is included in the Zohar corpus is also called the “Raya Mehemna.” will break all of the kelipot, bringing forth the essence which the shell conceals, meaning the Tetragrammaton (YHVH).” And in the Zohar (Ta’azria, 47b): “And I saw the superiority of wisdom from folly.” (Kohelet, 2:13) From folly itself emerges something of benefit to wisdom. If it were not for the existence of folly, wisdom and all its extensions would not be known. We have learned that together with wisdom, it is incumbent upon man to learn something of folly, for in knowing it, it serves to benefit his wisdom. In fact, the knowledge of folly or evil is a component of none other than the mystery of faith. It is written in the Zohar (Bo, 34a): It is proper for man to know good and to know evil, and to return himself to the good.⁵⁷Here the Zohar is speaking about King Shlomo, whose great wisdom certainly allowed him to know the good. But how did he “know evil?” Referring to a king, the Torah commands (Devarim, 17:17), “he shall not have too many wives, and his heart shall not turn away.” Yet, of King Solomon, the verse states: “…” The queens of King Solomon encouraged him to study and practice idolatry. When King Shlomo wrote, “I descended into the nut garden,” he was telling us how he had become intimately acquainted with the force of evil in the world. This is the mystery of faith. The more one can find the good hidden in evil, the more he will understand how, “God created one over against the other.” (Kohelet, 7:14)⁵⁸The verse reads, “On a good day, be in the good, and on a bad day, see that also God made one over against the other.” The Biblical commentor, Rashi, explains: “This is the good and its reward, versus the evil and its punishment.” The commentary Metsudat David explains, “Know that the evil itself was sent from God. The degree of evil has a corresponding punishment.” In Kabbalistic writings, the verse generally means that for every force of good, God created a parallel force in the realm of evil. In view of the quote from the Zohar, Parshat Bo, “see” could mean to recognize the evil, but realize that “God made one over against the other” – that we must choose the good in response. Hasidic teachings take an even further, unified approach. They seek to find the good within the evil itself. This is the Baal Shem Tov’s idea that evil actually provides a setting, or “throne,” for the good (רע כסא לטוב). For without a knowledge of evil, it would be impossible to recognize the good. Thus, evil actually plays a role in revealing God’s goodness, and is thus a part of the Divine unity itself. “See that also God made one over against the other,” would mean to see the good within the evil itself. This is as it said in the Zohar (Shemot, 15b): Rabbi Akiva said, why did Shlomo HaMelech say, ‘I descended to the egoz garden.’? This is just as we say, “he descended to the Merkava (Divine chariot).’ Rabbi Akiva asked, what does the dirt that is found in the shell of the egoz represent?”

Possibly, this is the matter expressed in the second teaching in Likutei Torah of the Rabbi, author of Tanya) to Song of Songs on the verse “[Y]our teeth are like a flock of ewes,”⁵⁵⁹Song of Songs 6:3. speaking of subjugation and reversal together.⁵⁶⁰That is, of both subduing inclinations as well as turning them— ‘reversing them—towards noble ends. It refers not only to the greatest righteous ones but also to every man; for by drawing the blood of circumcision from him and then, when he is in school and does not wish to learn, they hit him with a strap, he thus turns from darkness to light and subdues the other side, see there. [Note: ‘Subduing’ means merely preventing his inclination from acting, while ‘reversal’ means turning it towards holiness, that is serving God even with it. This accords with what we wrote above: since he turns the physical capacities towards holiness, he subdues the evil inclination and conquers it to the extent that he refers to it as a type of reversal—even though he does not turn the essence of the evil to the good, as do only the greatest of the righteous referenced in the Tanya.]

Our sages (on Numbers 6,23 where the priests are ‎commanded to bless the people), used this parable ‎when commenting on the word ‎להם‎, “to them,” i.e. that ‎the priests are not to include the gentiles in their ‎blessings. [Having already said that they ‎should bless the Children of Israel, the extra words ‎אמור להם‎ would otherwise appear to have been ‎superfluous. Ed.] When G’d tells Moses in our ‎verse here: ‎אל הארץ אשר נשאתי את ידי לתת להם לאברהם וגו'‏‎, “to ‎the land that I have sworn to give to Avraham, etc.;” He ‎had to explain that although up to now this land had ‎enjoyed G’d’s generosity as the people on it had found ‎it a good land to dwell in, from now on, this land ‎would be “good” only for the Jewish people. The term: ‎‎“Jewish people,” presupposes that these Jews keep the ‎commandments they will undertake to observe at ‎Mount Sinai, less than a year later.‎
A different way of understanding G’d’s oath to give ‎the land of the Canaanites to His people, the Jewish ‎people: The author again turns to a parable to ‎illustrate his point. We must analyze the expression ‎נשאתי את ידי‎, “I raised My hand (in an oath).” A prince was ‎engaged in a war against the enemies of his father, the ‎King’s kingdom. When the prince was victorious there ‎was great joy in the King’s palace. As a result of the ‎great joy, the King, who was normally not overly ‎generous, now displayed great generosity to everyone ‎who turned to him with a request. Suddenly, while all ‎these festivities were in progress, an enemy of the ‎king’s son shows up with a request to his father, the ‎king. The king is now faced with a dilemma. If the king ‎ignores the root cause of the joy and the festivities he ‎may G’d forbid also fulfill a request of his son’s arch ‎enemy; on the other hand, if the king keeps the source ‎of all the festivities in mind, i.e. his son’s victory in a ‎life and death struggle, i.e. that his son had just ‎vanquished this arch enemy of his, he will most ‎certainly not pay any heed to the request made by his ‎son’s enemy.‎It is written in Song of Songs 6,3 ‎אני לדודי ודודי לי‎, “I ‎am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;” in other ‎words: “my beloved yearns for me.” According to ‎‎Bereshit Rabbah ‎1,4 one of the 6 things that ‎G’d contemplated before beginning to create the ‎universe was the concept of a Jewish people and all ‎that this entails. When the Jewish people perform His ‎wishes He takes great delight in this. The joy G’d ‎experiences when the Jewish people live up to His ‎expectations results in His feeling justified in having ‎created the universe, i.e. all the various universes. He ‎therefore dispenses some of His largesse to all other ‎parts of the universe also. In order to dispense some of ‎His largesse to the gentile nations He limits the ‎outpourings of His largesse to the Jewish people. When ‎the sinful creatures in the universe take note of G’d’s ‎being so generous, they line up, so that they too will ‎become beneficiaries of G’d’s “good mood.” At such a ‎time G’d reminds Himself that originally He had only ‎created the universe on account of wishing to see His ‎‎“dream” of a Jewish nation performing all its tasks ‎being realized. As soon as He reminds Himself of this, ‎He will turn off the “taps” i.e. the attribute of largesse ‎that had been allowed to flow to the gentile nations ‎also, and will concentrate all of His largesse on the ‎Jewish people.‎
The “attribute” dispensing this “largesse” is known ‎as ‎יד‎, “hand;” the reason for this is that in our ‎terrestrial world largesse is “handed” out. This explains ‎why G’d used the expression ‎ידי‎, “My hand,” when ‎referring to His oath to “hand over” the land of Canaan ‎to Avraham’s descendants.‎ ‎

The Zohar explains the verse, El ginnas egoz yaradti, “I went down to the walnut garden” (Song of Songs 6:1) in light of the lesson of the four kelippos. A walnut has four shells. When it first grows and is still on a tree, it is covered with a velvety thick green peel that surrounds its hard shell. This peel is totally inedible. Behind the peel is the “wooden” shell that is also indigestible and requires a nutcracker to crack it open. Once the walnut is opened one finds that it has slight brittle walls that seem to shape the walnut into a nut consisting of four parts. These walls are inedible. Finally, surrounding the fruit there is a thin filament. If the filament is on the nut it will be eaten together with the fruit and the sweetness of the nut will overwhelm its bitterness. However, if it is separated from the nut it will not be eaten and most of us will not even consider it food.

The word ‎ויעבור‎ at the beginning of the ‎list of 13 attributes of G’d that may be invoked when needed, ‎hints at the fact that G’d, in that instance, will “pass,” i.e. cross ‎over the line separating the attribute of Justice from the attribute ‎of Mercy. Instead of G’d facing the repentant sinner without a ‎לבוש‎, some garment, designed to tone down the enormity of ‎having to face the Creator in His unadorned essence, ‎פניו‎, “face,” ‎He will display a more forgiving posture in recognition of the ‎sinner having sought Him out to confess and to ask forgiveness, ‎i.e. another chance to make a new beginning. We must ‎remember however, that if we expect G’d to display the attribute ‎of Mercy toward us, we must first show Him that we on pour part ‎have departed from our standards of demanding strict compliance ‎with the demands of justice by having demonstrated that we too ‎can forego something that we felt we were entitled to. The line ‎אני לדודי ודודי לי‎ in Song of Songs 6,3 may also be understood in a ‎similar sense, as “when I relate appropriately to my beloved, my ‎beloved in turn will reciprocate.”

Exodus 12,27. “you will say (answer) ‘it is ‎a Passover offering for the Lord, etc.’” We ‎need to examine why when the Torah has called this ‎festival ‎חג המצות‎, “the festival of unleavened breads,” we, ‎the people, are in the habit of calling it first and ‎foremost ‎חג הפסח‎, a name that does not occur in the ‎Torah at all.
In Song of Songs 6,3 we read: ‎אני לדודי ודודי לי‎, “I alone ‎am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.” In this verse ‎Solomon describes the relationship between the Jewish ‎people and its G’d and vice versa in the most flattering ‎terms. This is demonstrated by the Jewish people in ‎practice every time they put on phylacteries in which ‎the praises of the Almighty are spelled out on ‎parchment. In the Talmud B’rachot 6, we are ‎told that G’d Himself also puts on phylacteries and that ‎the verses contained in His phylacteries contain the ‎praises of His people, the Jewish people. When we keep ‎this in mind we can understand a statement recorded ‎in Tanna de bey Eliyahu that it is a positive ‎commandment to recite the praises of the Jewish ‎people. In other words, G’d enjoys hearing the praises ‎and virtues of His people being mentioned and ‎appreciated.‎
The Talmud Menachot 36 advises that ‎while wearing the phylacteries one should touch them ‎intermittently. This is in line with the prohibition to ‎turn one’s attention to other matters while wearing the ‎phylacteries. [This explains why nowadays we ‎do not wear the phylacteries except during prayer as it ‎is too easy to violate the commandments surrounding ‎the manner in which we are to conduct ourselves if we ‎were to wear them all day long. Ed.] When the ‎Talmud forbids turning one’s attention away from the ‎phylacteries on one’s head or one’s arm, this is not to ‎be understood literally, but it means that while wearing ‎phylacteries one must either concentrate on the ‎praises of the Lord or the praises of Israel. The praises ‎of the Lord are spelled out in the Torah sections ‎inscribed on parchment inside our phylacteries. The ‎author quotes Rashi on 12,39 where the Torah ‎reports that the unleavened breads of the Israelites ‎actually were baked by the sun while the dough was ‎slung over the women’s shoulders. The people’s faith ‎in the Lord at that time was demonstrated by their not ‎insisting that they wait in Egypt while their dough ‎would bake into bread so that they would have ‎something to eat while on the way. The term ‎חג המצות‎, ‎originated at that time. This is one example of how G’d ‎publicises the virtues of the Jewish people. On the ‎other hand, by calling this festival ‎חג הפסח‎, we, in turn, ‎tell the praises of the Lord Who, at that time, had ‎deliberately passed over the houses of the Jewish ‎people when He killed all the firstborn in Egypt. This ‎mutually complimentary relationship between G’d and ‎His favourite people is what Solomon referred to in ‎Song of Songs 6,3.‎
Another [rather revolutionary facet ‎Ed.] method of understanding the above ‎verse is that the word ‎פסח‎ may be understood ‎phonetically, i.e. ‎פה סח‎, “when the mouth speaks,” i.e. ‎explains the nature of the Passover to your children in ‎the future, then the ‎הוא‎, the hidden aspects of G’d, ‎‎[impersonal “he,” instead of “thou,” ‎Ed.]<small? will="" become="" ‎לה'‏‎,="" revealed="" to="" you="" as="" a="" ‎reward,="" as="" <i="">Hashem.‎‎