מַה־יָּפ֥וּ דֹדַ֖יִךְ אֲחֹתִ֣י כַלָּ֑ה מַה־טֹּ֤בוּ דֹדַ֙יִךְ֙ מִיַּ֔יִן וְרֵ֥יחַ שְׁמָנַ֖יִךְ מִכָּל־בְּשָׂמִֽים׃
Quanto sono belle le tue carezze, sorella mia, sposa mia! Quanto sono migliori del vino le tue carezze, e il profumo dei tuoi unguenti più di tutti gli aromi!
Rabbeinu Bahya
ושלושים יום ושלושת ימים, “and for the thirty-three days following, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text the 33 days of purification were decreed to combine with the seven days of impurity in order to complete a cycle of forty days. The fetus required forty days after its mother conceived to become something in its own right.
A kabbalistic approach: The thirty-three days given to the woman (during which she cannot halachically become a menstruant) were given to her as corresponding to the bride in Song of Songs who is viewed as possessing the thirty-two paths of wisdom. She is presumed to join these thirty-two paths thus making a total of thirty-three [the concept of אחותי כלה “the bride is my sister,” (Song of Songs 4,10) means in kabbalistic terms that “wisdom is my sister,” i.e. [I attach myself to wisdom as one is attached to one’s sister.” Ed.] the כלה is perceived as “carrying,” supporting these thirty-two paths of wisdom.
A kabbalistic approach: The thirty-three days given to the woman (during which she cannot halachically become a menstruant) were given to her as corresponding to the bride in Song of Songs who is viewed as possessing the thirty-two paths of wisdom. She is presumed to join these thirty-two paths thus making a total of thirty-three [the concept of אחותי כלה “the bride is my sister,” (Song of Songs 4,10) means in kabbalistic terms that “wisdom is my sister,” i.e. [I attach myself to wisdom as one is attached to one’s sister.” Ed.] the כלה is perceived as “carrying,” supporting these thirty-two paths of wisdom.
Ezra ben Solomon
We have further received from tradition that “your love is more delightful than wine” [Cant. 1:2] and “I will let you drink of the spiced wine” [Cant. 8:2] also symbolize divine Wisdom. So too, we have discovered that the number seventy designates the seventy divine names emanated from Wisdom. For Wisdom’s numerical equivalent is seventy-three; the meaning of the remaining three is well-established.21 Obscure. He may be referring to a tripartite division of keter, the first sefirah, related to a notion of three primal flashes of light (tzaḥtzeḥot) that precede the sefirot. All that which we have mentioned is support and aid for this matter in addition to what has been received from tradition. Similarly, the terminology of “perfume” or “spice” as in “all choice perfumes” [Cant. 4:14], “to the bed of spices” [Cant. 6:2], “than any spice” [Cant. 4:10], “that its perfume might spread” [Cant. 4:16], and “to the mountain of spices” [Cant. 8:14] figure Wisdom. For it constitutes the beginning of being; from the point of Wisdom commences the propagation and expansion of scent.22 Reaḥ or scent is a metaphoric figure for the vivifying outflow of emanational energy, wafting forth from ḥokhmah through the sefirotic world.