아가 1:18의 Chasidut

Delightful Love is sometimes symbolized in the Torah by lovebirds or doves, which delight in each other and stare at one another continuously (see Song of Songs 1:15, “your eyes are doves’ [eyes].”) It is as though the two lovers “cannot take their eyes off of one another,” and gaze at each other with total rapture until their eyes become bloodshot and red. This is also what is meant by the parallel verses (Psalms 25:15), “my eyes are constantly upon G-d,” and (Psalms 33:18), “the eye of G-d is upon those who fear Him.” Our verse, too, referring to “eyes bloodshot from wine,” is speaking of the degree of Delightful Love which results after one has succeeded, through the wine of Torah, in bringing out the Great Love “hidden” within one’s soul. (This is also the level of love meant by the Kabbalistic expression, “to gaze at the glory of the King [G-d].”)

Pesach is the New Year for the Festivals. This is because at the very beginning one needs to distance themselves from the Evil Inclination, as is referred to in the Holy Zohar: Matzah is from the language of trial and argument. On this holiday everyone can leap from their connection to the "Other Side" even if they are not on the level to do so. After this, they merit Torah. After that, they merit to bring in the light of the Torah to their inner humanity. "Draw me" (Shir Hashirim 1:4) is on Pesach - which is drawing it in. The children of Israel are drawn in from the Idol Worship in Egyp, even though they weren't prepared with all their heart. Thus it happened with a "Strong Arm" in the way that a person is drawn from the womb of their mother in the Midrash. After this "Let us run" (ibid) on the seventh day of Pesach that they ran into the sea - a willingness to sacrifice their lives. "The King has brought me into his chambers" (ibid) The chambers of Torah on Shavuot. "Let us delight and rejoice" (ibid) Which is the holiday of Sukkot.

For example, in the Noam Elimelech, parshas Chukas, on the verse, “take unto yourself,” Rebbe Elimelech makes the following “casual” comment: “It is known to those possessing intelligence and knowledge that the first three blessings in the Shemoneh Esrei can only be said in a state of mesiras nefesh and unity.⁷⁰As if to say, you totally give your whole life over this and completely unite with God.” Similarly, it is said in the Avodas Yisrael,⁷¹By Rav Yisrael, the Maggid of Kozhnitz (1733-1814) parshas Ekev, “sometimes a state of kedushah a person undergoes complete self-nullification, like when we say, “ayeh,” in kedushas Keser.”⁷²In the Musaf service said on Shabbos, festivals, and Rosh Chodesh, we join in song with the angels and praise God in a section called, “kedushah.” At one point we ask together with the angels, “ayeh – where” is the place of His glory. The Ari z”l teaches that while saying, “ayeh,” one can connect with a tremendous ascent of spiritual forces in the higher worlds. There are similar examples of lofty, great, and elevated levels which we find difficult even to imagine from afar. And now, what are we, and what is our avodah, if even in order to come to a kind of true hisragshus during prayer, or to feel hislahavus, we have to labor and sweat to the point of utter exhaustion, and even then our success is questionable. We are not only far away from their holy ascents and their heavenly states of consciousness. We are even far from their Yiras Hashem, their level of vigilance against the slightest thought of sin, even the slightest tinge of such a notion. We have not reached their level of diligence in staying away from lowness of spirit, and don’t exert all of our strength in holy avodah the way they do. In all these ways they are tower above us. Concerning this, the Avodas Yisrael teaches us, “even though the Tsaddikim would become soiled, meaning that they could be confused by a disturbing thought, of vain matters and the like, they would then clean themselves immediately afterwards through the power of teshuvah. They would remember this at once, regret the thought, and be filled with teshuvah the way one would do over a major transgression … It could be that they fall from their heights at the time when their thoughts are disturbing them, and then when they are filled with thoughts of teshuvah they rise up from their fallen state, as the Torah says (Shir HaShirim, 1:5), “like the curtains of Shlomo,”⁷³See this verse, “Though I am black I am comely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Shlomo.” The tent of Kedar (exile) are like beduin tents which are black due to standing many days in the rain, but they can be easily washed and look like the curtains of Shlomo (redemption), splendorous an clean like the curtains of the Holy Temple. In this way the Tsaddikim, who are always connected to God even if they fall, have the ability to rise quickly from a low state to a high one. meaning that they are always in a state of unity with the King to whom all peace belongs … Even their fall is in a state of kedushah and purity. God forbid that the Tsaddik should ever fall, but what is it but a momentary feeling of laziness in Torah study and avodah, and he cancels it immediately with thoughts of teshuvah, and it is as if it were never there.” Even in their fall they are far from sin or thoughts of sin. Their exertion day and night in Torah and avodah was so great that in their own estimation a thought of indolence [not actual indolence but only a thought of indolence] was considered a great transgression. Yet even in their fall they remain in a state of kedushah and purity, washing themselves clean to the point where you would never imagine they had ever been tainted.

Here are their words in the Zohar Parshat Balak [191a]: Black I am but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem—like the tents of Kedar, like Solomon’s curtains. Do not look at me for being blackish… (Song of Songs 1:5-6)...When She is immersed in great love for Her Beloved, through the pressure of love She cannot bear, She diminishes Herself extremely until nothing is seen of Her but the tiniest single point...She diminishes Herself extremely until nothing is seen of Her but the tiniest single point...Then She is concealed from all Her forces and camps, and She says, ‘Black am I,’ for there is no white inside this letter, as there is in other letters. This is the meaning of ‘Black am I’- and I have no room to bring you in beneath My wings.’ What do mighty warriors, Her legions [the tzaddikim] do? They roar like mighty lions...Because of the sounds and mighty roars emitted, like lions, by the mighty warriors, the Beloved above hears, and He knows that His Beloved is as passionately in love as He is, until none of Her image or beauty can be seen. Then, through the sounds and roars of Her mighty ones, Her dear Beloved emerges from His place with many gifts and many presents, with fragrances and spices, and comes to Her and finds Her nearly dead, with no image or beauty at all. He approaches Her, embraces Her and kisses Her, until gradually She is revived by the fragrances and spices. By the joy of Her Beloved at Her side, She is restored and—through Her adornments, Her image, and Her beauty—transformed into Heh, as originally...They and all other forces sand ready to hear what She says, and She stands like a king among Her legions…”

What results will you see if you only heed the advice provided in these chapters? First of all, your mind will no longer be an open house for every thought that wanders in. Instead, you will always be occupied with holy thoughts, when you wake up in the morning, when you lie down to sleep, and when you go about your day. Also, with God’s help, you will become a man of feeling. Your love and fear of God will not only be theoretical, but you will feel them and be stimulated by them. At your own initiation your soul will increase its ability to feel holy hisragshus of a much greater intensity that it could before. You will be able to choose the extent to which your own hisragshus is stimulated. Your thoughts will be purified and strengthened until even your body will seek its own sanctification. When your mind has been strengthened and accustomed to avodah, you will be able to make your first ventures into the sublime level of avodah of the Tsaddikim and Chassidim called the avodah of thought, albeit at a level suited to your abilities. But when we say that you will reach the level of Chassid and Baal Nefesh, bear in mind that it is only just touching that level. This is as we said at the outset that we only seek to follow on the heels of the holy masters, studying their footprints and learning from their ways.²⁰⁸See Shir haShirim, 1:8, “go follow the tracks of the sheep.” If we can do this, then their holy sefarim are open before us, to delve into their words and go in their way. Now that we are learning them with a revealed soul, we can see more than we ever did before. In general, when the soul is revealed even minimally, our vision is transformed, and we can see things in the Torah, both Written and Oral traditions, that we had never seen before. We can see things in sefarim of Kabbalah and Chassidus that we had never seen before. We can even see that which was hidden from us in this worldly existence, that which we had never seen or dreamed of before.

On Yom Kippur each Jew discovers within himself a bit of his personal yechidah, and Sukkos is a continuation of Yom Kippur.²⁴²See further Horeb 23:170. Rabbi Hirsch points out that Yom Kippur has two qualities: kapparah (atonement) and taharah (purification). The day brings atonement—namely a defense against physical punishment due the sinner—and purification—spiritual cleansing of the soul that was sullied with sin. Sukkos and its concluding holiday of Shemini Atzeres emerge from these two qualities. Sukkos is a celebration of physical survival and completes kapparah; Shemini Atzeres is a celebration of spiritual survival and thus completes taharah.
See further the Vilna Gaon’s commentary to Song of Songs 1:4, s.v. ve-daled pesukim elu, and Avodas Ha-Gershuni on Song of Songs 3:4, s.v. ve-shamati mi-dodi ha-gaon he-chasid me-vilna. The Gaon answers the Tur’s question why the holiday of Sukkos, meant to commemorate the clouds of glory with which Israel exited Egypt, is observed during Tishrei and not Nisan, the time of the Exodus. He explains that the full exit from Egypt was when the Jews merited having the Divine presence (the Shechinah) among them. Initially they had the Divine presence, and the intimate relationship between Creator and His children was symbolized by Heavenly clouds that surrounded the people. However, once the nation worshipped the Golden Calf (on 17 Tammuz), Moses broke the stone tablets of the commandments, the Almighty distanced Himself, and the clouds disappeared. The people engaged in a massive teshuvah campaign that started on the first day of Elul. They prayed for thirty-nine days, and on the fortieth they fasted. God forgave them, and on the fortieth day Moses returned to the people with a second set of tablets. Ever since then, the fortieth day (Yom Kippur) became a day of fasting, prayer, and forgiveness (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer). To complete the process of forgiveness and Divine reconciliation, on Yom Kippur Moses told the people that God had commanded the erection of a sanctuary. Its construction and inauguration would bring the Divine Presence into the camp for a permanent stay. On 11 Tishrei an appeal for gifts needed to construct the sanctuary was made. On the twelfth and thirteenth, the people brought all the raw materials necessary for the building. On the fourteenth, Moses announced that the community had donated sufficient materials and no further donations were needed, and he apportioned raw materials to different craftsmen. On the fifteenth, the construction began and the Divine presence returned. Thus, the fifteenth of Tishrei is the day when we celebrate the return of the clouds of glory. It emerges from this analysis that Sukkos is really a celebration of the completion of the forgiveness attained on Yom Kippur. See further Zeman Simchaseinu, Article 1. On Yom Kippur each Jew touches the depths of his or her heart (yechidah). On Sukkos, the apex of the yud is the heart of the Jew that joins the four species in completing God’s name.

Still another angle from which to view Yaakov’s blessing for ‎Asher. The author, quoting the opening lines of Song of Songs, ‎שיר השירים אשר לשלמה ישקני מנשיקות פיהו כי טובים דודיך מיין‎ “The ‎Song of Songs by Solomon; oh give me the kisses of your mouth, ‎for your love is more delightful than wine.” Solomon juxtaposes ‎two different types of service of G’d. There are people who serve ‎the Lord from an innate feeling of love for G’d, Who, in His love ‎for us has agreed to use us as His servants, (in spite of our many ‎shortcomings). These people are overwhelmed by the fact that ‎‎Hashem even rewards us generously for our service, far ‎beyond anything we have a right to expect. (Compare ‎‎B’rachot 34). While at first glance this type of service of the ‎Lord is of the highest level, neither resulting from fear of ‎punishment for transgressions, nor seeking reward, there is a ‎level of serving G’d which is an even higher plane than the level ‎based on love of Hashem.‎
This is a level of serving G’d in which the servant is totally ‎unaware, and therefore unappreciative of, any reward. This ‎service of Hashem flows from sheer gratitude that ‎‎Hashem has chosen us to be His special people, period. ‎Yaakov alludes to this kind of service of the Lord when he ‎formulated the blessing for his son Asher.‎

Exodus 3,12. “and this will serve you as a sign (proof) ‎that I have sent you on this mission, etc.” We find in Song ‎of Songs 1,3: ‎לריח שמניך טובים תורק שמך על כן עלמות אהבוך‎, ”for ‎fragrance your oils are good; your name is ointment poured forth; ‎therefore do young maidens love you.” Seeing that all of Song of ‎Songs can only be understood properly by resorting to the ‎allegories employed by its author to convey his message, we hope ‎to explain this verse with the help of G’d by referring to Moses’ ‎question how he should answer the Israelites when they would ‎ask him about the name of the G’d in whose name he would claim ‎to have been sent to them. We first need to explain how to ‎understand G’d’s answer to Moses, i.e. ‎אהיה אשר אהיה (שלחני ‏אליכם)‏‎, “the G’d Who says concerning Himself) I shall be who I ‎shall be” (has sent me to you).‎
The righteous person serving the Creator needs to be ‎conscious at all times, and especially every time he experiences ‎the feeling that he has accomplished something, that there are ‎further challenges to be met and that he cannot rest on his ‎laurels. He must never consider any spiritual accomplishment of ‎his as having attained his target to become perfect. He must ‎remain aware of his relative inadequacy as long as he has not ‎attained the next rung on the ladder to attaining spiritual ‎perfection. This thought is reflected in the words of Eliyahu as ‎quoted in the Pardess Rimonim of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, ‎that one must be aware of one’s lack of knowledge of G’d, no ‎other detail is important other than that He is the Supreme G’d. ‎The desire to continuously ascend spiritually in order to be able ‎to cleave to the Creator is the principal characteristic of the true ‎servant of G’d.‎
The author quotes some remarks on this subject that he ‎personally heard from the well known Tzaddik Yechiel ‎Michel. ‎This Tzaddik interpreted psalms 27,4 ‎אחת שאלתי ‏מאת ה' אותה אבקש שבתי בבית ה' כל ימי חיי לחזות בנועם ה' ‏‎, “one thing ‎I ask of the Lord, only that do I seek; to live in the house of the ‎Lord and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, (constantly) etc.” ‎In this psalm David does not aspire to something static, a goal ‎achieved in order to derive the satisfaction of having scaled these ‎spiritual heights. By emphasizing ‎אותה אבקש‎ in the future mode, ‎instead of ‎אותה אני מבקש‎ in the present mode, the petitioner ‎‎(David) expresses his awareness that there will always be further ‎spiritual heights that beckon to him to be scaled. He expresses ‎confidence that G’d will assist him further in pursuing this path. ‎

In light of the foregoing it is appropriate to explain the words ‎in Song of Songs 1,3 (page 297) in accordance with the words of ‎the Baal Shem Tov of sainted memory. He first explains ‎psalms 48,15 ‎הוא ינהגנו על מות‎, “He will lead us beyond mortality,” ‎by using a parable. A father teaches a very young son how to walk ‎two or three steps at a time. When the little boy has walked a few ‎steps toward his father, his father distances himself from him a ‎little farther in order to encourage his son to “walk the extra ‎mile.” The father repeats this maneuver every time his son is ‎about to catch up with him. G’d encourages us to “catch up with ‎Him” in a similar fashion, by appearing to be more and more out ‎of our reach. The message we (the tzaddikim) are to receive ‎from this maneuver is that we have not yet attained perfection. ‎This is what David meant when he said ‎הוא ינהגנו על מות‎, “in order ‎for G’d to lead us into immortality.” He has to encourage us to ‎‎“catch up with Him,” step by step.
‎[You the reader, may have noticed that the word: ‎עלמות‎ contains the same letters in the same sequence as the two ‎words ‎על מות‎ in psalms 48,15. Ed.]‎
To get back to Song of Songs 1,3 ‎לריח שמניך טובים‎, “for your ‎oils are good as fragrance;” the Hebrew word ‎שמן‎, oil, is used ‎allegorically to describe a person’s good deeds. When Solomon in ‎Kohelet 9,8 warns that ‎ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר‎, “may your head ‎never lack oil (ointment),” he does not refer to perfumed oils, but ‎to the fragrance emanating from a person who has many good ‎deeds to his credit. Under what circumstances are such fragrances ‎compared to ‎שמן תורק שמך‎, “Your name being poured forth like ‎oil?,” when the tzaddik has the feeling again and again after ‎having scaled a rung on the ladder of spiritual ascent, that he is ‎empty and needs to replenish spiritual energies possession of ‎which would bring him closer to perfection. When this is what ‎the tzaddik worries about constantly, his head gives forth ‎the fragrance of the oils mentioned by Solomon in Song of Songs.‎ ‎

"We will make wreaths of gold with spangles of silver" (Song of Songs 1:11). 'Wreaths of gold' - this is awe; 'Spangles of silver' - this is love. One should not, therefore, speak Torah and prayer to the outside, since from this the kelipot, the hard outer shells are created and take the form of evil people who take revenge on us. I heard such things from my teacher, the Baal Shem Tov. This is what the sages meant (Rashi on Genesis 6:18) in saying that Noah needed protection not to be killed by the wicked of his generation. Try to understand this! One needs awe more than one needs love, the 'spangles of silver'. All this I heard from my teacher.

Our sages in the Talmud Megillah 13 explain that the ‎reason why Queen Esther was known as Esther (rather than as ‎‎Hadassah, Esther 2,7) was that her beauty reminded people ‎of the brilliance of the planet (star) Venus. [possibly the ‎Talmud, which also explains her name as a reminder that she was ‎a lady who could keep a secret, sees a dual meaning in her name, ‎both brilliant light, and complete darkness, hiding things. ‎Ed.] Some of G’d’s miracles involve changes in the laws of ‎nature such as the splitting of the sea, turning the waters of the ‎Nile into blood and redeeming the Jewish people from Egypt. ‎Others are the result of a combination and timing of most ‎unlikely circumstances.
Ahasverus’ taking a liking to Haman and trusting him blindly, ‎and subsequently switching his trust to Esther who had never ‎even revealed her nationality or religion to him, is just a minor ‎example of this. Haman’s choosing to request permission from ‎Ahasverus to hang Mordechai in the middle of the night, a night ‎when the king could not sleep and he was reminded that ‎Mordechai had saved his life from assassins, and that Esther at the ‎time had brought this to his attention, and that Haman planned ‎to kill his lifesaver, etc., are just a few of these propitious ‎coincidences that resulted in Haman’s downfall and the salvation ‎of the Jewish people at that time. The former kind of miracle is ‎usually attributed to G’d in His capacity as the tetragram, ‎י-ה-ו-ה‎, ‎whereas the latter kind of miracle is attributed to G’d in His ‎capacity as ‎א-ד-נ-י‎. In the former case, G’d is “active, changing the ‎rules of the game,” whereas in the case of the “hidden” miracle, ‎the emphasis is on the recipient, ‎מקבל‎. The difference can be ‎compared to the difference between the sun and the moon, both ‎of which give forth rays of light, the sun being a source of light, ‎whereas the moon only reflects light that it had already received ‎from the sun. Esther therefore is compared to the moon in the ‎story of Purim.‎
When G’d performs supernatural miracles even the idolaters ‎are humbled and recognize (temporarily) His mastery as we know ‎from Exodus 18,1 where the Torah records that Yitro had heard ‎about these great miracles and had concluded that Hashem ‎is superior to any other force in the universe that claims the ‎status of being a deity.‎
Amalek was the only nation among the wicked people ‎denying G’d’s power, who challenged G’d by attacking His people, ‎unprovoked, on ground (Compare Yalkut Shimoni, 938, and ‎quoted by Rashi (Deuteronomy 25,18) that did not belong ‎to any nation. According to Rashi, Amalek’s being the first ‎to challenge the myth of G’d’s invincibility is compared to the ‎first person jumping into boiling hot water of a bath tub, who, ‎while being scalded nevertheless succeeds in cooling the water so ‎that the next person following will hardly be scalded at all and ‎subsequent people will feel comfortable in that tub.
‎[While both Rashi and Yalkut Shimoni ‎quote this analogy, Rashi could not have taken it from ‎‎Yalkut Shimoni, as the author of these Midrashim lived ‎approximately 200 years later than Rashi. Ed.]‎
Seeing that Amalek initiated this rebellion against G’d, the ‎Torah commands such far reaching punishment for that nation. ‎If G’d now commanded the Israelites to wage war against Amalek, ‎the reason was that seeing supernatural means of humbling ‎idolaters had not sufficed, other, better understood means, i.e. ‎warfare on earth, had to be reverted to. It was therefore ‎appropriate that Joshua should conduct this battle as Moses had ‎been instrumental in performing supernatural miracles, whereas ‎Joshua would prove that G’d is able to deal with sinners without ‎having to resort to supernatural means. Our sages alluded to this ‎when they said in the Talmud Baba Batra 75 that if Moses’ ‎face could be compared to the face of the sun, Joshua’s would be ‎comparable to that of the moon.‎
Allusions found in the written Torah usually refer to the ‎celestial regions or to matters supernatural, metaphysical, ‎whereas allusions in the oral Torah usually refer to matters in the ‎physical universe. The relationship between the written Torah ‎and the oral Torah is that the written Torah is the source, i.e. like ‎the sun, whereas the oral Torah is comparable to the moon, i.e. a ‎recipient, reflecting the origin. Here, where nature was “repaired” ‎by miracles similar to those experienced by Mordechai and Esther, ‎i.e. “hidden miracles,” as described earlier, it was appropriate that ‎we are told for the first time about parts of the written Torah to ‎be committed to writing. [I believe the author draws a ‎parallel between the antagonists of the Jewish people at that ‎time, i.e. a descendant from Amalek, and the first defeat suffered ‎by Amalek at the hands of Joshua, Ed.] The “allusions” ‎referred to are the words ‎זאת‎ and ‎זכרון‎ in this short paragraph, ‎and the written record of the Purim story in Esther as described ‎in Esther 9,29-32. (Compare Talmud Megillah 7). The words ‎זכרון בספר‎ refer to the written record in the Torah, whereas the ‎word ‎זאת‎ refers to the oral record in the halachah.‎ ‎ ‎

If you pray while holding another thought in mind, it is as if - God forbid! - the klippot, the rough husks of reality are riding along on your words. Because Thought rides on Speech, and this is the meaning of (Song of Songs 1:9) "To a horse in Pharaoh's chariots -" speech is likened to horses, and when Pharaoh (that is, the foreign thought) rides upon them, then "I have likened you, my beloved." It would be far better to be silent. Yet what comes from the heart enters the heart, to the supernal heart by means of breath, as is well known.