Pieśń nad pieśniami 1:4 Komentarz: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Ezra ben Solomon

“Draw me after you” [1:4]. The Yalkut writes: Rabbi Meir said that on Mount Sinai the Holy One said to Israel, bring me a guarantee that you will keep the Torah and then I will give you the Torah. The Israelites answered: we will give Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as guarantors. The Holy One answered, I will not accept Abraham, since he said, “How shall I know” [Genesis, 15:8]. This means that he did not believe that the Holy One promised to give him the land of Israel. I also do not want Isaac as a guarantor because he loved Esau. Jacob said, “My way is hidden from the Lord” [Isaiah, 40:27]. This means that my ways are hidden from the Holy One. The Israelites then said, our children will be our guarantors. The Holy One said: I will accept them as guarantors. As soon as Israel does not keep the Torah, the guarantors must suffer for their fathers. He said: not only the guarantors, who are the children, must suffer. Even I, the Holy One, as it were, also have harm from persecuting the guarantors, who are the children. Who will say “borchu” and “amen, yehei shemei Rabbah” that the children said in the synagogue, as the verse says, “Because you have spurned the Torah of your God, I, in turn, will spurn your children” [Hosea, 4:6]. This means, if you Israel forget the Torah, I will forget your children and will punish them. The verse ends “I also.” That is to say, I, the Holy One, am also punished when I punish the children. Who will say “amen, yehei shemei Rabbah” and “Borchu?”⁵Yalkut Shimoni, Song of Songs, Remez, 981.

“The king has brought me to his chambers” [1:4]. This means that the Holy One brought those He wanted to be prophets up to Heaven and showed them everything. The Holy One showed Elijah, in the Heavenly chambers, that in the in the Messianic Age there will be a Great Ox [Shor ha-Bor] and Leviathan. The Holy One brought Ezekiel up to Heaven and showed him the Merkavah, which is the Throne of Glory, and similarly with the other prophets.⁶Yalkut Shimoni, Song of Songs, Remez, 982.

Draw me we will run after you. I heard from your messengers a hint that you said to draw me, and I said, “We will run after you,” to be as a wife to you.¹⁶Alternatively, You initiate, by drawing us after You and to return to You as it is stated, “Bring us to You Adonoy and we will return,” in Eichah 5:21.

The king has brought me into his chambers. And even today, I still have joy and happiness that I cleaved to you.

We recall your love. Even today, in living widowhood, I always recall your first love [for me] more than any banquet of pleasure and joy.

They loved you sincerely. A strong love, a straightforward love, without deceit or intrigue, (in accordance with the expression of the verse, “and the crooked will become straight and heights will become a valley”¹⁷Yeshayahu 40:4. ) that my ancestors and I loved you in those days. This is its simple meaning according to its context. According to its allegorical meaning: They mention before Him the loving kindness of [their] youth, the love of [their] nuptials, their following Him in the wilderness, a land of drought and darkness, and they did not even prepare provisions for themselves, but they believed in Him and in His messenger. And they did not say, “How can we go out into the wilderness, which is neither a land of seed nor food?”¹⁸See Yirmiyahu 2:2. But they followed Him, and He brought them into the midst of the chambers of the envelopment of His clouds. With this, they are still joyful today and happy with Him despite their afflictions and distress; and they delight in the Torah, and there they recall His love more than wine, and the sincerity of their love for Him.¹⁹Their love for You is much higher than the love of wine from which pleasure is derived. (Sforno)