Komentarz do Pieśń nad pieśniami 8:16

If only you were a brother to me. That you would come to comfort me in the manner that Yoseif did to his brothers,¹Alternatively, if only my desire that my relationship with God, i.e., to be near Him and to pursue His holiness were out of love, as one’s relatioship is with his brother. (Sforno) who did evil to him, and it is stated concerning him, “and he comforted them.”²The Gemara in Bechoros 8a states, that from the time of an apple tree’s blossoming until its fruits are ripened, a period of sixty days elapse. Accordingly, an apple represents the sixty masechtos incorporated into the Oral Law. Mount Sinai was suspended over Bnei Yisroel’s heads “like an apple” in order to arouse them to accept the Oral Law of the Torah. (Yosef Beor)

If only you could be like my brother: The Glory responded: “If you desire and yearn for me to join myself to you, ‘so will all of my desire be directed towards you’ [Ps. 38:10], that you might be a brother to me and that I might not be separated from you.”

When I would find you outside I would kiss you. I would find Your prophets speaking in Your Name, and I would embrace them and kiss them; I also know that “no one would scorn me,” for Your love is worthy that Your beloved should go about in search of it.

As if you had nursed at my mother’s breast: You would receive your nurturance from the place of my suckling, that is the spirit of the living God.²⁰¹Most likely ḥokhmah as ruah hayyim.

When I met you in the street: When I find you during the period of exile, all of my desire and will is that you be with them in their suffering.

Then I could kiss you: You would adhere to me.

To my mother’s house. The Beis Hamikdosh.

I would lead you: I would raise you to my Holy of Holies [dvir ha-kodesh] and to my sanctuary. That is to the house of my mother, who taught me. The soul can not reveal its activities without the body and the body possesses no capacity for action without the soul. So too the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals His awesome deeds and signs by means of His attributes.

That you should teach me. As You were accustomed to do in the Tent of Meeting.

I would let you drink … : This is a parable referring to the provision of the transcendent light from which the parents and children²⁰²The sefirot and Israel below. are blessed together.

I would give you spiced wine to drink. Libations.

Of the nectar. Sweet wine.

His left hand is under my head, etc.

The language is in third person, referring to the Glory, who doesn’t descend but rather ascends.

I bind you under oath. Now the congregation of Yisroel addresses the nations, “Even though I complain and lament, my Beloved holds my hand, and He is my support in my exile; therefore, ‘I bind you under oath.’”

I adjure you … : These are the words of the shekhinah during the time of exile, adjuring Israel not to force the coming of the End and not to arouse love until the time of favor arises. The verse does not stipulate either by the gazelles or hinds of the field [Cant. 2:7], for the shekhinah is not in her place.

Why should you cause hatred or disturb. For it will be of no avail.

Who is she. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, and His Tribunal, say about the congregation of Yisroel, “Who is she?” How very worthy she is, who was ascended from the wilderness with all the good gifts. There she became elevated at the giving of the Torah and cleaving to the Divine Presence, and her love was visible to all, and while still in her exile—

Who is she who comes up from the desert?: This is the tenth of the ten journeys which the shekhinah undertook. As our Sages said: “The shekhinah undertook ten journeys when she departed the Temple: from the altar cover to the cherub, from the cherub to the threshold of the Temple, from the threshold to the court, from the court to the altar, from the altar to the Temple roof, from the roof to the wall, from the wall to the city, from the city to the mountain, from the mountain to the wilderness. From the wilderness she ascended and dwelt within her place as it is written: ‘I will go and return to my place’ [Hosea 5:15].”²⁰³Rosh ha-Shanah 31a.

Clinging to her beloved. She is attached to her Beloved, admitting that she is His companion and attached to Him. “רפק” [is found] in the Arabic word “רפקתא,” [which means] attachment.

Yearning for her beloved: Yearning for and bemoaning her beloved’s separation from her.

Beneath the apple tree I aroused you. So she says as she seeks the affection of her Beloved; “Beneath the apple tree I aroused You.” Remember that under Mount Sinai, which was suspended over my head like an apple,³Bereishis 50:21. there “I aroused You.” This is an expression of the affection of the wife of one’s youth, who arouses her beloved at night when he is asleep on his bed, and she embraces him and kisses him.

As for the text’s statement, under the apple tree I roused you, this parable refers to the Cherub of the Left Side, that is the locus of the beginning of form. The usage “roused you” alludes to the intimacy and the awakening of love during the time when Israel are present in their land, performing the will of the Omnipresent, as our Sages said: “One verse states: ‘Their faces were directed towards each other’ [Exod. 25:20]. The other verse stipulates: ‘they were standing up facing the House’ [II Chron. 3:13]. There is no contradiction here. Their countenances face each other when Israel are performing God’s will. Their faces are directed towards the House when Israel are not performing God’s will.”²⁰⁴Baba Batra 99a.

There [your mother] had birth pains. We have already stated that the Holy One, Blessed Is He, called her [Yisroel] His mother.⁴Above 3:11. There she became to You as a mother.

It is there your mother conceived you: The spirit of the living God.

Birth pains. An expression of birth pangs. Birth pains. Birth pangs came to her from You, as in, “my children have left me,”⁵Yirmiyahu 10:20. [i.e.,] they went away from me.

There she who bore you conceived you: The spiritual entities [i.e., the sefirot]. Given that we had been intimate and had aroused love, having been emanated from a single place, she said:

Set me as a seal. For the sake of that love, seal me upon Your heart,⁶In the same manner that a seal is affixed on one’s hand and is not removed, so too, set me as a seal upon Your heart. (Metzudas Dovid) so that You do not forget me, and You will see.

Place me like a seal: When we separate during the time of exile, place me like that well known seal.

For love is as strong as death. The extent of my love that I loved You is to me equal to my death, for I am killed for Your sake.⁷My love to You is so strong that I would choose death before relinquishing my love for You. (Metzudas Dovid)

Like the seal upon your arm: Which corresponds to the heart, as our Sages said: “Whence do we know that the Holy One, blessed be He wears phylacteries?”²⁰⁵In Berakhot 6a.

Jealousy is as harsh as the grave. The quarrel that the nations were jealous and quarreled with me because of You. “קִנְאָה” every place [in Scripture] means enprenment in O.F., an expression of conveying feelings to wreak vengeance.

Fire from the flame of God. Coals of a strong fire that comes from the force of the flame of Gehinnom. The cantillation symbol of the zakef gadol, which punctuates “רִשְׁפֵּי” teaches us about the word “אֵשׁ [fire],” that it is connected to “שַׁלְהֶבֶתְיָה,” meaning “fire from the flame of God.”

Many waters cannot quench the love. Since he refers to them with an expression of coals, the term “cannot quench” is appropriate for them.⁸The pain and suffering that Bnei Yisroel endured throughout its many exiles, “cannot quench the love [for God],” which remains intact. (Sefer Dudaim)

If a man offered all of his wealth for love: All of his heart, soul, and might.

Many waters. The nations.

For love: To adhere to the shekhinah.

And rivers. Their princes and their kings.

He would be laughed to scorn: They will publicly offer him splendor and majesty,²⁰⁶The word buz is interpreted to mean “loot” or “bounty” rather than “scorn.” his head lifted in honor, and he will ascend to the highest level to be favored and accounted among those who receive the countenance of the divine Presence.

Cannot drown it. Through force or terror, or even through enticement and seduction.

If a man would give all the wealth of his house. In exchange for your love.

They would surely scorn him. On all these the Holy One, Blessed Is He, and His Tribunal,⁹Rashi adds, “and His Tribunal,” because the Verse following begins with “We...”, the plural form. (Sifsei Chachomim) testify that to this extent the congregation of Yisroel clings to her Beloved. Now—

We have a [little] sister. In the earthly abode, who unites, joins and desires to be with us, and she is little and humbles herself more than all the nations, as the matter is stated, “Not because you are more numerous, etc.”¹⁰Devorim 7:7. for they humble themselves.

We have a little sister: The parable refers to Israel in exile, despised and degraded.

A [little] sister. אָחוֹת is] an expression of joining, [as in,] “These are the rends that may not be sewn up completely מִתְאַחִין.”¹¹Maseches Mo’ed Katan 26a.

Whose breasts are not yet formed: They have no place to nurse since they have left the land of life and are separated from the place of Torah. As it is written: “Torah shall go forth from Zion, God’s word from Jerusalem” [Isa. 2:3]. Concerning the exile it is said: “For many days Israel will be bereft of the God of truth and Torah” [II Chron. 15:2].

But she has no breasts. As the matter is stated concerning the exile of Egypt, “[Her] breasts were developed,”¹²Yechezkeil 16:7; connoting the readiness for redemption. when the time of the redemption arrived, but this one, “she has no breasts;” her time has not yet arrived for the time of love. What shall we do for our sister

What shall we do for our sister when she is spoken for?: What shall we do for them? How shall we sustain them? How to provide them with a future, with hope in their exile?

on the day she is spoken for. When the nations whisper about her to destroy her, as the matter is stated, “Come, let us destroy them from being a nation.”¹³Tehillim 83:5.

If she be a wall. If she is strong in her faith and in her fear of God, to be against them like a copper wall, that they should not enter her midst, meaning that she will not intermarry with them, and they will not intermingle with her, and she will not be seduced by them.

If she be a wall, we build upon it a silver battlement: If she stands up to her enemies who entice her to deny her faith, we will build upon it a silver battlement: The parable indicates that no mortal will overcome them.

We will build upon her a fortress of silver. We will become for her a fortified city and for a crown and beauty, and we will build for her the Holy City and the Temple.

If she be a door: Which is easily opened, they similarly might be easily seduced, then even if we will panel [natzor] it in cedar, in accord with: “build a siege-work [matzor], the enemy will fight them and overcome them” [Deut. 20:20].

If she be a door. Which turns on its hinges, and opens whenever someone knocks on it, she, too, if she opens for them so that they enter her and she into them.¹⁴I.e., intermarry, intermingle.

We will enclose her with panels of cedar. We will put on her door wooden panels which rot and which the worm gnaws and eats. Thereupon, the congregation of Yisroel replies—

I am a wall. Strong in the love of my Beloved.

The Community of Israel answers, I am a wall and my breasts are like towers: She takes pride that she will be like a fortified wall, holding firmly to her faith in the two Torahs, written and oral, which are an individual’s vitality, just as the breasts provide vitality to the infant.

And my bosom is like towers. These are the synagogues and the study halls, which nurture Yisroel with words of Torah.

“Then,” she says, “I will appear in God’s eyes like one who finds favor.”

Therefore. When I say this.

I am in his eyes as one who found peace. Like a bride who is found to be perfect שְׁלֵמָה=שָׁלוֹם, and who finds peace in her husband’s house.¹⁵See Maseches Pesachim 87a.

Shlomo had a vineyard. This is the congregation of Yisroel, as it is stated, “For the vineyard of Adonoy, Master of Legions, is the house of Yisroel.”¹⁶Yeshayahu 5:7.

Solomon had a vineyard: To Him who is the possessor of peace, Israel is designated as His vineyard, as it says: “For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel” [Isa. 5:7] and “I the Lord keep watch over it” [Isa. 27:3].

In the Plain of Hamon. In Yerusholayim, which is populous and has a multitude of people [=הָמוֹן.

In Baal-hamon: The parable refers to the people, great, splendorous, and numerous. But as a result of her sin, God gave her to the nations of the world.

Ba’al. An expression denoting a plain, as in, “from the Plain מִבַּעַל of Gad in the Levanon valley.”¹⁷Yehoshua 12:7.

A man would give for its fruit: They put both the bodies and material resources of Israel to hard labor.

He gave over the vineyard to caretakers. He delivered her into the hands of harsh masters, Bavel, Madai, Greece, and Edom. In Midrash Shir Hashirim, I found some support concerning these “caretakers,” that they are these kingdoms.

A thousand pieces of silver: An allusion to the days of exile, the text not paying precise attention to those few years of our exile which extend beyond one thousand.²⁰⁷The sixth millennium, thought by many to be the end of exile, began in 1240, shortly before the completion of this commentary.

Each of them brought for its fruit. Whatever they could collect from them, [e.g.,] head taxes, tithes, and illegal foreclosures; they collected everything from them to bring into their homes.¹⁸I.e., they kept for themselves whatever monies they collected.

My vineyard is before me. On the Day of Judgement, the Holy One, Blessed Is He, will bring them to judgement, and He will say, “My vineyard, even though I delivered it into your hands, it is Mine, and before Me is all that you seized for yourselves, of its fruit, and it is not hidden from Me what you collected from them.” And they will reply—

I have my very own vineyard: I will bring them forth from exile and they will be under My supervision as in the beginning.

The thousand are yours Shlomo. “The thousand silver pieces that we collected from them, we will return everything to You.” And two hundred

You may have the thousand, O Solomon!: Solomon here possesses a secular meaning, referring to the House of David. What is intimated here is that the days of the Messiah will last a thousand years, this being the sixth millennium of the world’s existence, which will extend for six thousand years.

for those who guard its fruit. “And we will add much more of our own, and we will give it to them, to their leaders and their sages,” as the matter is stated, “In place of the copper I will bring gold.”¹⁹Yeshayahu 60:17.

Two hundred years out of this millennium belong to those who guard its fruit: to those meriting the reward of the study of Torah and the observance of its commandments who had died previously and had yearned for the coming of the Messianic consummation and the resurrection of the dead. That is to say that the resurrection of the dead will occur two hundred years after the redemption. Thus in the sixth millennium, two hundred years before the resurrection of the dead, redemption and salvation will be revealed.

For those who guard its fruit. These are the Torah scholars, and those payments are for the Torah scholars, as it is stated, “but to those who sit before Adonoy belong its merchandise,”²⁰Ibid. 23:18. and the hire of Tzor. And it can also be explained, “and two hundred for those who guard its fruit,” according to the law of a person who derives benefit from consecrated property, that he must pay the principal and a fifth. We too will pay, for, “Yisroel is holy to Adonoy, the first of His produce,”²¹Yirmiyahu 2:3. the principal and a fifth, i.e., a fifth of the principal, and two hundred is a fifth of a thousand.

You who sit in the gardens. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, says to the congregation of Yisroel, “You, who are scattered in exile, grazing in the gardens of strangers and sitting in synagogues and study halls.”

Thus it states who lingers in the gardens: This is the shekhinah who is of the Central Column.

Companions listen to your voice. The ministering angels your friends, children of God like you, hearken and come to listen to your voice in the synagogues.

A lover is listening…: This is Israel who listen for your voice to gather their exiles, when you shall go forth before them as in the past. It is known that the ten tribes were exiled forty years before Judah and Benjamin. These underwent exile in three waves, as it is written: “for the first time brought abasement to the land of Naphtali and Zebulun while the later time was severe” [Isa. 8:23]. This is clarified in Seder ‘Olam, based on the verses. Judah and Benjamin also underwent exile in three waves, as it is written: “You walked in your sister’s path; therefore I will place her cup in your hands” [Ezek. 23:31]. And so it is clearly explicated in the verse.

Let me hear [your voice]. And afterwards, they will sanctify [My Name], as it is stated, “When the morning stars sing together.”²²Iyov 38:7. These are the Israelites, and afterwards, “and all the angels of God shout praise.”²³Ibid.

Those who first went forth into exile will be the first to return. Some time later, the children of Judah will return. So Isaiah prophesied when he said: “In that day my Lord will apply His hand a second time to redeem the other part of His people from Assyria—as also from Egypt, Pathos, Nubia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands” [Isa. 11:11]. The verse specifies “a second time,” for the redemption of the ten tribes will come first. And thus “the other part of His people” who will have remained in Assyria. In the following verse Isaiah lists the two exiles and makes mention of the two acts of redemption, referring to each and every one with its proper name. He says: “He will hold up a signal to the nations and assemble the banished of Israel; and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” [Isa. 11:12]. He refers to the ten tribes as the “banished of Israel” as they dwell together but are banished from their land. The exile of Judah is designated as a dispersion, “and he will gather the dispersed of Judah.” The house of Israel will anoint a Messiah called Messiah ben Joseph; he will conquer lands and kingdoms and go to Jerusalem and rebuild it, as it is written: “The Lord builds Jerusalem, He gathers in the dispersed of Israel” [Ps. 147:2]. But he will die in battle. Of him it states: “In that day, the wailing in Jerusalem shall be great” [Zach. 12:11] and “they shall lament to Me about those who are slain” [Zach. 12:10]. Afterwards, the dispersed and scattered among the nations shall come and appoint a single leader, the Messiah, son of David, who was with them in exile. They will come to the Land of Israel with the permission of the kings of the nations and with their assistance. As it is written: “And out of all of the nations, said the Lord, they shall bring all your brothers on horses, in chariots and drays, on mules and dromedaries to Jerusalem, My holy mountain, as an offering to the Lord” [Isa. 66:20]. This kingdom will continue and never end. This is the meaning of “Thus declares the Lord God, Who gathers the banished of Israel” [Isa. 56:8]: these are the ten tribes. “I will gather still more to those already gathered” [ibid.]: I add yet another gathering to the first, the dispersed of Judah. This is the meaning of “The Lord your God will restore your exile and have mercy upon you. He will return and gather you from among all the nations among whom He scattered you” [Deut. 30:3]. It is possible that there may be a substantial period of time between these two ingatherings. Afterwards they might yet have to be as herdsmen in the wilderness of the nations, in order to separate out and purify the wicked among Israel, and to smelt them just as silver is smelt in the refining furnace, as happened during the Exodus from Egypt….²⁰⁸An eschatological discussion of Zech. 9:9 etc. has been ellipted.

Flee my beloved. From this exile, and redeem us from among them.

By means of the holy spirit he looked forward and prophesied concerning the seventh millennium, the day that is entirely Sabbath and rest, for life eternal. Souls will be bound up in the bond of life and they will be a throne for the Lord. Then the river which is the life and existence of the world, flowing forth from the Eden of Wisdom, will cease its flow. This is the meaning of Flee, my beloved: pointing to the rising of the Glory, its ascent into the upper light.

And be like a gazelle. To hasten the redemption, and to cause Your Divine Presence to rest—Upon the mountains of spices. This is Mount Moriyah and the Beis Hamikdosh, may it be rebuilt speedily and in our days, Amen.

And be like a deer on the mountain of spices: That is a place containing all beings, filled up with all bodies, wondrous in counsel, entering all those heights. May I deserve to be counted among those who make less of themselves; “after two days may He quicken us” [Hos. 6:2] to see the glory of Jerusalem, when the moon’s light is bright as the sun, and the sun has sevenfold its light. Thus Scripture has foretold: “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the bruise of His people, and heals the stroke of their wound” [Isa. 30:26].