Chasidut sobre Cantares 1:3
לְרֵ֙יחַ֙ שְׁמָנֶ֣יךָ טוֹבִ֔ים שֶׁ֖מֶן תּוּרַ֣ק שְׁמֶ֑ךָ עַל־כֵּ֖ן עֲלָמ֥וֹת אֲהֵבֽוּךָ׃
Suave é o cheiro dos teus perfumes; como perfume derramado é o teu nome; por isso as donzelas te amam.
Kedushat Levi
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.
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.
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Kedushat Levi
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.
[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.
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Kedushat Levi
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.
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.
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