Musar sobre Cantares 2:18

And consider how great is the sin of a man who speaks evil speech: Is their sin that they have sealed their lips and quieted their tongues from speaking words of Torah not big enough for them; that they surely [use them to] destroy with evil speech? And King David, peace be upon him, said (Psalms 119:23), “Though princes meet and speak against me, Your servant speaks out Your laws.” The explanation is that they are still from speaking out Your laws and speak evil speech and speak against me, while I am still speaking out Your laws. And our Rabbis said (Arakhin 15a) [that] the cure for evil speech - to save oneself from it - is to be involved with the Torah; as its stated (Proverbs 15:4), “A healing tongue is a tree of life,“ And this is [the meaning of] what is stated (Psalms 39:2), “I would keep my mouth muzzled, etc.” And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, explained (Midrash Tehillim 39) that the muzzle is involvement with Torah. And our Rabbis said (Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 721), “The Congregation of Israel is beloved by her voice and hated by her voice: She is beloved by her voice, as it is stated (Song of Songs 2:14), ‘let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet.’ And she is hated by her voice, as it is stated (Jeremiah 12:8), ‘she raised her voice against Me; therefore I have hated her.’” And this is [the meaning of] what is stated (Proverbs 18:21), “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.” And its explanation is: “Those who love it will eat its fruit” - and one who loves the tongue, and that is a man that always wants to talk, for him the proper counsel is that he should, “eat its fruit.” That is, he should not speak idle words but rather words of Torah, wisdom and ethics and the bringing of peace between a man and his fellow; justify the [actions of] the masses; praise the good; disparage the evil; and be zealous about the truth. For there is no end to the merits that he can acquire for himself with his tongue. And [it is] as we discussed earlier, that life is in the tongue.

All the wicked people surround Jerusalem, as is written: כל גויים סבבוני, "All the Gentile nations surround me" (Psalms 118,10). Jerusalem can be compared to the "lily amongst the thorns," Solomon's description of Israel in Song of Songs 2,2. Because terrestrial Jerusalem is surrounded by such secular turbulence, the ערלה in the emanation יסוד has to be removed as a first step so that the covenant called ברית המעור, the mystical root "סוד" of the emanation יסוד can be revealed and the עטרה be laid bare.

The third: To visit the sick and to heal them. It is thus known that the Divine Presence is lovesick for unification, as it is written (Song of Songs 2:5), "for I am sick with love." And Her healing is in the hand of man, to bring Her proper drugs, as it is written, "Support me with fruitcakes, lay apples below me." And they explained in the Tikkunim (p. 39b) that the secret of fruitcakes (ashishot) is all of the things that are connected to Kingship (Malkhut) - through the man (eesh) [that includes the letter,] hay (five, which is) Kindness, and through the woman (eeshah) [that includes the letter,] yod (ten, which is) Severity, [which] is through the two forearms. And She supports Herself upon them there. And whoever does this supports the patient in his sickness.

And what is "the proper love"? It is that he must love the Lord with a great, mighty and supreme love until his very soul is bound up in the love of the Lord, may He be Blessed, and he is in the ecstasy of that love always, as though he were love sick and his mind cannot for a moment be free, as when a man is infatuated with a woman, and he thinks of her with constant ecstasy, where sitting, rising, eating or drinking. Even more than this must the love of the Lord, Blessed be He, be in the heart of those who love him, ecstatic with longing for Him, as He commanded: "with all your heart and with all your soul" (Ibid.). And this is what Solomon said by way of a parable in the song of Songs: "For I am love sick" (2:5) and the entire Song of Songs is a parable of this love of God.

And it is known that the withholding of honor from the Holy One Blessed be He because of the fools who have denied Him or rebelled against Him and said: "What profit [is ours] that we have kept His keeping [i.e., His mitzvoth]?" — such dishonor obtains only in this terrestrial, material world, where "eyes" are those of flesh. But in the higher world, all the angels crown the Blessed One's name and proclaim His glory — how He vivifies and leads them. As Scripture states (Nechemiah, Ibid.): "And the host of the heavens bow down to You." And (I Kings 22:14): "I saw the L-rd sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing before Him, on His right and on His left." (Isaiah 6:2-3): "Seraphs were standing above Him … and one called to the other and said: 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the L-rd of hosts [tzevaoth],'" for which reason the Holy One Blessed be He is called "Tzevakoth," as we find throughout the Torah. And when we reflect well, we see in truth that this world is not even like a mustard seed compared to all of the higher worlds. (For there are many worlds on high, as Chazal have said (Avodah Zarah 3b) that every day the Holy One Blessed be He soars through all His eighteen thousand worlds, and, especially, in respect to what is explained in the holy Zohar in many places.) So that their "rebellion," G-d forbid, is considered naught. And in this world, the Holy One Blessed be He found His people Israel, who are especially beloved by Him — so much so, that they are called "sons" unto Him, viz. (Devarim 14:1): "You are sons, etc." And their voice is sweet to Him, viz. Song of Songs 2:14: "Let Me hear your voice." How, then, can we not be ashamed of ourselves if we do not trust, G-d forbid, in His name, which vivifies all of the worlds? And of all the angels, of whom there are found tens of thousands of them in each class, not one of the celestial angels, from the time the Holy One Blessed be He created all of the worlds, has descended, G-d forbid, to apprise us that he is lacking some of the Divine effluence. And it is known that there are angels whose size is several thousand parasangs, as Chazal have said in Chullin 91b, that the size of Gavriel was two thousand parasangs, this being deduced from what is written in Daniel (10:6) when he [Daniel] saw the angel, viz. "And his body was like [the Sea of] Tarshish," (which is two thousand parasangs.) And there are angels who are much taller, as stated in Chazal (Chagigah 13b) about Sandalfon that he was five hundred years "walking distance" taller than his fellows [(The walking distance of an average man is ten parasangs a day.)] And this little man [in this world], who is not even [the size of] a mustard seed compared to them — how can he constantly fret and worry: "Whence will come my livelihood and whence will come my help!" When we reflect upon this well, we should be astonished much more about ourselves in this than we are astonished at the fool in connection with the bird! There is nothing left for us to do but to gird ourselves with strength and do His will without worrying at all, just as the King's son need not worry that he will be left without a loaf of bread, as it is written (Devarim 14:1): "You are sons to the L-rd your G-d."

The Heavenly fire is alluded to in Song of Songs 2,5: סמכוני באשישות, "Sustain me with fires," which the Zohar explains as a reference to the two fires on the altar, the man-made one as well as the fire coming down from Heaven to consume the offerings. In our context the reference would be to the physical fire, representing the body, and the spiritual fire, representing the soul.

As to that which our Sages said, that "One sin quenches a commandment, but one sin does not quench the whole Torah" (Sotah 21a), as it is said, "For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is a light" (Prov. 6:23) — this applies to one who commits a sin by chance, but not to one who completely throws off the yoke of warning against a sin. And our Sages, of blessed memory, said, "The congregation of Israel is beloved for its voice" (Shohar Tov, 39a), as it is said, "Let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice" (Cant. 2:14). And it is also hated for its voice, as it is said, "She hath uttered her voice against Me, therefore have I hated her" (Jer. 12:8). From this we can conclude that "life and death are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21). And it is said, "And those who love her will eat her fruit" (ibid.). This means that one who loves the tongue, that is to say a man who loves to speak constantly, it is worthy and true counsel to him that he should eat of its fruit. In other words, he should not speak idle talk, but should speak words of the Torah, or words that will bring peace, or words that will teach many to do good, and he should teach them the good and keep them far from evil, and to be zealous for the truth, for there is no end to the good deeds that a man may do with his tongue. And this is the meaning of "life and death are in the power of the tongue."

In the world there are trees and herbs and good and bad fruit. Some of them have a pleasant aroma and fruit that is good for nourishment and healing. And there are herbs and roots and fruit that can slay, like the herbs which produce deadly poison or like the thorn and the thistle. The good flora may be compared to good people, as it is written, "As a lily among thorns… As an apple tree among the trees of the wood" (Cant. 2:2—3). And the evil flora to evil people, as it is written, "But the ungodly, they are as thorns thrust away" (II Sam. 23:6).

כי בי-ה ה' צור עולמים

Another difficulty is that we are told by the Midrash in Song of Songs 2,4, that when G–d descended on Mount Sinai to give Israel the Torah He brought with Him 22,000 ministering angels. We know this from the verse in Psalms 68,18, רכב אלוקים רבותים, אלפי שנאן. "The chariots of G–d are myriads upon myriads, thousands upon thousands." All these angels were made to appear with flags, or like flags. Israel developed a yearning for flags and wished also to have flags like these. This is why it says in Song of Songs, 2,4, "He has brought me to the house of wine," i.e. Sinai where the Torah was given, which in turn has been compared to wine." The verse in Proverbs 9,5,"Drink of the wine I have mixed," refers to Sinai. The words דגלו עלי אהבה, in Song of Songs 2,4, refer to Israel exclaiming "I wish G–d would display His love for me through the flags." G–d responded saying: "Since you yearn for flags, I am surely going to fulfil your request," to wit Psalms 20,6, ימלא השם כל משאלותיך, "may the Lord fulfil your every wish." G–d immediately informed Israel of His decision by instructing Moses to make flags for them, as is written: “איש על דגלו באותות.” So far the Midrash. This Midrash too requires an explanation. Again we need to know what the term "love" is all about! We further need to know how the wording in this Midrash adds anything to the previous Midrash on that subject?

There is one strategy that can save a person from even a trace of conceit when he propounds his Torah insights in public. That is, by recalling that even if he is by far the greatest scholar of his generation he is still not on the level of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, yet Rabbi Shimon was exceedingly humble. Thus it is related in the Zohar on Parashas Shemos (14a): Rabbi Chiyya used to go to the masters of the Mishnah in order to learn from them. When he went to the house of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai he saw that it was divided by a partition. Rabbi Chiyya was surprised and said to himself, “I will listen from outside.” He heard Rabbi Shimon saying, “[It is written,] ‘Flee, my beloved, and resemble a deer, etc.’ (Shir HaShirim 8:14). There is no other creature that behaves like the deer. When it flees it goes a short distance and then turns its head to look back at the place from which it fled. Then all along the way it turns its head back constantly. “This is what Israel was saying in this verse, ‘Master of the Universe! If we cause you to abandon us, may it be Your will to flee in the manner of the deer by continually looking back towards the place where you left us! This is also the manner of the creature called the ‘fawn of the harts.’ For this reason Shlomo said, ‘Resemble a deer or a fawn of the harts.’ This is what is stated in the verse, ‘And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not revile them nor will I utterly reject them to destroy them, etc.’ (Vayikra 26:44).”

Meanwhile Rabbi Chiyya sat weeping and sighing. At last he spoke up and said, “Turn, my beloved, resemble a deer or a fawn of the harts.” Then the partition opened but Rabbi Chiyya still did not enter, for he was afraid to enter without permission. Rabbi Shimon raised his eyes and said, “Perhaps permission has been granted for the one outside to enter?” So he stood up and went towards Rabbi Chiyya. Meanwhile, the fire spread from the place of Rabbi Shimon to the place of Rabbi Chiyya. Rabbi Shimon said, “If the spark of light has spread outside, shall I remain here [that is, shall I not bring Rabbi Chiyya inside]?” Rabbi Chiyya was stricken dumb, and after he entered he lowered his eyes and refused to raise his head. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai told his son Rabbi Elazar, “Get up and pass your hand over his mouth, for he is not accustomed to this.” So Rabbi Elazar got up and passed his hand over Rabbi Chiyya’s mouth, whereupon Rabbi Chiyya proclaimed, “My eyes have beheld what they have never beheld before!”

We need to say a few words in introducing the subject of the significance of the moon. The sanctity with which we sanctify G–d when blessing the New Moon is of a dual nature. Similarly, the sanctity which G–d bestows upon us is also of a dual nature. We therefore have two sanctities which are in reality four. How does this work in practice? We sanctify G–d by devoting both our body and our soul to Him when there arises the need to sanctify His holy Name. In such situations we are considered like sheep ready to be slaughtered; we do this joyfully as mentioned in Song of Songs 2,5: "for I am sick with love." This means that I, the כנסת ישראל, love You, G–d when I am sick, i.e. when I accept your afflictions with love. This is totally different from the way the Gentiles react to afflictions. Their reaction to afflictions is described in Isaiah 8,21: "When he is hungry, he shall rage and revolt against his king and his divine beings." This is why most kings divest themselves of their crowns in the first three hours of the day and pray to the sun, as pointed out in the Talmud Avodah Zarah 53. They keep up this practice because the sun, unlike the moon, never wanes and thereby convinces them of its power. Israel, on the other hand, counts according to the lunar calendar which wanes every month. This is what the Midrash quoted above had in mind.

A third reason why the Jews accepted the Torah with alacrity after the fall of Haman will become clear after we first explain some of the differences between acting under compulsion and acting without any kind of duress. The author of Kliy Chemdah writing in the name of his father in his commentary on פרשת יתרו describes the acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish people at Sinai as an act of compulsion since it was an act of gratitude for all the supernatural miracles G–d had performed for them. He defines a voluntary acceptance of the Torah as an appropriate description of Jews embracing the Torah because they find themselves in dire straits. This is alluded to in Song of Songs 2,5: חולת אהבה אני, "For I am sick with love (when bereft of Your Presence)." Israel loves G–d and holds on to the Torah even when sick, i.e. when in distress such as in exile. This is in direct contrast to the Canaanites of whom it is recorded that they curse their deities when in trouble, as we know from Isaiah 8,21: "and he curses his god." I have seen this interpretation in a book called Shoshanat Amukim on the above quoted verse from Song of Songs. In view of this it is perfectly understandable that, due to their extreme distress the Jews under threat of annihilation from Haman embraced the Torah more than they ever had in their entire history. When such acceptance is contrasted with the normal human reaction of resentment and rebellion against protective powers which have failed one, one can truly describe such acceptance of the Torah as being totally voluntary.