In the spring a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love. Even the Rabbis understood this and they prescribed the Song of Songs for public reading on Passover. Breathing the spirit of spring when “the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,” the Song of Songs was felt to be especially appropriate to the mood of a festival which not only celebrates the , spring season of each year but also reenacts Israel’s historic springtime, the end of the winter of Egyptian bondage and the beginning of the new life that was to culminate on Sinai. The interweaving of motifs that such a view involves, juxtaposing lyrics of a most personal intimacy with issues of national significance, is typical of the Agadic method of understanding. And it is probably in the Song of Songs that this method reaches its most radical, and most controversial, application.

Traditionally, this method is referred to as the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs. It is given by modern critics as the justification for the inclusion of such a relatively “secular” work as the Song of Songs in the Scriptures. At the same time, the allegorical interpretation is often felt to be the supreme example of a theological misreading of a supremely human document which can be understood adequately in its own terms, as one of the most exquisite examples of love poetry in world literature. The Rabbis, of all people, would be the last to deny the human significance of the Song of Songs. As a matter of fact, in ascribing the book to the early part of Solomon’s literary career, while relegating Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to his middle and late periods respectively, they give as their reason that “. . . it is the way of the world that when a man is young he composes songs of love. As he advances in years, he likes to couch his wisdom in maxims and aphorisms, and it is only when he becomes an old man that he speaks of the vanity of things.” They thus saw in the Song of Songs a document of the lovemaking of a young man. The other levels of meaning were found in the Song not because it could not stand without them but because their own feelings toward Israel, its God-encounter and its destiny, were so closely related to the experience of romantic love that they were not sure where the one began and the other ended. The rabbinic interpretation of the Song of Songs is therefore, strictly speaking, not allegoric but symbolic, referring to the method whereby levels of meaning blend into each other organically as a result of their intimate connection.

Rashi’s introduction to the Song of Songs, and his commentary on some of its verses, is offered here as representative of the rabbinic interpretation. Though the point has merely been discussed in this department, in connection with the selection “Rashi on the Creation” (July 1950), it may be said again that Rashi’s genius as an expounder lies in the brilliance with which he condenses the vast bulk of available rabbinic literature into a concise and readable commentary on the text itself. In the introduction to the Song of Songs, printed below as the first part of the selection, this greatest of all medieval Jewish commentators summarizes his method of operation. In so doing, he introduces the dominant theme of the book, which is the romance between Israel and God. The emotional coloring of this introduction evidences the extraordinary degree to which the Song of Songs could move even a man who, basically, was a legalist in the Talmudic sense.

The translation printed below was prepared with the help of Jacob L. Halberstam.

—Michael Wyschogrod

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It is written in Scripture: “God has spoken once, twice have I heard this . . .” (Psalm 62:12). This means that the same scriptural verse can be interpreted in several different ways. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, a verse does not lose its simple and literal meaning. And even though the prophets spoke their words symbolically, it is still necessary to organize these symbols in their own order and sequence, just as the verses themselves are ordered, one after the other. Concerning this book [the Song of Songs] I have seen many Midrashic exegeses. Some arrange the whole book in one Midrash. In addition, individual verses are scattered in a number of Midrashim. These interpretations, however, do not fit the language of the verse and its order. As a result, I decided in my heart to capture the meaning of the verses, organizing their explanations in an orderly way. As concerns the Midrashim of our sages, I will set each in its proper place.

Now I say that by means of the holy spirit Solomon saw that Israel was destined to be exiled into one diaspora after the other, to undergo one destruction after the other. During these exiles they would lament their former dignity and remember that first love when they were His most treasured of all peoples. They would say, in the language of the verse: “. . . I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now” (Hosea 2:9), remembering His kindness, the transgressions they committed and the good He promised them for the end of days. He [Solomon] therefore composed this book by means of the holy spirit, in the language of a woman doomed to a life of widowhood, longing for her husband, dependent on her lover, remembering her youthful love for Him and admitting her sin. Her lover, too, suffers at her suffering, remembering the graciousness of her youth, the pleasantness of her beauty, and the delicacy of her actions. By means of these He was tied to her with a powerful love, making it known that He did not afflict her willfully and has not divorced her irrevocably, for she is still His betrothed, He still her husband, and that He will, in time, return to her.

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(1:1) The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s: Our Rabbis taught: Every use of the word “Solomon” in the Song of Songs is holy, referring to the King whose is the peace (Shlomo: whose is the peace). It is the song that is above all the hymns sung to the Holy One, blessed be He, by His congregation and people, the Community of Israel. R. Akiba said: The world was never as worthy as on the day the Song of Songs was given to Israel because all the scriptural writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is holy of holies. R. Eliezer b. Azarjoh said: What does this thing resemble? A king who took a measure of wheat and gave it to a baker. He said to him: Extract for me this much of the best flour, this much of medium flour, and this much of the worst flour, and of the best flour prepare for me one roll, made of its finest part. In the same way, all of Scripture is holy and the Song of Songs is holy of holies because all of it is the fear of Heaven and the acceptance of the yoke of His Kingdom.

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(1:5) I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon: You, my neighbors, let me not be unworthy in your eyes even though my husband has left me because of the blackness he found in me. I am black because of the burning sun, but I am handsome in the shape of my fair limbs. If I am black like the “tents of Kedar” which are blackened by the rains, being steadily exposed to the desert, I am also easy to cleanse to become like the “curtains of Solomon.” This is symbolic. The Community of Israel says to the nations: I am black by my deeds but I am comely by the deeds of my ancestors. And even among my own deeds there are some of beauty. If I have the sin of the golden calf, I also have the merit of the acceptance of the Torah.

He refers to the nations as the “daughters of Jerusalem” because Jerusalem is destined to become their common metropolis, as Ezekiel prophesied: “. . . and I will give them unto thee for daughters . . .” (Ezekiel 16:61).

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(4:5) Thy two breasts, which nourish you: this refers to Moses and Aaron; are like two fawns that are twins of a gazelle: it is common for fawns to be born twins. Similarly these two [Moses and Aaron] are alike, one equal to the other.

Another interpretation: Thy two breasts, referring to the Tablets; that are twins means that they correspond to each other, one for one: five commandments on one Tablet and five on the other, each corresponding to its opposite number. “I am thy Lord” corresponds to “Thou shalt not kill,” for he who kills diminishes the image of the Holy One, blessed be He. “Thou shalt have no other gods beside me” corresponds to “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” for he who practices idol worship acts in the manner of an adulterous woman who chooses strangers while under the authority of her husband. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” corresponds to “Thou shalt not steal,” for he who steals will, in the end, swear falsely. “Remember the Sabbath day” corresponds to “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” for he who desecrates the Sabbath bears false witness against his Creator by implying that He did not rest on the Sabbath of Creation. “Honor thy father and thy mother” corresponds to “Thou shalt not covet” for he who covets will father a son who beats him and honors one who is not his father.

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(6:11) I went down into the garden of nuts: that is, unto you [Israel]. . . . Why is Israel compared to nuts? Just as this nut you see looks like a piece of wood and you do not recognize what is inside, but when you break it open you find it filled with granaries of food, so is Israel: modest, humble in their deeds, the scholars among them not known, not wishing to spread their fame pridefully. Were you to examine him [Israel], however, you would find him full of wisdom. There are many more Midrashim in a like vein: Just as this nut falls into the mire without its contents being besmirched, so Israel is exiled among the nations, receiving many blows, without its being tarnished.

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(7:2) How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O prince’s daughter: Israel praises Him from the higher regions to the lower regions: they begin with His head is as the most fine gold (5:11) and they descend until they reach His legs are as pillars of marble (5:15), wanting to make themselves acceptable in order to bring down the Divine Presence from the higher to the lower spheres. He, on the other hand, proclaims their [Israel’s] praise, starting from the lower and ascending to the higher regions: from How beautiful are thy steps in sandals (7:2), referring to the feet, ascending to Thy head upon thee is like Carmel (7:6). His purpose is to lift them up to Himself.

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(8:13) Thou that dwellest in the Gardens: The Holy One, blessed be He, speaks to the Community of Israel which scattered in the Diaspora, feeding in the gardens of others, still dwells in houses of prayer and learning.

The companions hearken for thy voice: The Angels of the Host, thy companions, who are like thee the sons of God, are come to hearken attentively to hear your voice in the houses of prayer.

‘Cause me to hear it’: And after they have heard it [the voice of Israel], they themselves sanctify the name of God, as it is written in Scripture: “When the morning stars sang together,” referring to Israel, after which “. . . all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7).

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(8:14) Make haste my beloved: that is, from this Diaspora and redeem us from among them [the nations].

And be thou like to a gazelle: to bring about quickly the redemption and make rest Thy Divine Presence.

Upon the mountains of spices: that is, Mount Moriah and the holy Temple, may it be rebuilt quickly, in our days, amen.

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