Song of Songs intro to Rabbinic texts

§ The Sages taught: Four entered the orchard [pardes], i.e., dealt with the loftiest secrets of Torah, and they are as follows: Ben Azzai; and ben Zoma; Aḥer, the other, a name for Elisha ben Avuya; and Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva, the senior among them, said to them: When, upon your arrival in the upper worlds, you reach pure marble stones, do not say: Water, water, although they appear to be water, because it is stated: “He who speaks falsehood shall not be established before My eyes” (Psalms 101:7). The Gemara proceeds to relate what happened to each of them: Ben Azzai glimpsed at the Divine Presence and died. And with regard to him the verse states: “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His pious ones” (Psalms 116:15). Ben Zoma glimpsed at the Divine Presence and was harmed, i.e., he lost his mind. And with regard to him the verse states: “Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you become full from it and vomit it” (Proverbs 25:16). Aḥer chopped down the shoots of saplings. In other words, he became a heretic. Rabbi Akiva came out safely.

Instead of answering Rabbi Yishmael, Rabbi Yehoshua diverted his attention to another matter and said to him: Yishmael, how do you read the following verse in the Song of Songs (1:2)? Do you read it as: For Your love [dodekha] is better than wine, or as: For your love [dodayikh] is better than wine? The first version, which is in the masculine form, would be a reference to God, whereas the second version, in the feminine, would be a reference to the Jewish people. Rabbi Yishmael said to him that it should be read in the feminine: For your love [dodayikh] is better than wine. Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: The matter is not so, as another verse teaches with regard to it: “Your ointments [shemanekha] have a goodly fragrance” (Song of Songs 1:3). This phrase, which appears in the next verse, is written in the masculine form, and therefore it is determined that the preceding verse can also be understood in the masculine form.

במראת הצבאת OF THE MIRRORS OF THE WOMEN CROWDING — The Israelitish women possessed mirrors of copper into which they used to look when they adorned themselves. Even these did they not hesitate to bring as a contribution towards the Tabernacle. Now Moses was about to reject them since they were made to pander to their vanity, but the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “Accept them; these are dearer to Me than all the other contributions, because through them the women reared those huge hosts in Egypt!” For when their husbands were tired through the crushing labour they used to bring them food and drink and induced them to eat. Then they would take the mirrors, and each gazed at herself in her mirror together with her husband, saying endearingly to him, “See, I am handsomer than you!” Thus they awakened their husbands’ affection and subsequently became the mothers of many children, at it is said, (Song 8:5) “I awakened thy love under the apple-tree”, (referring to the fields where the men worked). This is what it refers to when it states, מראות הצבאת “the mirrors of the women who reared the hosts (צבאות)” (Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 9). And it was for this reason that the laver was made of them (the mirrors) — because it served the purpose of promoting peace between man and wife viz., by giving of its waters to be drunk by a woman whose husband had shown himself jealous of her and who nevertheless had associated with another (cf. Numbers ch. V) thus affording her an opportunity to prove her innocence (cf. Sotah 15b). You may know that the מראות mentioned in the text were really mirrors (and that the word does not mean visions, or appearance, etc.), for it is said, (v. 29) “And the copper of the wave-offering was seventy talents etc. … and therewith he made [the sockets etc.]” — the laver, however, and its base are not mentioned there amongst the articles made from that copper; hence you may learn that the copper of which the laver was made was not a part of the copper of the weave-offering, which is the only copper mentioned as having been contributed by the people. Thus did R. Tanchuma 2:11:9 explain the term מראת הצבאת. And so does Onkelos also render it: במחזית נשיא, and this first word is the Targum translation of מראות, in the sense of mireors in old French, for we find that for the word (Isaiah 3:23) “And the גליונים”, which are mirrors, we have in the Targum the same word מחזיתא.

These are the accounts of the tabernacle … and the bronze of the offering (Exod. 38:21, 29). The bronze of the offering (tenufah) refers to the bronze vessels given to a bride, for in Greek they call a bride nymphé.¹⁴A play on words: tenufah (“offering”) and nymphé, a Greek bride. You find that while the Israelites were making bricks in Egypt, Pharaoh decreed that they were not to sleep at home so that they would not have intercourse with their wives. R. Simeon the son of Halafta said: What did the Israelite women do? They would go to the Nile to draw water, and the Holy One, blessed be He, would fill their jugs with little fishes.¹⁵Small fishes arouse sexual desire (Berakhot 40a). They would (sell some), cook and prepare (the fish), and buy some wine (with the proceeds of the sale), and then bring it to their husbands in the fields, as it is said: In all manner of service in the field (Exod. 1:14). While the men were eating and drinking, the women would take out their mirrors and glance into them with their husbands. They would say: “I am more attractive than you,” and the men would reply: “I am handsomer than you.” In that way they would arose their sexual desires and become fruitful and multiply. The Holy One, blessed be He, caused them to conceive on the spot.

Ah, you are fair, my darling, Ah, you are fair. Your eyes are like doves Behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats Streaming down Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes Climbing up from the washing pool; All of them bear twins, And not one loses her young. Your lips are like a crimson thread, Your mouth is lovely. Your brow behind your veil [Gleams] like a pomegranate split open. Your neck is like the Tower of David, Built to hold weapons, Hung with a thousand shields— All the quivers of warriors. Your breasts are like two fawns, Twins of a gazelle, Browsing among the lilies.

On that day King Solomon sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings on the altar and his offering was accepted with favor by YY. An echo came forth from heaven and this is what it said, “How beautiful you are, O Assembly of Israel, and how beautiful are those leaders of the Assembly and the sages sitting in the Sanhedrin, they who enlighten for ever and ever the people of the House of Israel (who resemble turtledoves, the nestlings of a dove); and even the rest of the members of your Assembly and the people of the land are righteous as the sons of Jacob who gathered stones and made a monument on Mount Gilead. 12 “How beautiful are the Priests and Levites who bring your offerings and eat the holy meat, the tithe, and the heave-offering, and are untainted by any theft or robbery, just as the flocks of Jacob’s sheep were clean at the time they were shorn and came up from the Jabbok river. For none of them was obtained by theft or robbery. All of them resembled one another, they bore twins every time, and none of them was barren or miscarried.” And the lips of the High Priest were uttering prayers before YY on the Day of Atonement, and his words changed the sins of Israel (which resembled a scarlet thread) and made them white as clean wool. 13 And the king who was at their head was full of precepts like the pomegranate, not to mention the overseers and rulers who were near the king, who were righteous and in whom there was nothing evil. And the head of the Academy, who was master to you, was as mighty in merit and great in good deeds as David the King of Israel, and on the word of his mouth the world was built. And the people of the House of Israel were confident in the teaching of the Law with which he was occupied, and they were victorious in war as if they were holding in their hands all sorts of heroic weapons. Your two redeemers who are destined to redeem you, Messiah Son of David and Messiah Son of Ephraim, resemble Moses and Aaron, the sons of Jochebed (who are comparable to two young antelopes, twins of a gazelle). And by their merit they fed the people of the House of Israel for forty years in the wilderness on manna, plump fowl, and the water of Miriam’s well.