(ב) רַבִּי בֶּרֶכְיָה פָּתַר קְרָא בְּאַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ, אָחוֹת לָנוּ קְטַנָּה, זֶה אַבְרָהָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (יחזקאל לג, כד): אֶחָד הָיָה אַבְרָהָם וַיִּירַשׁ אֶת הָאָרֶץ, וְאִחָה אֶת כָּל בָּאֵי הָעוֹלָם לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא. בַּר קַפָּרָא אָמַר כְּאָדָם שֶׁהוּא מְאַחֶה הַקֶּרַע, עַד שֶׁהוּא קָטָן הָיָה עָסוּק בְּמִצְווֹת וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים. וְשָׁדַיִם אֵין לָהּ, שֶׁעֲדַיִן לֹא בָּא לִכְלַל מִצְווֹת וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים. מַה נַּעֲשֶׂה לַאֲחוֹתֵינוּ בַּיּוֹם שֶׁיְדֻבַּר בָּהּ, בַּיּוֹם שֶׁגָּזַר נִמְרוֹד הָרָשָׁע וְאָמַר לֵירֵד לְכִבְשַׁן הָאֵשׁ.
Rabbi Berachia explained this text as about Abraham, we have a little sister, this is Abraham, as it is written Abraham was one and inherited the land (Ezekiel 33:24) and united all people before God. Bar Kapara said, like a person who sews up a tear. While he was still little he was occupied with mitzvot and good deeds. And she has no breasts that he still has not come to do mitzvot and good deeds. What will be done to our sister on the day that she will be spoken for, on the day that the evil Nimrod came and told him to go into the fiery furnace.
(א) שִׁשִּׁים הֵמָּה מְלָכוֹת, רַבִּי חִיָּא צִיפוֹרָאָה וְרַבִּי לֵוִי פַּתְרֵי קְרָיָה בְּאֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם
Sixty are the queens, Rabbi Chiya of Tziporen and Rabbi Levi interpret this as about the nations of the world...
(א) אחת דיבר אלהים, שתים זו שמעתי (תהלים סב יב). מקרא אחד יוצא לכמה טעמים, וסוף דבר אין לך מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו ומשמעו. ואף על פי שדיברו הנביאים דבריהם בדוגמא, צריך ליישב הדוגמא על אופניה ועל סדרה, כמו שהמקראות סדורים זה אחר זה. (ב) וראיתי לספר הזה כמה מדרשי אגדה: יש סודרים כל הספר הזה במדרש אחד; ויש מפוזרים בכמה מדרשי אגדה מקראות לבדם, ואינם מתיישבים על לשון המקרא וסדר המקראות. ואמרתי בלבי לתפוש משמעות המקרא ליישב ביאורם על סדרם, והמדרשות מרבותינו אקבעם מדרש ומדרש, איש איש במקומו. (ג) ואומר אני, שראה שלמה ברוח הקודש שעתידין ישראל לגלות גולה אחר גולה, חורבן אחר חורבן, ולהתאונן בגלות זה על כבודם הראשון, ולזכור חיבה ראשונה אשר היו סגולה לו מכל העמים לאמר (הושע ב ז) אלכה ואשובה אל אישי הראשון כי טוב לי אז מעתה, ויזכרו את חסדיו ואת מעלם אשר מעלו, ואת הטובות אשר אמר לתת להם באחרית הימים. ויסד הספר הזה ברוח הקודש, בלשון אשה צרורה אלמנות חיות, משתוקקת על בעלה, מתרפקת על דודה, מזכרת אהבת נעוריה אליו, ומודה על פשעה. אף דודה, צר לו בצרתה, ומזכיר חסדי נעוריה ונוי יופיה וכשרון פעליה, בהם נקשר עימה באהבה עזה, להודיעה כי לא מלבו ענה, ולא שילוחיה שילוחין, כי עוד היא אשתו והוא אישה, והוא עתיד לשוב אליה.
God said one thing, I heard two. (Psalms 62:12). One text brings forth multiple meanings (Sanhedrin 34a). And in the end of things a text does not leave its context and meaning (pshuto umashmao), and even though the prophets spoke their words as a parable (dugma), it is necessary to explain the parable according to its nature and order, just as the texts are ordered one after the other. And I have seen for this book many aggadic interpretations. There are those who explain all this book in one midrash, and there are those scattered among various midrashim, and there are those that interpret individual texts and to not fit the language of the text and the order of the texts. And I said in my heart that to seize the meaning of the text to set the explanations in order, and I will make each midrash of our sages fit in its proper place.
And I say that King Solomon saw with the holy spirit that in the future the children of Israel will be exiled, exile after exile, destruction after destruction, and will mourn in this exile over their earlier honour and will remember the earlier love that they were a treasure above all other people (Exodus 19.5). They will say: I will go and I will return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now (Hosea 2.9) And they will remember his kindness, and their betrayal that they betrayed (Lev. 26.40), and the goodness that He promised to give in the end of days.
And this book is based, by the holy spirit, in the metaphor of a woman bound in living widowhood (2 Sam. 20.3), longing for her husband, leaning on her beloved, remembering the love of her youth for him and admitting her sins. Her beloved is also suffering with her in her pain (Isaiah 63.9), and remembers the love of her youth and the beauty of her beauty, and the rightness of her deeds, that with them he was connected with her in a powerful love, so that she might know that he is not causing her suffering from his heart (Eicha 3.33) and her exile is not exile (Isaiah 50.1), for she is still his wife and he her husband (Hosea 2.4) and he will return to her.
Origen on the Song of Songs
The words, 'Let us rejoice and be glad in Thee,' however, seem to be spoken by the maidens, who in them beg and pray the Bridegroom that as the Bride has obtained the things that are perfect and rejoices therefor, so may they likewise merit to fulfil their course and come even to the King's chamber; that, having there beheld and looked on all these things of which she speaks with pride, they also may rejoice as she rejoices, and be glad in Him.
Nicholas of Lyra, Introduction to Song of Songs
Hebrew interpreters say that this book is a parable which depicts the love between God and the Jews, a love which was promised to them at the giving of the Law, in Exodus 20, when God claimed them as the bride whom he desired. Catholic expositors commonly say that this book depicts the love between Christ and the Church, understanding the Church as an entity separate from the synagogue. They say that the Church originated from the side of Christ “sleeping,” [as it were,] on the cross, just as Eve was formed from the rib of the sleeping Adam, and thus the Catholic interpreters like the Hebrews try to use the text for their own purposes. However, carefully considering the matter, both interpretations seem to be somewhat deficient. First of all, it seems that the Jews interpret the bride a little too narrowly, saying that she is none other than the Jewish people and converts to Judaism. The Catholic interpreters also seem to take the bride a little too narrowly, saying she is only the Christians. But some things in this book cannot be easily explained with reference to the situation of the Old Testament. On the other hand, some things cannot be easily explained with reference to the New. Another defect is that the Jews inappropriately apply some things which pertain to the New Testament to the Old, while conversely Catholic interpreters inappropriately apply some things from the Old Testament to the New. Each, however, tries to give the literal sense. It is the literal sense which I intend to present, to the best of my ability.
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So then, in this book, it seems that the groom should be understood as God. The bride, then, is the Church, embracing the circumstances of both Testaments. For just as there is one faith held by modern and ancient people, though there are differences in how clearly things are explained, so there is one Church though there are differences depending on greater or lesser closeness to God, with greater closeness occurring in the time of the New Testament. This is how St. Gregory understood the Church, saying in Homily 7: “What father has a closer relationship to his family than our Creator has to us, owning those whom he created as the inhabitants of his house, which is like a vineyard.” This is a reference to the universal Church which extends from Abel, the first just person, all the way to the last elect person who will be born before the end of the world. The Church produces many saints as if they were young grapevines. Thus understood, the Church has a different appearance at different times, depending on whether it has offended the groom or pleased him. Similarly, the Church is composed of different people, that is, Jews and Gentiles, the just and the unjust, those who rule and those who are ruled. This and similar facts cause difficulty in interpreting this book, because frequently there is a transition from one era to another, and from one part of the Church to another, and from the Church to God and God to the Church, interpreting literally. This is due to the connection of the groom and bride alternately to each part of the Church within one common faith, as I explained more fully at [before] the beginning of Genesis, where I set down rules about understanding Sacred Scripture. In addition, one must realize that, though the Church began at the beginning of the world, as I said above, nevertheless it first received the special name “bride” at the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai, when the people of Israel were betrothed to God by faith and worship, while other nations turned to idolatry. Because of that, when Solomon, as the Holy Spirit dictated to him, describes the love between God and the Church under the names of groom and bride, he begins at the time of the exodus from Egyptian bondage, because it was then that the Law was given. The Song, therefore, is divided into two parts. The first part describes this mutual love during the time of the Old Testament, and the second part describes it during the New.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, "No Religion is an Island"
I suggest that the most significant basis for meeting of men of different religious traditions is the level of fear and trembling, of humility and contrition, where our individual moments of faith are mere waves in the endless ocean of mankind's reaching out for God, where all formulations and articulations appear as understatements, where our souls are swept away by the awareness of the urgency of answering God's commandment, while stripped of pretension and conceit we sense the tragic insufficiency of human faith.