אמר רבי עקיבא: חס ושלום, לא נחלק אדם מישראל על שיר השירים שלא תטמא את הידים, שאין כל העולם כלו כדאי כיום שנתן בו שיר השירים לישראל, שכל הכתובים קדש, ושיר השירים קדש קדשים.
Rabbi Akiva said, "Mercy forbid! No one in Israel ever disputed that The Song of Songs renders the hands impure, since nothing in the entire world is worthy but for that day on which The Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Scriptures are holy, but The Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies! And if they did dispute, there was only a dispute regarding Ecclesiastes." Rabbi Yochanan ben Yehoshua, the son of Rabbi Akiva's father-in-law, said, "In accordance with words of Ben Azzai, thus did they dispute, and thus did they conclude."
Only a soul as great as Rabbi Akiva could testify that the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies, and that "the entire universe is unworthy of the day that the Song of Songs was given to Israel." In his life, Rabbi Akiva experienced love in all of its levels: the private love for Kalba Savua's daughter, in its natural purity; the idealistic love for his people, including its fight for independence against Roman occupation; and the lofty love for God, in all of its noble beauty. Thus Rabbi Akiva was eminently qualified to evaluate the true nature of the love so poetically expressed in the Song of Songs.
But those with narrow minds and coarse hearts cannot properly appreciate this precious book. They are like those who crawl at the bottom of a towering castle that stretches high into the clouds. They measure the height of this great edifice according to their limited eyesight. And if they are informed that from the spires of this great castle one may view a dazzling star, breathtaking in its exquisite beauty, they immediately conclude that such a star must be a lowly one indeed.
Such narrow minds, who can only see in Rabbi Akiva a lonely shepherd who fell in love with his employer's daughter, will certainly fail to comprehend his startling declaration that the Song of Songs is sacred above all other books of the Bible. They only see a simple shepherd and a simple song of private love.
(ג) וכיצד היא האהבה הראויה הוא שיאהב את ה' אהבה גדולה יתירה עזה מאוד עד שתהא נפשו קשורה באהבת ה' ונמצא שוגה בה תמיד כאלו חולה חולי האהבה שאין דעתו פנויה מאהבת אותה אשה והוא שוגה בה תמיד בין בשבתו בין בקומו בין בשעה שהוא אוכל ושותה יתר מזה תהיה אהבת ה' בלב אוהביו שוגים בה תמיד כמו שצונו בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך והוא ששלמה אמר דרך משל כי חולת אהבה אני וכל שיר השירים משל הוא לענין זה.
(3) What is the appropriate Love? It is that a person should love God with a great and very excessive love, until his souls is bound up in love of God and he focuses on it constantly as if he were lovesick and could not take his mind off of some woman, whether sitting, standing, even when he eats and drinks. Beyond this, love of God should be in their hearts constantly, as we were commanded: with all your heart and with all your soul (Deut. 6:5). Thus [King] Solomon said, as a metaphor, for I am lovesick (Song of Songs 2:5), for all of Song of Songs is a metaphor for this matter.