Introduction: Two Modes of Divine Guidance in the World
Before turning to the verses themselves, let us return to the fundamental principle upon which everything that follows is built: the Holy One, blessed be He, directs the world through two distinct modes of guidance. There is the guidance of nature, in which the Holy One conceals Himself within the world and everything appears to us as coincidence - yet in truth, everything leads toward the Divine plan and purpose, and everything unfolds through individual Divine Providence (hashgachah pratit). This is the mode of guidance we experience today. Yet there were eras when Divine guidance operated at a much higher, revealed level: the ten miracles that took place continuously in the Beit HaMikdash were completely manifest. In the First Temple, one could genuinely perceive Godliness - seeing how none of the winds in the world could sway the column of incense smoke rising straight like a rod, and how all the rains in the world could never extinguish the altar's fire. These were open miracles from which a person could tangibly discern the Divine Presence. This is manifest providence, wherein the Holy One, blessed be He, governs His world in a clear and revealed manner.
"Like an Apple Tree Among the Trees of the Forest" - The Concealed Guidance
כְּתַפּוּחַ בַּעֲצֵי הַיַּעַר כֵּן דּוֹדִי בֵּין הַבָּנִים, בְּצִלּוֹ חִמַּדְתִּי וְיָשַׁבְתִּי וּפִרְיוֹ מָתוֹק לְחִכִּי׃ (ב, ג) - "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my Beloved among the sons; in His shade I delighted and sat, and His fruit was sweet to my palate." (2:3)
The Malbim explains: when we speak of concealed guidance, this is represented by "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my Beloved among the sons." The "sons" are the forces of nature - the celestial spheres, the stars, the heavenly orders, and the constellations that channel abundance down to this world from the Infinite, blessed be He. These are the physical forces of creation. The Holy One, blessed be He, is compared to the apple tree; He is the fruitful source. Yet surrounding it are many trees, barren forest trees. The apple tree is relatively low, whereas the cedars are towering - "its height was like the height of cedars." What happens to the apple tree? It becomes sheltered and hidden among the forest trees. So it is with the Holy One within the natural order: He is like an apple tree standing somewhere among the dense woods, overshadowed by the trees, so that His direct guidance is hidden from view.
The Microcosm and the Macrocosm
In contrast to this hidden guidance, the Holy One, blessed be He, sometimes conducts the world through open supernatural providence, overriding all the forces of nature - as occurred at the Splitting of the Red Sea and during the Plagues of Egypt. What determines this? The Malbim offers a profound insight: just as the microcosm conducts itself, so the macrocosm conducts itself in return. The macrocosm is the universe as a whole, and its soul is the Holy One, blessed be He; the microcosm is man, and its soul is the human soul. Here lies the parallel: the moment a person conducts his own world according to nature - meaning he allows the bodily drives, desires, and physical inclinations to dominate - the Holy One says: Correspondingly, I too will guide the universe according to nature, allowing the world to function according to the celestial bodies and ordinary natural laws, rather than through miraculous, supernatural guidance. This is the meaning of "And I will surely conceal My face" - a state of hester panim.
However, when the soul, the spiritual force within man, succeeds in mastering the physical drives and subjugating nature - when the soul exercises dominion over the lower, physical realm within man - then the Holy One, blessed be He, the Soul of all the worlds, exercises manifest dominion over the entire universe, over the physicality and material substance of creation, over the spheres and the stars. Because you overcame the physical nature of the microcosm, the Holy One, blessed be He, suspends the ordinary nature of the macrocosm. At that point, Divine guidance operates through the suspension of natural forces, through supernatural miracles, as in "Sun, stand still at Giv'on, and moon, in the valley of Ayalon."
"In His Shade I Delighted and Sat" - The Pathway to Prophecy
When such a reality prevails, the path to prophecy is direct and open. There is manifest providence, we are bonded with the Holy One, and there is no impediment preventing a person from connecting with the Infinite, blessed be He. For the Holy One is openly revealed in His world and manifestly rules His world; consequently, when a person seeks to establish a connection with the Infinite, prophecy occurs. The Holy One reveals Himself to him and speaks with him, and through this, man attains complete communion with the Creator. This is the meaning of "in His shade I delighted and sat": not in the shade of the surrounding trees and cedars, not under the canopy of natural forces, but in the shade of the apple tree itself - of the Holy One, blessed be He. I can perceive Divine visions; I can commune with Him through prophecy.
Conversely, when a person allows the natural drives of his body to gain the upper hand, and the soul is subdued and subjugated under physical instincts, desires, and appetites, unable to govern nature - he brings about a parallel effect in the upper realms: nature appears to dominate, and the apple tree remains hidden among the trees of the forest. The Holy One is not readily discernible in His guidance, because the material mechanisms of the forest trees, the barren trees, screen Him from view, and Divine Providence is no longer visibly apparent.
"And His Fruit Was Sweet to My Palate" - Drawing Near Even Amidst Concealment
And despite all this - "and his fruit was sweet to my palate." That is to say: when I contemplate further, when I perceive the Holy One, blessed be He's divine providence from within the concealment - through contemplation, through Torah study, through seeking closeness to Hashem - through this, "his fruit was sweet to my palate," and one succeeds in drawing close to the Holy One, blessed be He, even in a reality of concealment. This is an immense encouragement. For one might have thought: if so, in our reality today, there is no way to perceive Godliness. The answer is no. If you exert great effort, you will perceive Hashem's providence - though not through open miracles, for the Holy One, blessed be He, no longer performs open miracles, except in the rarest of circumstances.
An Incident with the Baba Sali
There is a story related by an elderly Jew - the father of Rabbi Eliyahu Malka, Rosh Yeshivah of Shar - who used to ride the yeshivah transport, recounting several stories about the Baba Sali. In his youth, this man himself would observe prolonged fasts spanning six consecutive days. He related that he witnessed the Baba Sali, both in Morocco and here in the Land of Israel, take a bottle of arak, cover it with a towel, and pour from it for fifty or a hundred people - and among elderly Moroccans who know how to drink, each person was poured a full cup.
That Jew related this to his children, and on one occasion he went with his young son to visit the Baba Sali. The boy said to the Rav, "Father told us that the Rav takes a bottle, covers it, and pours. Can the Rav show us?" The father recounted: "I wanted to bury myself out of sheer shame. Does one simply stop someone on the street and ask for a miracle? This is a holy man of Israel; does he put on pyrotechnics? I was struck dumb with embarrassment." Then the Baba Sali said to him, "What is the problem? Bring a bottle." He took a bottle that contained just a little, covered it with a towel - and poured.
Notice what humility and what simplicity! Today, if you were to approach an entertainer on the street - to distinguish a thousandfold between the impure and the pure - and ask him for a joke, he would say: "What, do I look like a clown to you? Book a hall, bring ten thousand people, sell tickets, speak to my agent." Yet here, they ask him - and he performs a miracle. This demonstrates how natural this was for the Baba Sali: to him it was not a miracle; in his faith it was nature, and he felt he was causing no burden at all toward the Holy One, blessed be He.
And what do we learn from this? That even amid concealment, if you reach the state of "his fruit was sweet to my palate," of drawing close to the Holy One, blessed be He, you can cleave to Him even when divine providence is veiled. To be sure, we yearn for "I delighted to sit in his shadow" - that there be no forest trees on the outside at all, that they cast no shade whatsoever, but only the Holy One, blessed be He, only the apple tree. But know this: even if not, you still have access to "his fruit was sweet to my palate" - through spiritual toil, through effort and exertion, one can attain this as well.
"He brought me to the house of wine" - The Prophetic Wine
הֱבִיאַנִי אֶל בֵּית הַיָּיִן וְדִגְלוֹ עָלַי אַהֲבָה׃ (ב, ד) - "He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me was love." (2:4)
Once the bond and closeness between the soul and the Holy One, blessed be He, have reached their highest level, and once the soul has become prepared for this union, the soul declares: "He brought me to the house of wine." The Malbim explains: every instance of wine mentioned in this book with which the Beloved gives the maiden to drink refers to the prophetic wine - the wine preserved in its grapes, "pour a libation of strong drink to Hashem," the wine that gladdens souls when the spirit of prophecy rests upon them. "He brought me to the house of wine" means: He caused His Shechinah to rest upon me.
Everything we have seen until now was preparation - expressions of affection and closeness between the soul and the Holy One, blessed be He, culminating in bonding with the Infinite, which is the level of prophecy. "And his banner over me was love" - He had already raised His banner, so to speak, which is love, drawing me and attaching me to Him through His love. The Malbim notes precisely: love precedes the kiss, and being brought into the house of wine precedes drinking the wine itself. Thus, "He brought me to the house of wine" is the preparation for union with the Ein Sof, blessed be He.
"Sustain me with flagons, refresh me with apples" - Wine and Fragrance
סַמְּכוּנִי בָּאֲשִׁישׁוֹת רַפְּדוּנִי בַּתַּפּוּחִים כִּי חוֹלַת אַהֲבָה אָנִי׃ (ב, ה) - "Sustain me with flagons, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick." (2:5)
The soul asks to be sustained with flagons of wine - like cups or flasks, glass vessels containing wine; and asks to be bedded with apples - fragrant apples to serve as a couch. What is the idea here? Wine is an allegory for prophetic connection, for prophetic influx - wine preserved in its grapes represents actual prophecy. Scent, on the other hand, does not reach the thing itself: one only smells it from afar. Smelling is already a form of perception, yet it is still not a complete perception; wine, however, is actual drinking.
This can also be seen in the natural world: a winemaker, before tasting, swirls the wine in the glass to smell the aroma, and only then talks about full body and refined tannins from a particular vintage, and all those things printed on wine bottles. Today every winemaker has become a poet, describing how the grapes grew under the caressing rays of the sun, in the whispering breeze and sea waves. "They made their house their god" - they took some wine and composed a poem about it. In truth: drink, make the blessing of Borei Pri HaGafen, thank the Master of the Universe, recite the after-blessing, and that is enough. In any case, the parable's lesson is clear: tasting the essence of a thing is true connection; smelling it is an incomplete connection, from a distance, without a full bond.
The soul says, "Sustain me with flagons of wine" - this is wine, the absolute connection of the soul to the Holy One, blessed be He, which is the nature of prophecy. Why does it need support? Because the soul can exist in one of two states: either within the body, where it is embodied in the physical vessel; or when it detaches from the body - provided that it connects to the Infinite, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sustains it. But if the soul is connected neither to the body nor to the Infinite, that is death; the soul departs and the person dies. How can the soul be outside the body while the body continues to live? When this occurs within the realm of prophecy: the soul detaches from physical ties while the body endures. In simple words, it needs something to lean on upon departing the body - and it leans on prophecy. "Sustain me with flagons", with that wine, with that power of prophecy, through which the soul is supported and exists outside the body, and the body endures even while the soul is not within it.
And afterwards it says, "Spread apples beneath me." For we are speaking here of the initial bond of King Solomon with the Holy One, blessed be He, when the Holy One asked him, "What shall I give you?" and Solomon asked for wisdom to know how to judge this nation. Hashem granted Solomon wisdom, immense and sublime wisdom beyond that of any created being in the world, greater than Avraham Avinu and greater than all previous generations. Yet Solomon is not always in a state of prophetic cleaving to Divinity, and we will soon see that this prophecy ceases. How would Solomon continue to forge this bond with the Holy One, blessed be He? Through in-depth study, Torah learning, research, and contemplation of the Divine. This is not the highest level; it is not wine - but it is "spread apples beneath me", the fragrance of apples. The Holy One, blessed be He, is like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, and one maintains a connection with Him through scent, from afar, not by direct union or drinking - but still a bond.
This is its request: even after the soul detaches from the divine connection of the flagons of wine, let me still be bedded with apples, so that this fragrant scent is preserved with me, allowing the soul to remain attached to the Holy One, blessed be He. "For I am lovesick" - and a sick person, as is known, would be brought apples to heal them; apples and their scent were regarded as a remedy. I am lovesick for the Holy One, blessed be He, and therefore I must maintain the connection: if not the bond of wine, then at least the bond of apples, of fragrance from afar.
"His left hand is under my head" - The Principle of Right and Left
שְׂמֹאלוֹ תַּחַת לְרֹאשִׁי וִימִינוֹ תְּחַבְּקֵנִי׃ (ב, ו) - "His left hand is under my head, and His right hand embraces me." (2:6)
Here the soul describes its complete cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He, as we saw in "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth", which represents the fusion of spirit with spirit (rucha berucha), reaching the level of prophecy. To understand what is meant by "His left hand" and "His right hand", we must establish a vital principle that the Malbim reiterates in many places, proven across numerous verses and rabbinic teachings: the providence of the Holy One, blessed be He, operates in two ways - natural providence and supernatural providence, miracles. Natural providence is termed "left", while miraculous providence is termed "right".
To bring examples: "That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand and answer me" - we ask that Your beloved be saved through miracles, beyond the course of nature. "Leading by the right hand of Moshe with His glorious arm, splitting the waters before them to make Himself an everlasting name" - the splitting of the sea was supernatural providence, and how did it occur? "Leading by the right hand of Moshe." The providence of the "right" with the Holy One, blessed be He, is miraculous providence above nature. Likewise, Yaakov Avinu in his blessing placed his right hand upon Ephraim's head: "I know, my son, I know; he too shall become a people" - you are correct, Menasheh too will become a nation, but he embodies the providence of the left; Ephraim, by contrast, is the right, for from him will descend Yehoshua who made the sun stand still - a supernatural providence, and therefore the right. He placed his right hand upon Ephraim's head because he would lead the people through signs and wonders. The Malbim writes similarly in his commentary on Tractate Berachot, that the right indicates providence above nature, as it is written: "The right hand of Hashem does valiantly; the right hand of Hashem is exalted" - natural providence is ordinary, but "doing valiantly", acts transcending nature, and "exalted", matters elevated, sublime, and lofty - that is supernatural providence; that is the right hand of Hashem.
Tefillin and Shoes
This is also why, by the way, we don tefillin on the left arm: we bind the left arm to show that we subjugate our natural inclinations to the Holy One, blessed be He. Specifically on the left arm, which hints at nature, subjugating and binding it to the service of Hashem.
And so it is with shoes: first one puts on the right shoe and then the left shoe, but ties the left shoe first and then the right shoe. Why? Because every beginning must be undertaken with full strength, with the right, with fervor, above nature - therefore one always begins with the right. Conversely, the forces of nature, which are the left, require binding - therefore one binds the left first. The forces of nature must be restrained; for if they are left unrestrained, "a wild donkey's colt is born a man", like an untrained calf, with nothing to bind or restrain him. Therefore nature, the left, is bound first.
"Indeed, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spanned the heavens"
This is what is written: "Indeed, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spanned the heavens." The earth hints to the body, and the heavens to the soul, as it says, "He summons the heavens from above" - which Chazal in Sanhedrin 91 expound as referring to the soul, "and the earth, to judge His people" - this is the body. Incidentally, "HaShamayim" (the heavens) has the same gematria as "neshamah" (soul). And the Gemara in Menachot 36 states that an unspecified "My hand" refers to the left hand. Thus: "Indeed, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth" - the left hand founded the body, representing the earthly realm; "and My right hand has spanned the heavens" - the right hand, representing supernatural providence, the realm of spirituality, nurtured the heavens, which is the soul.
We therefore learn: in matters of heaven, in the service of Hashem, in the fulfillment of mitzvot, in matters of the soul and spirituality - one must use the right hand, acting above nature, with all of one's strength. That is how one must nurture the soul, which corresponds to heaven. By contrast, the earth represents physicality, worldliness, the body - the body is nurtured with the left hand, not with all one's strength, but with the weaker hand, the duller hand, the hand that reflects earthly concerns.
The Lot That Came Up in the Right Hand
The Gemara in Yoma 39 states that for the forty years during which Shimon HaTzaddik served - who was among the remnants of the Great Assembly - the lot would come up in the right hand; whereas throughout the last forty years of the Beit HaMikdash, when the Kohen Gadol reached in to draw the lot, one for Hashem and one for Azazel, the lot came up in the left hand. What does this signify? In the era when there were righteous individuals, in the earlier generations, they gave their very lives for the sanctification of Hashem's Name and conducted themselves above nature, in ways transcending nature - and measure for measure, the Holy One, blessed be He, guided them miraculously, ensuring that the lot came up in the right hand, representing the supernatural, miraculous path. In the later generations, however, when people no longer acted with all their might, serving Hashem not with the right hand but with the left - naturally, without harnessing all their strengths above nature, but casually, with a weak and sluggish hand, with slack hands - consequently, the lot came up in the left hand, the weaker hand, representing natural providence. In summary: the right hand expresses supernatural, miraculous providence, while the left hand expresses natural providence, which is a weaker providence, like the left hand.
The Order of the Verse: Left First, Then Right
Now to the verse: the Malbim explains that when the soul attains perceptions through prophecy, this is the conduct of the right hand - "Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moshe." The Holy One, blessed be He, guides the soul in prophecy, which is an aspect of miracle, where the Holy One, blessed be He, establishes a direct bond with the soul. This is "His right hand embraces me": a connection from the side of the right, in which the Holy One, blessed be He, through supernatural providence, embraces the soul and leads it through prophecy. This itself is "Sustain me with flasks of wine" - the wine representing the tangible, direct bond of the soul to the Holy One, blessed be He.
Afterward, however, the prophetic vision ends and the soul returns to the body, and it must then exert more effort to maintain its connection with the Holy One, blessed be He - and this is the aspect of "refresh me with apples": I no longer drink the wine, but merely smell the fragrance of the apples from afar. In this state of connection from a distance after returning to the body, this is "His left hand is under my head": the soul has already returned to the body, and through intellectual comprehension, through in-depth study of the verses and the words of Chazal, and through engagement in Torah - the conduct of the left, the natural order - one can perceive the Holy One, blessed be He. Although this occurs from a distance, "From afar Hashem appeared to me," merely the scent of apples, the connection with spirituality is nonetheless preserved.
The Malbim then raises a difficulty: If so, why is it written "His left hand is under my head" first, and only afterward "and His right hand embraces me"? Seemingly, the order should be the reverse - first "His right hand embraces me," which is prophecy, and only afterward, when the soul returns to the body, does it continue to maintain the connection through study and engagement in Torah! He answers: True, that was indeed the case with Shlomo, but where does the process actually begin? Does a person suddenly receive prophecy out of nowhere? The starting point must necessarily be the reverse: naturally, while the soul is still within the body, one begins to draw closer to the Holy One, blessed be He, step by step, engaging in intellectual contemplation, in the service of Hashem and the fulfillment of His mitzvot, until one gradually succeeds in subduing the forces of nature - and only then does one merit prophecy. Thus, the beginning is truly "His left hand is under my head," the conduct of the left while inside the body, the natural order, and only afterward does one merit "and His right hand embraces me," the level of prophecy, a supernatural bond with the Holy One, blessed be He.
"I Adjure You" - The End of the First Song and the Disconnection
הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִַם בִּצְבָאוֹת אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה, אִם תָּעִירוּ וְאִם תְּעוֹרְרוּ אֶת הָאַהֲבָה עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּץ׃ (ב, ז) - "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you not awaken or arouse love until it pleases." (2:7)
Here we reach the conclusion of the first poem, the disconnection from the bond that Shlomo's soul shared with the Holy One, blessed be He. How did this disconnection begin? The forces of the physical frame, the forces of corporeality, began to awaken, pulling the soul back into the body. The soul, which had departed and connected to the Holy One, blessed be He, in prophecy, begins to return to the body through the "daughters of Jerusalem." Just as in the allegory, where Shlomo sent the daughters of Jerusalem to bring the maiden back from her husband and beloved to the palace, so too does the physical body send forth its material forces to draw the soul back from its communion with God into the body.
Then, as the soul senses that it is beginning to return to the body, it turns to the body with a plea: I ask of you, body, do not interfere with the divine connection I have with the Master of the World - neither try to bring it closer nor push it away. Do not bring it closer, explains the Malbim, because if the body tries to force a divine connection, it does so in a bodily, physical manner, and that is called strange fire. We have already noted that a person can also achieve spiritual sensations through drinking wine, through narcotics, and through various substances that induce a detachment from the body and a sense of a "high" - yet that is strange fire. It is not a fire through which the Holy One, blessed be He, connects with you, but rather a corporeal, material, alien fire.
Therefore she says, "whether you awaken (*im ta'iru*) or arouse (*ve'im te'oreru*)": "*Ta'iru*" means to push away, from the expression "and the adversary awakens" (*ve-he'er sona'akha*, connoting alienation and hostility); "*te'oreru*" means to awaken in order to draw near. That is to say: do not push away and do not draw near. Do not draw near, because if it stems from the body, it is a strange fire; "until it pleases" (*ad she-techpatz*) - until this love emerges on its own, so that the connection to the Divine arises naturally. And all the more so, do not push away: by attempting to entice the soul toward physical desires, toward physical wine, toward the palace of Shlomo and earthly pursuits, you cause alienation between me and the Holy One, blessed be He, for the soul is easily drawn after physical cravings, worldliness, and materialism. Thus she pleads: now, while I am outside the body, neither push away nor draw near, for at this moment I am united with the Holy One, blessed be He, without any mediation between the soul and the bodily forces. The bodily forces remain here, while the soul has detached and is in the desert - just as we saw the maiden flee to the desert; the soul has fled, as it were, from the body, detached, and united with the Infinite, while the body, as it were, calls out to it and tries to pull it back. And she asks that they neither sever the connection nor force it close.
"By the Gazelles or by the Hinds of the Field" - The Rapid Flow of the Blood
And what is the meaning of "by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field"? The Malbim explains: while the soul is outside, the body remains functional; it does not die. By virtue of what? By virtue of the soul - which is the baseline vitality of the body - still being within it, as it is written, "for the blood is the life (*ve-hadam hu hanefesh*)." The rapid circulation of blood within the body is what keeps it active and alive. This flow, which courses some twenty-four to thirty times an hour, is likened to gazelles and hinds of the field, whose sprint is exceedingly swift and light; so too, the blood courses through the body with speed and agility. It turns out that she adjures the bodily faculties by those "gazelles" - by the blood coursing through the body like gazelles and hinds of the field - not to disrupt the communion and love she currently enjoys with her Beloved, the Holy One, blessed be He.
Yet then the Ruach Hakodesh departs from the soul of Shlomo, the faculties of the corpse-like frame awaken, and Shlomo's soul returns to the body, imprisoned once more within the confinement of physical matter. With this, the first song is concluded - the first prophetic communion experienced by the soul of King Shlomo with the Holy One, blessed be He.
In summary: In these verses, the Malbim taught us the foundation of the two modes of divine providence: the Holy One, blessed be He, is like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, hidden within nature, or revealed through providential and miraculous conduct - and everything depends on man, who is a microcosm (a small world). If the soul rules over the body, so does the Holy One, blessed be He, reign over the nature of the world. "In his shade I delighted and sat" is the level of prophecy, and "his fruit was sweet to my palate" is the promise that even within concealment, through diligent study, toil, and seeking closeness to Hashem, one can cleave to Him. "He brought me to the banquet house" is the resting of the Shechinah; "sustain me with raisin cakes" is the wine, the full prophetic communion that supports the soul as it departs the body; "spread apples around me" is the distant fragrance, the connection preserved through study and Torah after the soul returns to the body. "His left hand is under my head" is the natural order with which one begins, and "his right hand embraces me" is the supernatural order one merits. And finally, "I adjure you" is the soul's plea to the bodily faculties neither to drive it away nor to force closeness through strange fire, but rather that the love should awaken on its own, "until it pleases."