We continue through Shir HaShirim according to the Malbim, in the section of the allegory (melitzah), moving into the third song. The Malbim explains: After many days in which the divine maiden - who is essentially the soul of Shlomo - was confined within the physical body and did not merit divine revelation, she remembers her Beloved in heaven, the Holy One, Blessed is He. She then rises from her bed, so to speak, from Shlomo's bed - that is, from Shlomo's physical body - in order to seek Hashem, to reconnect once more with spirituality, and to receive another prophecy.
According to the Malbim, each distinct song in Shir HaShirim corresponds to a specific period and a particular prophetic experience that Shlomo was granted. Which prophecy is being discussed here? The Malbim explains: this occurred in the eleventh year of King Shlomo's reign, when Shlomo completed the construction of the House of Hashem. He stood and prayed before the Holy One, Blessed is He, offering extensive supplication, kneeling on his knees, and slaughtering numerous sacrifices - and yet Shlomo's soul could not find her Beloved, until she departed the city into the wilderness, shedding corporeality to attach herself to the Infinite. Only then did the Holy One, Blessed is He, appear to him a second time, and Shlomo's soul merited connection with her Beloved through prophetic revelation.
This revelation is recorded in I Kings chapter 9, and it was a full prophetic revelation. In the second song we spoke of Ruach HaKodesh (divine inspiration) rather than actual prophecy, and there the Beloved was the one knocking - the Holy One, Blessed is He, turned to the soul and initiated the connection. Here, by contrast, the initiative begins from below, from Shlomo's soul: "I sought him whom my soul loves." She is the one seeking the bond, and therefore the connection is far stronger - full prophecy, an extended dialogue of love and endearment.
To understand the nature of this connection, let us read a portion of the prophetic account: "And it came to pass, when Shlomo had finished building the House of Hashem and the king's palace, and all of Shlomo's desire which he pleased to do, that Hashem appeared to Shlomo a second time, as He had appeared to him in Givon." The Malbim there addresses the difficulty: this was actually the third time, so why is it called "a second time"? The answer is that the second occurrence was merely Ruach HaKodesh and not actual prophecy, and therefore it is not counted. At Givon it was full prophecy, where the Holy One, Blessed is He, told him, "Ask what I shall give you," and granted him wisdom; and the present revelation was comparable to it - full prophecy - which is why it is called "a second time, as He had appeared to him in Givon."
And what was said in that prophecy? "And Hashem said to him: I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this House which you have built, to put My Name there forever, and My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. And as for you, if you will walk before Me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness... then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever... But if you and your children turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and bow down to them - then I will cut off Israel from the face of the land that I have given them, and the House that I have consecrated for My Name I will cast out of My sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this House shall be supreme; everyone who passes by it shall be astonished and shall hiss, and they shall say, 'Why has Hashem done this to this land and to this House?' And they shall answer, 'Because they forsook Hashem their God, Who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and bowed down to them and served them; therefore Hashem has brought upon them all this evil.'"
An important point: even after the forces of materiality seemingly disrupt the connection, Shlomo still merits the continued clinging of the spirit of Hashem to him. The Holy One, Blessed is He, continues to accompany him afterward as well. Why? Because this time, Shlomo had already established a permanent dwelling place for the Shechinah. On the previous occasion, the Holy One, Blessed is He, revealed Himself to Shlomo when there was not yet a Beis HaMikdash; now, once the Temple was built - "Hashem said He would dwell in thick darkness; I have surely built an exalted house for You" - there was a place where the Shechinah could abide here on earth. Therefore, the bond with Shlomo's soul was not severed entirely, but maintained - albeit at a lower level - through the Kodesh HaKodashim (Holy of Holies), where the Shechinah has rested ever since Shlomo built the Temple.
עַל מִשְׁכָּבִי בַּלֵּילוֹת בִּקַּשְׁתִּי אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו וְלֹא מְצָאתִיו׃ (ג, א) - "Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him" (3:1).
The maiden, representing Shlomo's soul, begins to remember the love of her Beloved, the Holy One, Blessed is He, and the previous prophecies, and she begins to seek Him. She prepares herself night after night. We have already seen that Shlomo came to greet Hashem with burnt offerings and meal offerings - "a thousand burnt offerings Shlomo would offer" - taking active steps to draw close to Hashem, yet it was not instantaneous. "Upon my bed at night" - over an extended period, night after night I sought Him and did not find Him; I was unable to attain prophecy. For prophecy is attained through preparation, and sometimes even preparation is not enough, requiring "when the musician played, the hand of Hashem was upon him." The Malbim explains: from the time Shlomo intensified his prayers and sacrifices, the fourteen days of the Temple dedication passed - two full weeks of preparation and expectant waiting - and still the Holy One, Blessed is He, had not revealed Himself to him.
אָקוּמָה נָּא וַאֲסוֹבְבָה בָעִיר בַּשְּׁוָקִים וּבָרְחֹבוֹת אֲבַקְשָׁה אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו וְלֹא מְצָאתִיו׃ (ג, ב) - "I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the broad plazas; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him." (3:2)
The soul of Shlomo rises from her bed, wanders and circles through the city, in the markets and the broad ways, yet does not find the Holy One, blessed be He. What is the city, and what are the markets and broad ways in the nimshal? We have already explained that Jerusalem is an allegory for the faculties of the body. Chazal tell us that the world is called a "great city," and man himself is called a "small city" - "a small city with few men in it." And when we speak of the daughters of Jerusalem who seek to prevent the soul from reaching divine revelation, this refers to the bodily faculties that hold back the soul from going forth and cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He.
The inhabitants of the city are the bodily faculties, each having its own dwelling and home - a specific abode where it resides and manifests within the body. The Malbim provides examples: within the city there is a wise man, an understanding man, a man of knowledge, an artist, a thinker of thoughts, a guardian, a rememberer - these correspond to the faculties of chochmah (wisdom), binah (understanding), da'at (knowledge), the form-depicting faculty (koach hamitzayer / imagery), the analytical faculty (koach hamachashav), the retentive faculty (koach hashomer), and memory (koach hazocheir). So too, in the city one finds a seer, a hearer, a smeller, a taster of delicacies, and a feeler - these are the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. All of these emanate from the intellective soul (nefesh hamaskelet) seated in the brain, and spread throughout the organs, each in its distinct location.
Also in the city is a jealous man, an arrogant man, a cruel man, a mighty man, an insolent man, a humble man, a merciful man, a tenderhearted man, and a bashful man - here we enter the realm of natural dispositions and character traits (middot): jealousy, pride, cruelty, courage, impudence, humility, compassion, and shame. The root of these lies in the vital soul (nefesh hachiyunit), whose dwelling is in the heart, as distinct from the intellective soul (nefesh hamaskelet), which is the spiritual soul. The vital soul is what operates the physical body, "for the blood is the soul."
In addition, one finds in the city an eater, a grinder of food, and one who removes the waste - these are the nutritive faculty, the digestive faculty (the stomach and all connected to it), and the expulsive faculty, that part of the digestive tract that expels waste outward. These belong to the vegetative soul (nefesh hatzomachat) whose dwelling is in the liver - the lower and coarser aspects of the soul. Each and every faculty functions in its place according to the design entrusted to it.
And just as a city contains a marketplace and broad streets, where all the dwellers of the houses emerge and interact with one another, so it is in the small city that is man: there is a public domain where all the faculties gather, and that is the imaginative faculty (koach hamedameh). It is there that sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch congregate, along with the impulsive faculty (koach hamitorer), the masters of pride, envy, insolence, humility, and compassion, as well as the eaters, drinkers, and grinders - all are integrated within the imagination. For man, in his brain, thought, and imaginative capacity, encompasses all of these. Notice as well: some faculties do not depend on his will at all - he cannot simply stop digestion - while other faculties he can control; he can control pride, and he can control touch. The faculty of thought and imagination governs everything, serving as the central marketplace into which all these faculties flow.
Based on this, Shlomo describes how the bride goes out to seek her beloved and circles the city: she attempts to apprehend the Holy One, blessed be He, by means of all the physical faculties, all the inhabitants of the city that is the body. From there, she moves on to the marketplaces and streets - to the comprehensive faculties of the physical frame, such as the imagination, which encompasses all faculties and knows how to reflect upon them and activate them. Even so: "I sought him, but I did not find him." I searched within the body for a way to connect to the Holy One, blessed be He, and did not find it.
The reason is simple: the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot be grasped through material means. All of these faculties, even the most refined among them, are still bound to the body and are still physical, and through physical faculties one cannot connect to a supreme, holy spiritual reality. It is like someone trying to pick up radio frequencies with a log of wood or a stone - it will not work. One must build a properly designed antenna, constructed specifically to receive radio signals. So too, lehavdil, spirituality cannot be absorbed through physical faculties; on the contrary, physical faculties hinder spirituality. The soul ultimately understood that in order to attain the Holy One, blessed be He, one must leave the city. One cannot remain in the city and attain Godliness - one must leave the body, step outside the physical vessel, and only then can one connect to Hashem.
מְצָאוּנִי הַשֹּׁמְרִים הַסֹּבְבִים בָּעִיר אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי רְאִיתֶם׃ (ג, ג) - "The watchmen who go about the city found me: 'Have you seen him whom my soul loves?'" (3:3)
The Malbim explains: out of the soul's yearning for her Beloved, she begins to leave the city, stripping herself of materiality, departing from its inhabitants and its overarching faculties, from its markets and streets. She sheds the impulsive faculty and the imaginative faculty, until the watchmen standing at the edge of the city find her. And who are the watchmen? These are the faculties whose role is to ensure that the soul does not detach from the body. They are like a red warning light that begins flashing when the soul is on the verge of detachment. They say to the soul: the body is about to die. The soul has reached such a degree of detachment from physicality that she risks leaving the body devoid of life. "Who go about the city" - they patrol the perimeter, restraining the soul of Shlomo from total detachment, so that she does not depart entirely and leave the body like an inanimate stone, remaining outside the city with no way to return.
For such a state is a state of death - the detachment of the spiritual part and its cleaving to the Infinite. As we discussed previously regarding the army of Sancheiriv: the Holy One, blessed be He, opened their ears and they heard the song of the angels, and out of sheer yearning, sweetness, and delight, their souls departed from their bodies, leaving the corpses behind like silent stone. That is death; that is death by a kiss - a union of love and affection with the Ein Sof, blessed be He. Not that they died the righteous death of a kiss, but the concept is the same: to connect to the Infinite and leave the body behind as an inanimate shell. Therefore, the watchmen come and say: Wait, do not leave - if you leave, there is no physical existence left here.
כִּמְעַט שֶׁעָבַרְתִּי מֵהֶם עַד שֶׁמָּצָאתִי אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי אֲחַזְתִּיו וְלֹא אַרְפֶּנּוּ עַד שֶׁהֲבֵיאתִיו אֶל בֵּית אִמִּי וְאֶל חֶדֶר הוֹרָתִי׃ (ג, ד) - "Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves; I held him and would not let him go, until I brought him to my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me" (3:4).
I did not pass them entirely, but rather "scarcely had I passed." For had I passed completely, physical existence would have ceased and she would not have been able to return. But "scarcely had I passed them" - just a bit more and I would have passed over completely; my soul had almost departed with a kiss, standing on the threshold, already closer to the upper realms and distant from the city - and then the soul finds him whom her soul loves, and then the spirit of prophecy rests upon her.
One must understand a major principle: the spirit of prophecy does not descend when the soul is immersed in the body, nor does it descend when the soul has departed entirely - for if the soul is entirely outside, there is no body, which means death, and in death there is no prophecy; prophecy comes to a living person. Rather, there must be a detachment from the body, with the soul leaving within the body only the lowest trace, merely enough to sustain physical life - and only then does one merit the reception of divine emanation. This is the meaning of "scarcely had I passed them": reaching the brink of death, the precise stage at which one can apprehend Divinity. As long as one is trapped within the bodily senses, the coarse, material body acts as an opaque screen preventing the soul from perceiving the light of God. Therefore, precisely "scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves" - the supreme spiritual power that I sought upon my bed at night across many long days.
Here the soul resolves: this time will not be like previous times. In previous instances, prophecy was fleeting, and afterward the connection was severed. The Malbim explains: previously, I held him and then released him, because I had found no dwelling place for Him - where could the Holy One, blessed be He, reside? But now, after having built Him a Sanctuary, after preparing a place where Hashem can dwell within the Jewish people, as it is said, "I have surely built You an exalted house, a place for Your dwelling forever" - now, "I will not let him go."
"Until I brought him to my mother's house" - this is the body; "and into the chamber of her that conceived me" - this is the Holy of Holies, upon the wings of the Cherubim. Through the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy One, blessed be He, channels His sanctity onto those who built the Temple, as it is written: "And they shall make Me a sanctuary" - and upon those who construct it - "that I may dwell among them." Since there is now a place for the resting of the Shechinah down here in this world, the connection of Shlomo's soul with the Holy One, blessed be He, becomes a lasting bond, one of "I will not let him go," unlike the earlier connection that was temporary and ceased.
הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִַם בִּצְבָאוֹת אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה אִם תָּעִירוּ וְאִם תְּעוֹרְרוּ אֶת הָאַהֲבָה עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּץ׃ (ג, ה) - "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you do not awaken or stir up love until it pleases" (3:5).
As this unfolds, the bodily faculties begin to awaken from the prophetic trance, and the soul adjures them not to disrupt this love, as explained earlier. Indeed, this deep communion continues uninterrupted until "I sleep, but my heart is awake" in chapter 5, verse 2.
The third song describes the prophecy revealed to Shlomo in the eleventh year of his reign, after the dedication of the Beit HaMikdash, as described in I Kings chapter 9. This time the initiative comes from below: the soul seeks its Beloved "upon my bed at night" through an extensive preparation of fourteen days, searching for Him through all the powers of the body (the people of the city) and through the broader faculties (the streets and broad ways) yet cannot find Him - for spiritual reality cannot be absorbed through physical vessels. Only when it divests itself of the material realm and reaches the edge of the city, "Scarcely had I passed from them," a moment before the departure of the soul, does it merit finding the One its soul loves. And the profound difference from previous times is this: now that the Beit HaMikdash has been built and there is a dwelling place for the Shechinah down below, the bond is never severed - "I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me."