Introduction: The Soul Leaving the City
We have reached the section of the chapter that depicts the pinnacle of the communion between the Divine soul and her Beloved. In the previous verses, the soul was described as leaving the city - meaning the body - and seeking the one her soul loves. Now, a profound question arises: How did the soul manage to detach from the body? After all, it is the body that holds her in, functioning as the "daughters of Jerusalem" who do not allow her to depart. And how did Divine communication come upon her there in the wilderness, outside the corporeal frame? To be sure, this is not a complete separation of death, but rather the maximum detachment achievable by the soul while still alive. The following verses address this question.
"Who is this ascending from the wilderness" - Stepping Out into the Spiritual Realm
מִי זֹאת עֹלָה מִן הַמִּדְבָּר כְּתִימְרוֹת עָשָׁן מְקֻטֶּרֶת מוֹר וּלְבוֹנָה מִכֹּל אַבְקַת רוֹכֵל׃ (ג, ו) - "Who is this ascending from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, from every powder of the merchant?" (3:6)
The Malbim explains that the "wilderness" here represents the spiritual world, far removed from "Adam the city." This is a poetic borrowing from the Book of Yehoshua: when Bnei Yisrael crossed the Jordan, the waters rose up "in one heap, very far off from Adam, the city that is beside Tzeretan" (Yehoshua 3:16). The Malbim adopts this phrase to describe the soul that succeeded in moving far away from Adam - where man is the "city" in the allegory - leaving the city "that borders the rival wife of matter and physical corporeality." Matter and physical nature act as co-wives in conflict with the spiritual soul: when one rules, the other is subdued, and when one rests, the other holds sway. How, then, did the soul overcome the forces of physical nature and depart from the city?
"Like pillars of smoke." Smoke is produced when fire burns through a physical substance. Every physical object is composed of two elements: a refined, lighter, and more spiritual part, and a coarse, earthy, material part. The element of fire creates a separation between the two: the refined part ascends as smoke, while the coarse part remains below as ash. This is the precise allegory for spiritual transcendence: through the Divine fire - the flame of the love of Hashem burning in the heart of the beloved, the soul of Shlomo - the spiritual soul detached from the ash, rising like smoke to unite with the Holy One, blessed be He.
"Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense" - The Difference Between Smoke and Vapor
"Mekuteret" (perfumed) derives from the root of kitor (vapor or steam). As the Malbim explains, kitor denotes one of two things: steam, or aromatic vapor. Unlike smoke, which results from burning solid matter, vapor arises from moist substances heated by fire - take perfume and warm it, and a fragrant vapor will ascend. So it is here: out of the blaze of Divine fire and sacred love, an aromatic vapor arose - the sweet scent of myrrh and frankincense.
Myrrh, as explained earlier, is musk, a rare and exquisite fragrance derived from blood clustered in an animal found in India, which gives off a potent scent (today, mostly synthetic imitations are sold). Myrrh represents the finest aromatic qualities of the spiritual soul, the highest dimension of the soul. Frankincense, by contrast, comes from the frankincense tree, belonging to the botanical realm, and represents the choicest parts of the vegetative soul (nefesh hatzomachat). That is to say, even the lower strata of the soul - the vegetative and vital souls - are purified and elevated, and the spirituality stored within them also ascends to unite with the Holy One, blessed be He.
The Malbim notes that a process of "alchemy" took place within her - a refined chemical separation. The fire effected a separation and purification: the spiritual portion returned to unite with the Creator, while the earthly portion remained below. Everything became holy and spiritual as the body was left behind. Yet the question still lingers: "Who is this ascending from the wilderness?" How did the soul manage to purify itself and attain such an exalted level of wondrous spiritual communion?
"The bed of Shlomo" - The Body and Its Sixty Mighty Men
הִנֵּה מִטָּתוֹ שֶׁלִּשְׁלֹמֹה שִׁשִּׁים גִּבֹּרִים סָבִיב לָהּ מִגִּבֹּרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ (ג, ז) - "Behold Shlomo's couch, sixty mighty men around it, of the mighty of Israel." (3:7)
The puzzle only deepens. "The bed of Shlomo" is the structure of the body, the cradle of the soul. The soul dwells within the body, as the verse states, "she that lies in your bosom," which our Sages interpreted as referring to the soul. The body is the bed, the cradle, and the couch, and the soul is locked inside an iron cradle throughout the days of its life. Not only that, but sixty mighty men guard around it - and who are these mighty men? These are the organs of the body.
Yet man has 248 limbs, so how do we arrive at sixty? The Malbim makes the calculation: twice sixty is one hundred and twenty, and these are the entirely external organs. Proof of this comes from a Mishnah in Tractate Ohalot (Chapter 1, Mishnah 8): thirty parts in the foot on this side and on that side, and thirty in the hand on this side and on that side - that is sixty in the hands and sixty in the feet, totaling one hundred and twenty. These limbs may be somewhat internal, but they are still external relative to the deeper inner organs.
And as for the more internal organs: ten in the ankle, two in the shin, five in the knee, one in the thigh, three in the hip, two in the forearm, two in the elbow, one in the upper arm, four in the shoulder - thirty on this side and likewise on the other side, which makes another sixty. That brings us to one hundred and eighty. Sixty-eight are still missing to complete the 248, and these constitute the main structure of the body: twenty-two ribs on both sides, eighteen vertebrae of the spine, nine in the head, eight in the neck, six in the chest cavity, and five around its openings - totaling sixty-eight. Even so, they are called "sixty," for sixty is the round, major number, while the eight are the individual details. It turns out that in this city, within the human body, there are sixty physical limbs that do not permit the soul to detach and depart.
"Of the Mighty Men of Israel" - The Power of Physicality to Overcome Spirituality
Here the Malbim offers an original and wonderful explanation: why are these mighty men called "the mighty men of Israel"? Because we had one Israel who was exceedingly mighty - Yaakov Avinu, who wrestled with the angel and prevailed. Yaakov, who was physical, managed to fight and overcome an angel, a spiritual being. Thus you see that physicality has the power to overpower spirituality. If so, the body with its sixty warriors, who are "the mighty men of Israel," should have overpowered the soul and prevented it from departing. How, then, did the soul manage to escape?
כֻּלָּם אֲחֻזֵי חֶרֶב מְלֻמְּדֵי מִלְחָמָה אִישׁ חַרְבּוֹ עַל יְרֵכוֹ מִפַּחַד בַּלֵּילוֹת׃ (ג, ח) - "All of them handle the sword, trained in battle; every man has his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night." (3:8)
These warriors possess two powers. The first is by nature: "holding the sword." The Holy One, blessed be He, embedded the soul within man's body, and it is naturally trapped within it, like a warrior who holds a sword and conquers through his natural prowess. The second is through habit: "trained in battle." The body constantly battles against spirituality, drawn toward desires, cravings, and pleasures, and it possesses seasoned battle tactics: to immerse the soul in physicality, to pull it down from its holy aspirations, and to drown it in the base material realm. How, then, did the soul break free and go to cling to her Beloved?
The answer is: "every man has his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night." The dread and terror that fell upon the limbs of the body prevented it from rising up to halt the soul from spiritual union, and the sword remained sheathed upon the thigh. As we have seen earlier, when a Divine spirit rests upon a prophet, his physical body collapses. We saw this with Shaul, who could not even keep his clothes on and stripped them off out of overwhelming weakness. The prophet's limbs give way, his senses are overwhelmed, and the physical framework dissolves and is shattered. For this reason, people would call a prophet "mad," for so it truly appeared from the outside: a man lying on the ground, detached from his physical faculties, his body trembling and unaware of his surroundings - because of the immense voltage, the tremendous power of the exalted spiritual realm clothing itself within him. As it says, "Fear came upon me, and trembling," and as the Rambam writes, this is what happened to a person at the time of prophecy.
Through this, their sword returned to their thigh and the body's power was nullified. For the body's role is to draw the soul inward and not allow it to go out to her Beloved, but during prophecy all bodily faculties are incapacitated, and it lacks the power to pull the soul back down into material concerns. Therefore, they could not prevent her from going out to her Beloved, into the wilderness, to unite with the Holy One, blessed be He.
"King Shlomo Made Himself a Palanquin" - The Beit HaMikdash as a Permanent Place of Connection
אַפִּרְיוֹן עָשָׂה לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה מֵעֲצֵי הַלְּבָנוֹן׃ (ג, ט) - "King Shlomo made himself a palanquin of the trees of Lebanon." (3:9)
Yet the question still stands: how did the forces of physicality fail to awaken? How could the daughters of Jerusalem leave the maiden and permit her to unite with her Beloved? To this comes the answer: "King Shlomo made himself an apiryon." An apiryon means a palace. Shlomo sought for the Divine soul within him to possess great spiritual strength, so that it would not be a mere concubine to the forces of the body - where they rule and it follows after them - but rather a queen, with the forces of the body submitting to its commands. This is the aspect of a bride and a bridal canopy: a woman who rules over her household, rather than a handmaid subservient to the body and its lusts.
And what is the palanquin (apiryon) in the allegory? The Beit HaMikdash, the place where spirituality rests. On the previous two occasions when Shlomo experienced spiritual revelation, the revelation ceased: the bodily forces overpowered, and "flee, my beloved" - the Holy One, blessed be He, withdrew at the conclusion of prophecy. Shlomo wanted to make a dwelling place for the Shechinah in the lower realms, so that the connection would be enduring rather than fleeting - so that bodily forces would not overpower, causing the celestial Beloved to ascend and the soul to cease its prophesying. For this, there had to be "I have built a lofty abode for You": a dwelling place in the lower world from which Ruach HaKodesh (holy spirit) is drawn, and where one can unite with the Beloved without Him ascending to His celestial abode at prophecy's end while the soul reverts to its physical state.
Elevating Matter to Spirit - The Service of the Korbanot
This palanquin is divided into three sections corresponding to the parts of the soul, as the Malbim will explain further on. All the components and all the actions performed in the palanquin - in the Temple built by Shlomo - were intended to elevate physical forces into spiritual reality, and this is the essence of the korbanot (sacrifices). As discussed at length in a discourse on Parashat Vayikra, here we will provide only a brief summary.
In the Beit HaMikdash, we find activity across all four levels of creation: inanimate (domem), vegetative (tzome'ach), animal (chai), and articulate / human (medaber). Everything is channeled toward the service of Hashem, as it is stated, "Everyone who is called by My Name, and whom I have created for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him" - everything was created for the Creator's glory. Therefore, the inanimate, the vegetative, the animal, and the speaking being are all meant to sanctify Heaven's Name in the world. The inanimate: "An altar of stones you shall make for Me," as well as the salt. The vegetative: the meal offerings (menachot) whose fine flour comes from plant life, the libations whose wine comes from plant life, and the arrangement of wood on the altar. The animal: the beast that ascends and is offered upon the altar. And the articulate: the speaking soul of man, who, at the moment he offers his sacrifice, must dedicate his soul entirely to Hashem in thought - realizing that what is done to the offering ought to have been done to him, but in Hashem's mercy, He took pity on him and accepted an animal in his stead, thereby granting him atonement. For this reason, during the kapparot ceremony one should also intend likewise: that what is done to the rooster should have been done to me - the four court-inflicted deaths and the like. This is true devotion of the soul (mesirut nefesh).
It emerges that all the work of the Mishkan and all the sacrificial rites operate through physical, material actions in order to draw materiality close to spirituality, to bring everything before the Holy One, blessed be He, "for all is from You, and from Your hand we have given to You." And then the body and its faculties - represented by "King Shlomo" - enter the palanquin, arrive at the Beit HaMikdash, and draw close to the Ein Sof, blessed be He. Through this service, the Malbim explains, Hashem betroths the soul to be His bride and to bring forth from her blessed offspring, while all the faculties of the body in their physical activities follow after this heavenly bride. For once the entire physical component is elevated and raised upon the altar of Hashem, the spiritual soul once again reigns supreme, and all physical forces serve merely as helpers enabling her to approach spirituality. This is the meaning of "King Shlomo made himself a palanquin": he brought within it the divine bride, the soul, and through this, all the daughters of Jerusalem - all the bodily powers - became aids and assistants in the service of God.
"From the Trees of Lebanon" - Strong and Enduring Material
And why specifically "from the trees of Lebanon"? Since the purpose of the Beit HaMikdash was for the body, the physical component, to be elevated and become spiritual, it follows that both physical matter - "King Shlomo" - and man's physical actions are transformed into spirituality. For this reason, the Malbim explains, the collective souls of Israel dwelling in the Temple were chosen for it, becoming a chariot (merkavah) for the Shechinah through it. Furthermore, the Temple was chosen to be built from material that is more durable and resilient than the human body. The human body is extremely fragile - a single blow can extinguish life. The trees of Lebanon, by contrast, are exceedingly strong: a massive trunk can absorb many blows without perishing, remaining solid and enduring. Plant matter is sturdier than animal matter, and does not possess the complex composite nature found in animal matter.
"He Made Its Pillars of Silver" - The Temple Corresponding to the Human Structure
עַמּוּדָיו עָשָׂה כֶסֶף רְפִידָתוֹ זָהָב מֶרְכָּבוֹ אַרְגָּמָן תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה מִבְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ (ג, י) - "He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple, its interior paved with love from the daughters of Jerusalem." (3:10)
Here begins the detailed description of the palanquin - that is, the Beit HaMikdash - showing how it corresponds to the three parts of the body, which serve as chambers for the three parts of the soul. The early commentators wrote extensively on the comparison between earthly man, the Temple, and the celestial realms, in accordance with the principle "God has made one corresponding to the other," illustrating how they parallel, correspond to, and complement one another. The Malbim himself elaborates on this in his work Artzot HaShalom (Discourse 3), and here he presents only the points pertinent to explaining the verses, as a preliminary introduction to understanding the allegories.
When one observes man, who is called a microcosm ("a small world"), in terms of both his spiritual faculties and his physical forces, one sees a spiritual reality and a physical body enveloping it like an edifice surrounding the soul, with complete alignment and harmony between them. Man is divided into a lower tier, a second tier, and a third tier (and further on, the Malbim will show that there are also fourth and fifth tiers).
The first level is the nefesh - the natural, vegetative soul, as in "for the blood is the soul (nefesh)" - the lowest tier within the spiritual dimension of man, whose sole role is to impart vitality and operate this engine called man. Its place is in the lower part of the body. It is well known that the body is divided in two by the diaphragm - the parsa (partition) mentioned in kabbalistic texts - which separates the upper organs from the lower ones. Kabbalah likewise consistently distinguishes between "from the chest upward" and "from the chest downward": the upper parts are elevated - the heart and lungs; while the lower parts are lowlier - the stomach and intestines that digest food and separate waste, down to the very lowest region, the rectum and the excretion of waste.
The dwelling place of the natural vegetative soul is thus from the chest down; there lies its home, and there are all the organs through which it causes man to grow: the stomach, the liver, the innards, and the intestines - all those that process food and distribute nourishment to all the limbs. Above the partition, above the diaphragm that divides the body, begins the upper portion, and there is the place of the ruach - corresponding to the chest and the lungs, "the sources of life." Indeed, a person whose intestines are shortened can survive; try shortening the heart - survival is impossible. The upper organs are far more critical to human life than the intestines.
Incidentally, Rav Mazuz once related that he had read how Moshe Dayan's son testified about his father, that he was so greedy for money that if it were possible, he would have removed his intestines and sold them by the meter. Such was the son's testimony about his father - the son is an extension of the father. In any event, even if a person's intestines are shortened, he can live; the upper organs are far more critical to human survival.
And above it, the Malbim explains, is a small upper chamber in the upper sphere of the body - the head and the skull. There the intellectual soul built an exalted abode for itself, an eternal dwelling place, the seat of the neshamah, which is the spiritual part of man. Although the Kabbalists explain that the neshamah does not reside literally inside the head, but rather hovers above it and projects sparks of its light into the intellect, thereby influencing the head, nonetheless its locus is defined as being in the head. Those interested in elaborating further can consult the book Mishnat HaGilgulim, where the divisions of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah are detailed at greater length according to the teachings of the Kabbalists.
In summary: The verses before us answer the question of how the soul managed to extricate itself from the body and ascend from the wilderness. The Divine fire of the love of Hashem separates the refined from the coarse, and the soul ascends like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense - the choicest dimensions of both the spiritual and vegetative soul. The body, which is "the couch of Shlomo" surrounded by sixty warriors wielding swords and trained in battle, was bound to hold it back by its nature and routine; yet "from terror in the nights," its faculties were suspended at the moment of prophecy and the sword returned to its thigh. And so that this connection would not remain momentary but endure, Shlomo made a palanquin (apiryon) - which is the Beit HaMikdash - wherein all inanimate, vegetative, animal, and human elements are elevated to the realm of the sacred, the neshamah becomes queen, and the bodily forces become its attendants. The construction of the apiryon itself corresponds to the three parts of man: the nefesh from the chest down, the ruach in the chest, and the neshamah in the small upper chamber in the head.