Introduction: The Soul's Song of Praise to the Creator
We arrive here at the stage where the soul comes to express song and praise to the Holy One, blessed be He: the exalted nature of the Creator, may He be blessed, His divine influence, His affection, and His closeness to her. The soul addresses the powers of the body, describing to them who this "Beloved" is for Whom she yearns so deeply. The description begins generally, and from there becomes increasingly detailed: from the supreme, hidden Thought, through Divine Providence and Creation, through the speech by which the world was created, through the governance following Creation, through the Torah, down to our tangible physical world.
"Dazzling and Ruddy" - Absolute Unity, Not Two Powers
דּוֹדִי צַח וְאָדוֹם, דָּגוּל מֵרְבָבָה. - My Beloved is dazzling and ruddy, preeminent among ten thousand.
At first she speaks in general terms: The hidden Beloved, the Holy One, blessed be He, is characterized as "dazzling and ruddy." Tzach (dazzling) is white, and white symbolizes lovingkindness (chasadim); red symbolizes judgments (dinim). The point here is fundamental. The conception of the nations and idolaters is that there are two opposing forces in creation: a power of good and a power of evil, with the power of good stemming from a good god and the power of evil from an evil god. Regarding this it is said, "Do not multiply speaking so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth" - do not say there are two "high powers," one of good and one of evil. For "the Lord is a God of knowledge" - Hashem is one God, not multiple authorities - "and by Him deeds are weighed." All deeds, everything that occurs in the world, both good and bad, both life and death, all emanate from Him, blessed be He.
Concerning this, the soul says, "My Beloved is dazzling and ruddy": within the Holy One, blessed be He, there is both the attribute of lovingkindness and mercy, which is whiteness, and red, which is the attribute of judgment. Hashem is the source of both good and evil, judgment and mercy, life and death, and all emerge from a single root - for the Holy One, blessed be He, is entirely good - rather than from two opposing sources as the nations believed.
Along these lines, the Malbim cites the Midrash: "'He is dazzling to me at the sea' - 'and the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea'; 'and ruddy to me at the sea' - 'and Hashem shook out the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.'" With the Holy One, blessed be He, one sees lovingkindness and judgment intertwined: lovingkindness toward the Jewish people, and judgment toward the nations. At the very moment that the children of Israel were walking on dry land through the sea with the Egyptians behind them, the Holy One, blessed be He, acted in the aspect of red, through the attribute of judgment. Both emerge from the very same Source.
"Preeminent among ten thousand" (dagul me'revavah) - that is to say, He possesses countless powers and myriads of forces and influences, and all are rallied under His divine banner, with no other power besides Him. This is explained at length in Nefesh HaChaim regarding the concept of "There is none else beside Him" (Ein Od Milvado): all forces in creation, all influences, and even the existence of the Sitra Achra (the "other side") - the chariot of impurity draws all of its vitality from the chariot of holiness. There is no independent existence or reality to the power of impurity in the world; rather, everything stems from Him, blessed be He. And although our Sages said that "sorcery diminishes the Heavenly retinue," this is only in the perception of the observer, who imagines that there is an independent power here, Heaven forbid. As Rabbi Chanina said to the sorceress who wanted to take soil from beneath his feet to perform sorcery against him: "Take it, I have no fear, for it is written: 'There is none else beside Him.'" Sorcery, too, is subordinate to the Holy One, blessed be He. Hashem is absolute unity, and He is the One Who created the reality of evil, of the Sitra Achra, of the kelipah, to tempt man to sin and thereby grant him reward - not, Heaven forbid, that it has any independent existence of its own. Therefore, He is "preeminent among ten thousand": myriads upon myriads of forces, yet all emanate from the One.
"His Head is Finest Gold" - The Hidden Thought and the Illumination of the Locks
רֹאשׁוֹ כֶּתֶם פָּז, קְוֻצּוֹתָיו תַּלְתַּלִּים שְׁחֹרוֹת כָּעוֹרֵב. - His head is finest gold; His locks are wavy curls, black as a raven.
Now the soul begins to describe the Holy One, blessed be He, in detail. "His head" refers to His thought. The head always symbolizes thought, the supreme Will before it is revealed, which is entirely concealed, stima dechol stimin (the most concealed of all hidden things). It cannot be comprehended, nor can it be contemplated; "no thought can grasp Him at all." "Finest gold" (ketem paz), explains the Malbim, means a solid ingot, a single unyielding block of pure gold. That is to say: His innermost essence is sealed and concealed like an ingot of gold, which is the most precious substance in the lower world - hidden in absolute concealment.
"His locks are wavy curls" (taltalim) - as has been explained, the hair represents, as it were, the surplus of the mind; the inner vitality of the brain radiates and breaks forth, its light emerging through the apertures of the hair. This is a description of the concealed inner lights breaking through and extending outward, the initial emergence of the hidden divine Thought. And "wavy curls" (taltalim) alludes to mounds upon mounds (tilei tilim), infinite worlds.
Rather, they are "black as a raven." We are familiar with the term 'black hole' in astronomy and physics - that place which absorbs everything into itself, not only matter but light itself, the light rays, and is therefore called a black hole. As the Malbim explains: the color black absorbs light within itself. It is well known that every color appears to us as a specific hue because it reflects a ray of light at a particular wavelength, which our eyes perceive as blue or yellow depending on the wavelength it reflects. Black does not reflect any wave, and therefore it absorbs the light into itself and is perceived as black. This comes to hint at how profoundly concealed it is: the light is hidden and tucked away within them, and nothing of it is revealed outside. "As a raven" (ka'orev) - like a mixture (ta'arovet) in which no distinction or impression can be discerned whatsoever; we have no ability to grasp them.
"His Eyes Are Like Doves" - Divine Providence and the Revelation of Glory in the World
עֵינָיו כְּיוֹנִים עַל אֲפִיקֵי מָיִם, רֹחֲצוֹת בֶּחָלָב, יֹשְׁבוֹת עַל מִלֵּאת. - "His eyes are like doves beside watercourses, bathed in milk, perched upon fullness."
Here, the Malbim explains, the soul begins to describe the Holy One's providence over the lower realms: how He began to gaze upon creation. The eyes are a metaphor for the contemplation of supreme Wisdom and Understanding, determining how to invent and bring forth the world yesh me'ayin (ex nihilo). Indeed, even within Creation itself it is written, "And God saw that it was good" - an expression of seeing appears throughout the creation of the world.
And what is the meaning of "like doves beside watercourses"? Water serves as a mirror - "As water reflects a face to a face" - a polished mirror wherein one who stands before it sees his own reflection. In this way, the world and all of existence are the manifestation of the supreme Form and Glory. When we seek to perceive the Holy One - for it is impossible to perceive the Infinite (Ein Sof), blessed be He, in and of Himself, but only through His revelation within the world. We have no other realm wherein we can recognize Divinity; only through physical reality, as we gaze upon it, can we grasp something of the boundless and infinite power of the Creator, may He be blessed.
And the analogy for this, says the Malbim, is: "Like the appearance of the rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Hashem." Can Hashem's glory truly be likened to a rainbow? He has no body and no semblance of a body. In fact, it is ruled in Halachah that one may not gaze at a rainbow, for one who does so shows no regard for the honor of his Maker. It is likewise ruled in Halachah, based on the Mishnah Berurah, that one should not gaze at the moon. Many err in this: before the blessing over the new moon (Kiddush Levanah), one looks up once and that is all, without continuing to stare, and certainly not casually mid-week saying, "Look how beautiful it is." There are additional reasons for this, but such is the Halachah. At any rate, what is the concept behind the comparison to a rainbow? The Malbim explains: the rainbow's appearance is sunlight shining upon a cloud, and the gathering of colors blending in the cloud from the sunlight creates that image, a prism of diverse colors. In the same way, all of existence is the radiance of the great Sun - the Holy One shining into reality.
Therefore, "His eyes are like doves beside watercourses": the reflection seen in water is the likeness of the one gazing into it. If you look into water, you see your own reflection; so too, as it were, when the Holy One looks down, His reflection is mirrored back. Of course He has no physical form, and we are speaking in spiritual terms, but this is an analogy to teach that when Hashem gazes at the world, His likeness is reflected within it. Just as the image seen in a rainbow is the effect of light rays striking the clouds, so too the entire manifestation of worldly reality is like doves gazing into water, whose reflection looks back at them. All the worlds are the reflection of His glory and His wisdom, which are without end and without limit; everything is rooted there in the Source of sources, and the Holy One watches over them with His providence.
"Water," says the Malbim, is a term for all that exists in the world - "And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters" - a symbol of the physical reality of the world. And "watercourses" (afikei mayim) refers to the place from which the water gushes forth and emerges, the hidden source. The Holy One directs the eyes of His providence as if gazing upon the watercourses.
"Bathed in milk" - how is milk produced? The Gemara states: blood is curdled and transformed into milk. The blood undergoes a transformation, and through that it becomes milk. So too, the reality of the world is an aspect of blood being transformed into milk. The holy books teach that prior to our worlds, known as the World of Tikkun (Rectification), there were the Worlds of Tohu (Chaos) - "He created worlds and destroyed them." Whoever has studied the concept of the Shattering of the Vessels (Shevirat HaKelim), the descent of the Sefirot, their shattering, and their ascent for the sake of rectification, knows that all of these are the aspect of the Worlds of Tohu that subsequently reach rectification. And how? Through the eyes. This is a kabbalistic concept and there is no need to enter into its full depth here, but in general terms: some of the lights that emanated from the Ein Sof, blessed be He, are the lights of the eyes - kabbalistic teachings speak of the lights of the ear, nose, and mouth - and the rectification for the fallen vessels, the vessels of the seven lower Sefirot, was effected through the gazing of the lights of the eyes from Adam Kadmon. In any event, one can see that His gaze, may He be blessed, is what brings about the rectification of the worlds, transitioning them from a state of blood - representing redness, strict judgment (Din), and the shattering of the vessels - to a state of milk, representing whiteness and rectification.
"Perched upon fullness" - "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good": everything in its fullness and in His goodness, may He be blessed, watching over the entire world so that it is rectified in a positive and beneficial way.
"His Cheeks Are Like a Bed of Spices" - General Speech and Specific Speech
לְחָיָו כַּעֲרוּגַת הַבֹּשֶׂם מִגְדְּלוֹת מֶרְקָחִים, שִׂפְתוֹתָיו שׁוֹשַׁנִּים נֹטְפוֹת מוֹר עֹבֵר. - "His cheeks are like a bed of spices, banks of sweet herbs; His lips are roses, dripping with flowing myrrh."
After describing how the Holy One, blessed be He, envisioned and gazed to bring all of reality into existence, she speaks of what He uttered - for the world was created through the power of speech: "And He said... and it was so." She therefore describes His "cheeks," which are the physical source of speech, the parts that move when a person speaks. In this, the Malbim explains, there are two levels: the general speech, encompassed in the word Bereishit ("In the beginning"), through which everything in the world was brought into potential existence; and the specific speech, detailing how all of this actualized in reality.
To understand this, let us preface with a principle discussed by the Ramban and the early sages: the world was not created ex nihilo (yesh me'ayin) throughout all six days. Rather, on the first day, the Holy One, blessed be He, created the primordial prime matter (chomer hayyuli) ex nihilo. This is how the early sages define it; today, one could say that on the first day He created the atom - since everything in the world is composed of atoms in various configurations. The Midrash compares this to someone who wants to build a house: he dumps a truckload of earth, and from that earth he makes the cinderblocks, the cement, the mortar, and the plaster - everything is built from that earth. In the same way, on the first day the Almighty, so to speak, "unloaded earth" - the potential of creation, the ex nihilo matter, the raw primordial substrate - and then dispersed it throughout all the days. On each day He formed from this raw matter - take note - substance from substance (yesh miyesh). Only the initial creation was ex nihilo, and that is Bereishit, in which everything existed in potential, like someone sowing seeds all at once before they have sprouted. Then came the second stage, the specific speech: "Let there be light," "and it was so," "let the earth sprout vegetation" - all the utterances spoken day after day, which formed substance from substance: producing grass, creating animals, bringing forth everything belonging to creation. As the Midrash puts it, this is like someone who sows six seeds all at once, and after they grow and emerge, he separates each to its own kind.
The Malbim explains: the general speech is compared to the cheeks, for the cheek is internal compared to the lip, which always represents an outer aspect. Concerning this it says, "His cheeks are like a bed of spices" - a garden bed, as the Mishnah in Peah teaches, measures six tefachim - "towers of fragrant herbs" (migdelot merkachim), and something that is merukach means blended, mingled together in a mixture. So it was with the initial creation: the primordial matter created on the first day, at the very first moment of the world's creation, was all in a single mixture. Afterward, over the six days, it had to be separated, with each element placed into its distinct realm and location, forming vegetation, living creatures, the sun, and the moon.
The specific utterances are compared to the outer lip - "His lips are roses," which represents the completion of speech. This is like those sown seeds that now begin to sprout, each day producing growth according to its nature, in the manner of buds, blossoms, and roses. "Dripping with flowing myrrh" - from which all living generations emerge; and as explained, myrrh always symbolizes life, since it is an aromatic derived from a living animal. Then the works of the days of Creation came forth, down to the plants and living creatures, each according to its kind and classification.
"His hands are rods of gold" - The Guidance of the World through the Spheres and the Angels
יָדָיו גְּלִילֵי זָהָב מְמֻלָּאִים בַּתַּרְשִׁישׁ, מֵעָיו עֶשֶׁת שֵׁן מְעֻלֶּפֶת סַפִּירִים. - His hands are rods of gold set with beryl; his belly is an ivory plate overlaid with sapphires.
After the soul has described to the body how the Holy One, blessed be He, brought everything into existence - first ex nihilo on the first day, and then substance from substance during the six days of Creation - it now describes how He directs and operates within reality from the time of Creation onward. "His hands" always express the power of action, for our power of action lies in our hands; when describing the Almighty's action, Scripture speaks of "His hands."
"Rods of gold" (gelilei zahav) - it is known that all spiritual influences flowing from above to below operate through the power of the celestial spheres (galgalim), as the early sages termed them: the stars and constellations are called spheres because they revolve constantly, and through them all worldly phenomena come to pass. The celestial influences descend through the planetary spheres. Thus, "His hands" - His power of action - are "rods of gold," acting through those stellar systems that revolve unceasingly.
And through what power do these lower celestial spheres move? Through the power of the angels that set them in motion. Therefore, the soul says, "set with beryl (tarshish)." Tarshish refers to the exalted angels, as it is written, "his body was like beryl" (Daniel 10:6); tarshish expresses the supreme spiritual force known as an angel. The lower spheres are filled and driven by the power of the supernal angels, and through this their function is fulfilled, while the Holy One, blessed be He, moves everything with infinite power, and these angels act and carry out His will. In the higher realms as well, where the supernal spheres revolve - the wheels (ofanim) of the Chariot - they too are "set with beryl," driven by the living spirit within the wheels. In other words, not only do the lower influences operate through the power of angels, but so do the higher influences. Moreover, tarshish also denotes the sea, and "tekhelet resembles the sea, and the sea resembles the firmament," as is well known regarding the mitzvah of tzitzit.
"His belly is an ivory plate overlaid with sapphires" - The Torah: An Unbroken Mass Opened by Its Narratives
The verse now describes the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, as revealed through His guidance via the Torah. "His belly" (me'av), the Malbim explains, expresses mercy and compassion, as in the phrase, "therefore my inner heart yearns for him" (Yirmiyahu 31:19). Because the Almighty had mercy and compassion upon us, He gave us the Torah: "Hashem desired, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and glorious" (Yeshayahu 42:21). He has compassion on us and wishes to grant us merit, and therefore He magnified the Torah for us.
"An ivory plate" (eshet shen) - eshet refers to pieces fused into a single block, the raw lump of iron or gold before it has been fashioned into the desired vessel. In the same way, the letters, words, verses, and portions are all one single Torah - a unified, raw block of Torah whose inner meaning is hidden. And when one has a solid block of metal, not only is its interior hidden, but its ultimate identity is concealed: what is it? It is purely in potential rather than actualized, for something must be crafted from it to bring it into actual form. As long as it remains an uncut block, it is raw, unformed material.
Rather, it is "encrusted with sapphires" (me'ulefet sapirim). A sapphire is a clear, precious gemstone that can be seen through from one side to the other. The Torah, to be sure, appears concealed. We read verses, and in so many verses you realize just how little you understand: the verses that describe "the kings who reigned before any king reigned in Edom" - lengthy passages that seemingly convey no comprehension to us; the verses describing Yaakov's deeds - striped, speckled, and spotted flocks - and why does the Torah need to elaborate on all these details? This is the aspect of a block of ivory (eshet shen), a solid mass whose inner contents cannot be grasped. Yet it is "encrusted with sapphires": sapirim (sapphires), explains the Malbim, is akin to sippurim (stories). Through the narratives of the Torah, which serve as outer garments, one gains access to its secrets and its inner essence, to understand what these matters come to hint at. And as the Zohar states, the stories of the Torah are merely the outer crust, the envelope; woe to anyone, may his spirit expire, who imagines that the Torah came merely to tell tales - for if you are looking for novels, there are more captivating books, and if for historical accounts, there are more fascinating ones.
Incidentally, the two very examples mentioned are the precise passages upon which the Kabbalists expound, detailing how all the upper worlds, the descent of the realms, the shattering of the vessels (shevirat ha-kelim), and everything that transpired in the creation of the universe are embodied within them, even though they appear entirely opaque. "The kings who reigned," "Bela... and the name of his city was Dinhabah" - who is interested in all these trivia? Yet precisely there lie the very secrets of the entire Torah and the mysteries of Creation. Likewise, the striped, speckled, and spotted sheep represent the realms of Akudim, Nekudim, and Berudim, which are the primordial emanations through which the Holy One, blessed be He, created the universe. Thus, precisely in those areas where things appear to you as completely sealed - like a block of ivory - know that it is "encrusted with sapphires," and there you can attain the Torah's deepest secrets and inner dimensions.
"His Legs Are Pillars of Marble" - The Physical World Supported on Sockets of Fine Gold
שׁוֹקָיו עַמּוּדֵי שֵׁשׁ מְיֻסָּדִים עַל אַדְנֵי פָז, מַרְאֵהוּ כַּלְּבָנוֹן בָּחוּר כָּאֲרָזִים. - His legs are pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.
The end of the creative process, the Malbim explains, is the tangible physical world. The world is called "pillars of marble" (where shesh also means "six"), because six always represents physical matter. Why? Because any physical object you take and grasp possesses the four directions of the compass, plus up and down - all matter is defined by the number six. The inner point within matter is its true essence, and that is the seventh: seven represents the interior of an entity, its ultimate purpose and essence. But physical matter itself consists of six extremities.
"His legs are pillars of marble" means that all the emanations discussed earlier - from the celestial spheres ("His hands are rods of gold") and from the angels ("set with beryl") - all flow down here, into the lower world, which is the aspect of His legs, the pillars of six (amudei shesh). "Set upon sockets of fine gold" - they are supported by the Holy One, blessed be He, Who encompasses them and fills them in the manner of "filling all worlds and surrounding all worlds," through His individual Divine Providence (hashgachah pratit).
Notice carefully: at the outset it stated, "His head is the finest gold" (ketem paz), and here the lower world is "set upon sockets of fine gold" (adnei paz). "His head is the finest gold" expresses Divine wisdom and infinite providence, and upon what does it gaze and contemplate? Upon "His legs... pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold." Everything in this world is founded upon those sockets of fine gold - upon the higher consciousness, the Supreme Thought of the Holy One, blessed be He, Who oversees everything occurring here, all by His divine will and individual providence.
"His Appearance Is Like Lebanon" - The Multiplicity of Powers and His Unlimited Ability
Now the soul describes the virtues of the Creator. "His appearance is like Lebanon" - in the forest of Lebanon, countless trees and plantings grow, of diverse species. So it is with the Holy One, blessed be He: His emanations are infinite, and He is the root of all and sustains all, for everything in the universe derives from Him, blessed be He. As mentioned earlier, even the forces of impurity, sorcery, and all aspects of alienation from the Holy One, blessed be He, ultimately draw their vitality from the Holy Chariot. Just like the forest of Lebanon encompassing manifold trees, so too, as it were, manifold forces exist within Him.
From here begins the depiction of His omnipotence, wisdom, and will, which in the Holy One, blessed be He, are without end, without limit, and without boundary. Corresponding to His power, the verse says "choice as the cedars": the cedar is the tallest tree among the trees of Lebanon, and thus the Holy One, blessed be He, in terms of capability and strength, is chosen like the cedar, the most distinguished of all.
"His Palate Is Sweet" - The Sweetness of Wisdom
חִכּוֹ מַמְתַקִּים וְכֻלּוֹ מַחֲמַדִּים, זֶה דוֹדִי וְזֶה רֵעִי בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם. - His palate is sweet, and he is altogether desirable; this is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Corresponding to wisdom, it says: "His palate is sweet." The palate always expresses taste - "and the palate tastes food for itself" (Iyov 12:11) - through the palate we discern the taste of something. And wisdom is about sensing something, tasting it: "An ear tests words as a palate tastes food" (Iyov 34:3), meaning the ear evaluates words just as the palate evaluates taste. When you want to discern the nature of something - whether it is fresh, whether it is sweet, bitter, or sour - you place it on the palate and taste it.
After all, you know that there are people whose profession is tasting: wine tasters, ice cream tasters. If the wine taster were to actually swallow a little each time, after two hours they would have to carry him out on a stretcher from drunkenness; therefore, he merely puts it in his mouth, swishes it around, and spits it out. And so too with an ice cream taster, who, if he actually ate it, would need a crane to lift him and would end up weighing half a ton; he only puts it in his mouth, rolls it over all the taste buds of the tongue and palate, and once he perceives the flavor - spits it out.
And the tasting palate is also an expression of a more sublime idea: that thought, intellect, and wisdom also "taste." In what sense? Someone tells you: So-and-so is a wise person, so-and-so has wonderful ideas - and you say: Let him say something and we will hear. What is that? That is tasting. When he speaks, you taste and listen, and through that you can understand him, discern his approach and his way of thinking.
There is a story told about the Brisker Rav: once, they were sitting at a celebration, at a wedding, and a prominent Torah scholar was sitting there. The Brisker Rav asked him, "What are you working on?" He replied, "We are resolving the difficulties raised by Rabbi Akiva Eiger on the Shulchan Aruch; everywhere Rabbi Akiva Eiger left a question with tzarich iyun ('it requires further study'), we found a resolution." He said to him, "Give me an example." He gave him one example. Then the Brisker Rav went through all of Rabbi Akiva Eiger's questions on the Shulchan Aruch with him, entirely by heart, and told him: "There you surely answered such-and-such, and there you answered such-and-such, and there like this." And the entire time the scholar answered, "Yes, that is correct." In other words, he grasped his methodology and line of reasoning, and from that way of thinking he knew how he would resolve every single question throughout the entire Shulchan Aruch. And there are other true stories like this about the Torah giants: one asked his friend about a book he had authored, and said, "Tell me one section," and immediately: "What topic did you discuss? Tell me the second section, what are the subjects? Surely you proved this, brought a difficulty from here, resolved it in this way, and concluded thus" - all of it, point for point. Astounding genius. Thus you understand that when a person tastes wisdom, he can discern the approach and the thought process, and based on that know who the person is.
Regarding this the soul says, "His palate is sweet": the palate signifies tasting wisdom and perceiving it, and the wisdom revealed from Him, blessed be He, is sweet. And since it is an infinite wisdom, a tremendous wisdom, only someone of wisdom can appreciate its sweetness - the infinite desire and yearning to grasp more and more.
"And He is altogether lovely" - His Will, Blessed Be He, Which Is Entirely Good
And corresponding to His will, blessed be He - of which we said everything stems from it - it says, "And He is altogether lovely" (ve-khullo machamadim): everyone desires it. Why? Because the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, is nothing but goodness and lovingkindness. Hashem never desires to do evil, and He never desires to cause harm. Everything He does, even the attributes of strict justice, is all for the good, and its ultimate outcome is the bestowing of abundance.
"This is my beloved, and this is my friend" - Recognition Through Actions
After the bride - who is the soul - described [Him] to the body and to all the powers of the body, she says: Do you understand Who this is? "This is my Beloved." These are the descriptions by which my Beloved, my Cherished One, the Holy One, blessed be He, is recognized. And why specifically through these descriptions? Because as we have mentioned several times, it is impossible to describe Him at all; we have no comprehension of Him in Himself, but only through His actions. What are the actions that Hashem performs? Based on that, I can say: Hashem possesses such power, Hashem bestows in this manner. How do I know? From the abundance that has reached us.
An analogy was once given, lehavdil thousands upon thousands of distinctions: I cannot describe radio waves; no one has ever seen them. But I can say that if I set up a radio receiver, it catches the waves. I can say that there are long waves and short waves, sound waves, and so forth. Based on what? Based on the effect produced by them. So too, lehavdil, we cannot describe the Holy One, blessed be He, in His Essence, but only by virtue of the actions effected in the world, in man, in the soul, and in everything brought into effect through His power and from Him.
From this perspective she says, "This is my beloved and this is my friend": from this aspect, I love Him with a complete love - "my beloved" (dodi) denotes love, for I recognize His greatness and the goodness of Hashem, His wisdom and His perfection. And also "this is my friend" (re'i) - like rei'im ahuvim (beloved companions); a friend (re'a) is someone with whom one shares commonality and companionship. And how does commonality apply toward the Holy One, blessed be He? Because I myself am an "integral part of God from above" (chelek Elokah mima'al); the soul is blown from within Him - "one who blows, blows from his own essence" (man denafach mideilei nafach). Consequently, it is appropriate for the soul to say "this is my friend," for it truly possesses companionship with the Holy One, blessed be He, being a part of Him, in the aspect of the part that resembles the Whole. As Chazal said: David said five times "Bless Hashem, O my soul," and said them only corresponding to the Holy One, blessed be He, and corresponding to the soul - just as the Holy One, blessed be He, fills the whole world and sustains the whole world, sees and is not seen, so too the soul. The soul is the aspect of a part of the Whole; and just as there are influences bestowed from the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is the Whole, so too He is in the aspect of "my friend," for within me as well, within the soul, exist powers from Him, blessed be He, since I am an integral part of God from above.
Conclusion of the Fourth Song
The Malbim concludes: The heavenly beloved, the soul of Shlomo, no longer found the Beloved and His holy utterances - meaning that he did not merit prophecy again throughout the rest of Shlomo's lifetime, until he was gathered to his people. And with this, the fourth song concludes.
In summary:
In this passage, the soul describes to the bodily faculties who the Beloved is: "Radiant and ruddy" - Chesed and Din stemming from a single root, for there are no dual powers in Creation and there is none besides Him; "Preeminent among ten thousand" - myriads of forces emerging from the One. "His head is finest gold" - the concealed, supreme Thought, and "His locks are curled, black as a raven" - the beginning of revelation, wherein the light is still absorbed within it. "His eyes are like doves" - the Providence through which the likeness of His glory is reflected in the world like a rainbow in the cloud, and the rectification of the worlds of Tohu from blood into milk. "His cheeks" and "His lips" - the overarching utterance of "Bereishit" and the specific utterances of the six days of Creation. "His hands are rods of gold set with beryl" - the providential guidance through the celestial spheres and the angels; "His torso is an ivory plate overlaid with sapphires" - the Torah given out of mercy, an obscure block whose stories open the gateway to its inner secrets. "His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of fine gold" - the material world, completely supported by Divine Providence. "His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars" - the multiplicity of forces and limitless capability; "His palate is sweetness" - the sweetness of wisdom; "and He is entirely desirable" - a will that is pure goodness. And from all these descriptions, which are nothing other than knowing Him through His actions, the soul declares: "This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend" - my beloved, and the One in Whom I have a share, for I am a portion of God from Above.