The passage before us is the conclusion of the fifth song in Shir HaShirim, in which King Solomon describes the final moments of the soul's departure from the body. Until now, we accompanied the soul's journeys out toward the Beloved on high and its return to the body; here arrives the final departure, the one from which there is no return. The body struggles and tries to hold it back, the soul detaches and ascends, and from that point onward begins the dialogue between the disembodied soul and the Master of the World.
"I said, I will climb the palm tree" - The Body's Final Surge of Strength
אָמַרְתִּי אֶעֱלֶה בְתָמָר אֹחֲזָה בְּסַנְסִנָּיו וְיִהְיוּ־נָא שָׁדַיִךְ כְּאֶשְׁכְּלוֹת הַגֶּפֶן וְרֵיחַ אַפֵּךְ כַּתַּפּוּחִים׃ - I said: I will climb the palm tree, I will grasp its boughs; let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your face like apples.
The body - Solomon - says to the soul: I will strive to hold you back so you do not leave. The soul rises and towers like a palm tree, and I try to climb after it and grasp its boughs, the branches that hang down from the palm. The Malbim explains that this corresponds to what Chazal said about a candle, that a moment before it goes out, there is a surge and a flare of strength, and only afterward does it fade away.
And such is also the reality of the soul. You almost always hear about people who were moments away from passing, and the doctors announced that, Baruch Hashem, the condition was stabilizing and the patient was responding - and the very next day, word comes that he has passed away. There are endless stories like this. What does this teach? That in its final moments, the soul rallies to overcome, and ultimately fades, like a candle - for "the soul of man is the lamp of Hashem."
Incidentally, the same is written, lehavdil, regarding the Sitra Achra (the Other Side), that toward the final generation the trials in the world will be the most difficult of all. Why? Because the Sitra Achra realizes that this is the moment just before its slaughter, right before the end, and so, like the candle, it suddenly rears its head in a kind of swan song, and then dies down. Therefore, when we see the Sitra Achra raging today, and all sorts of people thinking they have a future, there is no need to be alarmed. This is its swan song, and in very short order this will all come to an end.
The body then pleads: "Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine." The breasts of the soul represent the faculties of desire and anger. The body says to it: the entire focus of these powers, everything that until now expressed lust, jealousy, and hatred - from now on, it will all be like clusters of the vine, completely for the sake of Hashem, in the aspect of the vine that symbolizes supreme wisdom. In simple words: I promise you that from today on I will be righteous, just do not leave.
"And the scent of your face like apples" - "Your face" refers to the contemplative intellect that investigates and probes deeply. Apples give off a pleasant aroma, and the body promises: from now on, all matters of intellectual inquiry and contemplation will be solely like apples, solely a pleasant aroma, purely the service of Hashem, and not empty worldly speculations.
"And the roof of your mouth like the best wine" - A Final Promise and the Soul's Reply
וְחִכֵּךְ כְּיֵין הַטּוֹב הוֹלֵךְ לְדוֹדִי לְמֵישָׁרִים דּוֹבֵב שִׂפְתֵי יְשֵׁנִים׃ - And the roof of your mouth is like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, stirring the lips of sleepers.
The palate expresses speech, and inner speech always expresses wisdom, as wisdom is more internal - just as we saw in "his palate is sweetness." The body promises: the palate will be like good wine, with wine symbolizing Ruach HaKodesh (Divine inspiration). From now on, the palate will be used only for holy words, solely for the service of Hashem, purely in Torah and wisdom.
Yet the soul replies to it: It is too late. "Going smoothly to my Beloved" - I am finished, I am not staying here; I am going to my Beloved, to the Holy One, Blessed be He, Who is the true Beloved. I am parting from the body and ascending to the Beloved on high, "in uprightness," to the Source of uprightness and goodness. Here in this world they sought many calculations and pursued crooked paths, but I am going to the place of righteousness and justice.
"Causing the lips of those who are asleep to speak" - we are standing at the moment of expiration; Shlomo is dying, and his lips are already in the state of those asleep, the eternal sleep. Sleeping, dying, and fading away - and his lips speak, as it were, on behalf of the soul, uttering the following verse.
"I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me" - The Soul Departing with a Kiss
אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְעָלַי תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ׃ - "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me."
The soul departs with a kiss, in longing for the Beloved on High. It is written in the sacred texts that when the soul departs, it has an immense yearning to unite with the Ein Sof, blessed be He. Even people who have described near-death experiences - and millions have recounted this exact description: a light at the end of the tunnel - felt that this light was the Ein Sof, blessed be He, and they all speak of an overwhelming need to connect to that light, drawn toward it with profound yearning.
The Malbim explains: this is the longing of the part for the whole, and the whole for the part. When a thing is separated from its source, it yearns to return and reunite with it. Thus the soul says, "and His desire is toward me" - I already long to be united with my Beloved. The Malbim cites the Idra, which records that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai recited this verse as his soul departed. This represents the bride departing from the body, from Shlomo, going to unite with the Beloved on High.
"Come, my Beloved, let us go out into the field" - The Departure of the Soul in Stages
לְכָה דוֹדִי נֵצֵא הַשָּׂדֶה נָלִינָה בַּכְּפָרִים׃ - "Come, my Beloved, let us go out into the field; let us lodge in the villages."
After departing from the body, she turns her face and her words toward the Beloved on High and says: Come, my Beloved, let us go from here. The body is called a "city," and we are going out of the city into the field - outside the body. But why "let us lodge in the villages"? The villages are the settlements surrounding the city; why not ascend immediately to the Beloved on High?
The Malbim explains: when the soul leaves the body, at first it still hovers over the corpse, finding it difficult to absorb that it has separated. The departure occurs in stages, and in the initial stages the detachment is not absolute. As Chazal taught, there are seven days, thirty days, and a year. During the first seven days, the soul goes back and forth to its home, because it has not yet internalized its separation. Thereafter, for thirty days, it remains at the grave, still not fully processing that it no longer has an existence here. Only after a year does it detach completely. Therefore the soul says: "Let us go out into the field; let us lodge in the villages" - the physical forces of the body have not yet entirely vanished; small villages still remain, and we will linger a while among the remnants of the body.
Through this, the Malbim notes, the concept of chibut hanefesh (the soul's shaking or agony) is clarified. Since the soul is still bound to the body, it must be extracted from there, and the sacred books write that two angels arrive, grasp it from both sides, and shake it out like one shakes out a tallit - and this is an immense ordeal for the soul. One who passes away and is buried on Friday after midday is spared from this.
And how agonizing is chibut hakever (the tribulation of the grave)? It is written that sometimes it is "like drawing a hair out of milk," drawn out effortlessly, and sometimes it is like tearing wool from thorns. What does this depend upon? Upon the depth of attachment the soul had to the body. The more attached the soul was to earthliness, to physicality, to worldly desires, pleasures, and this world - the harder it is to tear it away, like tearing wool from thorns. But for a person who spent their entire life detached from worldly affairs, a spiritual person - with a single shake it departs.
Therefore the soul says: I am not yet completely detached; I am still in the villages, still connected to the physical reality of the body. In the first stage we detach from the city, yet we remain in the village.
"Let Us Go Early to the Vineyards" - An Accounting of Deeds
נַשְׁכִּימָה לַכְּרָמִים נִרְאֶה אִם־פָּרְחָה הַגֶּפֶן פִּתַּח הַסְּמָדַר הֵנֵצוּ הָרִמּוֹנִים שָׁם אֶתֵּן אֶת־דֹּדַי לָךְ׃ - Let us go early to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine has blossomed, whether the grape blossom has opened, whether the pomegranates are in bloom; there I will give my love to you.
In the allegory, the vineyard represents one's actions and deeds. Let us rise early and look at the vineyards to see what we gained from all our toil here in this world; let us examine those actions, what kind of vineyard they produced, and what grapes they yielded. "Let us see whether the vine has blossomed" - have we done things that benefit spirituality, for from the grapevine one produces fine wine. "Whether the grape blossom has opened" - have the grapes ripened and reached the blossoming stage, meaning have these endeavors yielded fruit and produce? "Whether the pomegranates are in bloom" - the pomegranates symbolize the mitzvos and good deeds, which are compared to a pomegranate containing 613 seeds corresponding to the 613 mitzvos. Let us see whether everything we did in this world has an effect Above, whether any benefit has come of it.
"There I will give my love to you" - meaning that although there is doubt whether the vine blossomed and whether the pomegranates bloomed, "there I will certainly give my love to You." The Malbim asks: Why should there be any doubt here? Could it enter one's mind that "I have labored in vain, and spent my strength for nothing," as Rabbi Abbahu said? Rather, the meaning is that while we labor here, we do not know how much was truly for the sake of Heaven, how many of the mitzvos will be scrutinized and deemed insubstantial, and how many were performed without intent and without heart. Therefore, the soul says: Let us see, did what I did reach the stature of a vine? Did the blossom open and develop into actual fruit? Are all the mitzvos like a pomegranate that has already bloomed and yielded its fruit?
And what can I state with certainty has yielded its fruit? "There I will give my love (dodai) to you" - "dodai" refers to my love, as we have seen multiple times that "dodi" is my beloved, "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine." For whatever I served out of love, there is undoubtedly a reward; of this I am confident that it will yield its fruit and its fitting harvest. Whatever was done in the realm of love ascends as a pleasing aroma before Hashem, and that is unquestionably the service that is desirable before Him, blessed be He. But as for the rest of my service - I do not know if the pomegranates have bloomed, whether it truly reached a proper completion and a good culmination so as to receive a full reward Above.
"The Mandrakes Give Forth Fragrance" - External Intellectual Pursuits and Deeds at the Threshold
הַדּוּדָאִים נָתְנוּ־רֵיחַ וְעַל־פְּתָחֵינוּ כָּל־מְגָדִים חֲדָשִׁים גַּם־יְשָׁנִים דּוֹדִי צָפַנְתִּי לָךְ׃ - The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and at our doors are all manner of precious fruits, both new and old; my Beloved, I have treasured them for You.
The mandrakes symbolize intellectual concepts, studies, and deep inquiries, and they "give forth fragrance." Scent is ownerless and free to all, unrestricted, reaching everywhere. That is to say, the soul's intellectual faculty emanates its scent and spreads to all domains: there are external intellectual pursuits, where a person studies matters not necessarily connected to Torah, and there are intellectual pursuits within the holy Torah, where one delves, reflects, and contemplates deeply. Yet this study and deed might not be for the sake of Heaven, and might be pursued for external motives.
And why did the verse specifically mention "mandrakes" (duda'im)? Mandrakes are familiar to us from Reuven, who found mandrakes in the field, and Rachel requested them from Leah. The holy books state that the special property of mandrakes is to arouse love between husband and wife. Here in the parable, the mandrakes come to symbolize things that pertain to the physical realm as well: deeds connected to material and earthly pursuits, and intellectual inquiries related to natural sciences and the like - matters that are not specifically connected to the service of Hashem. Scent spreads in all directions, and when a person investigates and contemplates things that do not arouse spiritual love and do not cultivate closeness to Hashem, this scent becomes free for all the physical faculties to consume, and he has not directed it toward its proper place.
"And at our doors are all manner of precious fruits" - the precious fruits are the produce, the fruits of one's deeds. When a deed is performed entirely for the sake of Hashem alone, it enters into the inner sanctuary. But when deeds lack perfection, they remain at the entrance, lingering outside and failing to enter the inner sanctuary. This is the aspect of a body without a soul, which stands outside at the doorway and never reaches the inner chambers.
"Both new and old" - mitzvos should always feel new to a person, as it is written that every single day they should be in your eyes as new, yet he performs them merely out of rote habit. And since they were not performed with all one's heart or from an inner depth, all the precious fruits - which are the practical mitzvos - consequently remain "at our doors," and do not enter the inner chambers.
"Yet my Beloved, I have treasured them for You" - "my Beloved" (dodi) refers to my love, and it is hidden and treasured for You, Master of the Universe. This is entirely holy, and this truly reaches into the inner chambers. The inner love for the service of Hashem and the inner yearning to fulfill His will - this penetrates within. The mandrakes, if they represent external intellectual pursuits, and the precious fruits, which remain outside at the door, are of little benefit for beholding the countenance of the Supreme King. But the love hidden within the heart, which is entirely for the sake of Heaven, is preserved for Hashem and is wholly sacred, and in its merit, the soul is worthy of receiving its reward in the World to Come.
Chapter 8: "O that you were as a brother to me" - What the Soul Longs For
The eighth chapter is a direct continuation of the dialogue between the soul and the Master of the Universe.
מִי יִתֶּנְךָ כְּאָח לִי יוֹנֵק שְׁדֵי אִמִּי אֶמְצָאֲךָ בַחוּץ אֶשָּׁקְךָ גַּם לֹא־יָבֻזוּ לִי׃ - O that you were as a brother to me, who nursed at the breasts of my mother! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.
The soul still remembers its condition when it was inside the body, and grieves over the separation. Chazal teach us that for twelve months the soul mourns over the body. But the Malbim explains: make no mistake. It is not mourning for the status it held within the body, for as we have seen, that state was exceedingly difficult - a constant struggle between the soul and the daughters of Jerusalem, which are the physical forces of the body, pulling it downward, materializing it, and distancing it from the service of Hashem. It does not yearn for that, nor does it seek to return to that.
What, then, does it yearn for? For the spiritual level of Moshe Rabbeinu and Eliyahu HaNavi. They no longer had any conflict with the yetzer hara, nor any struggle against the bodily forces; they attained a level akin to half an angel, and by virtue of this they were able to cleave to their Creator within the body itself, while still clothed in the body, without a ceaseless struggle. The soul longs for a reality in which it has the power to strip away the bodily forces while still within the body, to overcome physical matter from within it, and to separate from the corporeal body toward prophecy and supreme attachment, as the Malbim phrases it.
The Malbim defines Moshe and Eliyahu: "They had the power to dwell both in the upper chamber and in the courtyard." As one may recall, the holy Ohr HaChaim describes the state of Adam HaRishon in Gan Eden in this very way - he dwelt in the upper chamber and in the courtyard. This expression means that he was here, in this world, and whenever he wished, he ascended to the upper chamber, which is the Upper Gan Eden. Adam HaRishon was in the Lower Gan Eden, and whenever he desired, he ascended to the Upper Gan Eden without needing to shed his physical body. Today, after the sin of Adam HaRishon, we have become heavily materialized, and a person cannot achieve cleaving to his Creator unless he sheds his body entirely, which means unless he dies. But they were so elevated and sanctified that they were capable of reaching a state of divesting from physical matter.
Regarding this, the soul pleads: "O that you were as a brother to me" - Master of the Universe, just like a brother who is bonded with his sister, born of one mother, so may You be to me like a brother; for the soul is in the aspect of the King's sister by virtue of its sublime root beneath the Throne of Glory.
"Who nursed at the breasts of my mother" - the mother is the corporeal body, and we always have a struggle with the body. But I ask that the body, too, should nurse the soul with its energies for His service, blessed be He, just as with Moshe and Eliyahu, where the body did not form a dividing screen. When Moshe stands and receives prophecy from Hashem, does he not have a body? He does have a body, but the body is in the aspect of "nursed at the breasts of my mother," nursing the soul with spiritual matters and bestowing upon it of its sanctity, rather than dragging it down to earthly and material pursuits.
And this plea contains two aspects. The first aspect: "If I found you outside, I would kiss you." Today, while I am inside the body, I cannot go out and find the Holy One, blessed be He, outside; I must separate from the body to connect to Divinity. But I desire that even within the body I should merit prophecy, as we saw with Shlomo - that I might go outside, "I would kiss you," in the sense of "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth," to connect with the Holy One, blessed be He, and then return to the body, without the daughters of Jerusalem pulling me back. "And no one would despise me" - the daughters of Jerusalem, which are the earthly bodily forces, will not despise me or try to prevent me from connecting to my Beloved, but rather I will be able to be with Him whenever I wish and return to the body, without constant, endless battles.
"I would lead you, I would bring you to my mother's house" - Attainment Within the Body
אֶנְהָגְךָ אֲבִיאֲךָ אֶל־בֵּית אִמִּי תְּלַמְּדֵנִי אַשְׁקְךָ מִיַּיִן הָרֶקַח מֵעֲסִיס רִמֹּנִי׃ - I would lead you, I would bring you to my mother's house, you would teach me; I would give you spiced wine to drink, from the juice of my pomegranate.
This is the second plea: "I would lead you" - spirituality, the Holy One, blessed be He - "I would bring you to my mother's house," the mother being the body. I would bring You, as it were, into the body itself, and there "you would teach me" Torah and mitzvos, and I would serve You while still walking in flesh and blood, with the body forming neither a barrier nor a screen.
"I would give you to drink of spiced wine" - Wine always alludes to perception and spiritual grasp, and "spiced" (merkach) means mixed and compounded. We should note that there are two kinds of spiritual perception. There is spiritual perception when the soul is outside the body: this is a lofty perception, where the soul connects to its Root, with no bodily faculties separating and disrupting, and no coarse intellect interfering with perceptions and mingling them with desires, lusts, and physicality. In contrast, there is perception that the soul attains while inside the body, where it grasps Divinity, prophecy, and attachment to the Holy One, Blessed be He, yet its perceptions are not completely pure and clear.
And the soul pleads: "I would give you to drink of spiced wine" - from this wine even though it is compounded and mingled within the physical body. For we all know that there is a distinct advantage when the soul attains perceptions while still inside the body; when the soul grasps things outside a body, it is, as it were, unearned bread. The true wisdom and achievement is that despite being in a body, and despite the body acting as a dividing curtain, I serve the Holy One, Blessed be He, and attain spiritual perceptions. For this the soul yearns: if only I could attain spiritual heights while still in the body, like Moshe and Eliyahu. "And of the nectar of my pomegranates" - these are good deeds, as the pomegranate symbolizes the 613 mitzvos corresponding to its 613 seeds. In this way, I may merit to attain all spiritual perceptions while still in a physical body - which was the state of Adam HaRishon before the sin. This is the highest and most sublime attainment: to succeed in refining the body and elevating it to a supreme spiritual level.
"His left hand is under my head" - The Primary Perception is with the Right
שְׂמֹאלוֹ תַּחַת רֹאשִׁי וִימִינוֹ תְּחַבְּקֵנִי׃ - "His left hand is under my head, and His right hand embraces me."
The left hand is a metaphor for intellectual perception, while the right hand expresses prophetic, spiritual perception. The left represents physicality and strict judgment, while the right represents loving-kindness and spirituality, and the Shechinah is on the right. "His left hand is under my head" - intellectual perception will merely be under my head, not possessing the same exalted status; "and His right hand embraces me" - the primary perception will be through Ruach HaKodesh, prevailing over mere intellect. For intellectual perception is inherently flawed, as it utilizes the faculties of human intellect, and the faculties of the intellect are limited and even prone to be drawn after physical desires. But I ask that the spiritual perception of prophecy be internal, while I am still within the body.
"Why should you awaken, and why stir up" - It Is No Longer in Your Power
הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם מַה־תָּעִירוּ וּמַה־תְּעֹרְרוּ אֶת־הָאַהֲבָה עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּץ׃ - "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, why should you awaken, and why stir up the love, until it pleases?"
You, daughters of Jerusalem - the bodily forces - I always adjured you "by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field," as we saw earlier, for these forces constantly try to create a barrier between the soul and the Holy One, Blessed be He. I adjured you in the past not to do anything that might cause a severance between me and Hashem Yisborach. We explained that "awaken and stir up" carries the meaning of: do not assist and do not ruin - as in the expression "Raze it, raze it ('aru 'aru), to its foundation" - as well as the sense of stirring up and creating an awakening.
Here, however, the phrasing is different: "Why should you awaken, and why stir up?" That is to say, what power do you now have to awaken or stir up? After all, the soul has already departed from the body and detached from the physical forces. You have no power either to awaken or to stir up, because I have already severed ties from the bodily forces.
"Who is this coming up from the wilderness" - The Soul's Root
מִי זֹאת עֹלָה מִן־הַמִּדְבָּר מִתְרַפֶּקֶת עַל־דּוֹדָהּ תַּחַת הַתַּפּוּחַ עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ שָׁמָּה חִבְּלַתְךָ אִמֶּךָ שָׁמָּה חִבְּלָה יְלָדַתְךָ׃ - "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, clinging to her Beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in travail with you, there she was in travail and gave you birth."
Everyone asks: What is the essence of this precious soul that comes up from the wilderness? "Coming up from the wilderness" means that she departs into the wilderness upon separating from the body, ascending to "cling to her Beloved" - to cleave to "my Beloved, clear and ruddy," to the Supernal Light, to the Holy One, Blessed be He, and to be bound up in the bond of eternal life. We see no such thing in the soul of animals - that they detach from the body in order to ascend and shine in the Supernal Light; no such concept applies to them. What, then, distinguishes the power of this soul from all other souls in the world?
The Holy One, blessed be He, answers: "Under the apple tree I awakened you." This precious soul emanates from on High and comes from a holy place - "under the apple tree," which symbolizes elevated spiritual worlds, *Chakal Tapuchin Kadishin* (the Field of Holy Apples). From there, from the nobility of the higher realm, I awakened you. "There your mother was in travail with you" - when you were bound in birth pangs to your mother, which is the body, where were you previously? Under the apple tree. "There she who bore you was in travail" - when you were born here into the world, this holy soul emanated from a separate spiritual entity, from an exalted, higher reality, from the World of Beriah, as we explained. And therefore, now you are returning to that very place.
This is the answer to the question, "Who is this coming up from the desert?" Do not be astonished at how she achieves such spiritual attainments. The soul did not come from somewhere else; she came from there, and because she came from there, she returns there. She came from beneath the Throne of Glory, and therefore she returns to that exalted spiritual reality. True, she was here together with us inside a physical body like other living creatures, but where did they come from? From earthiness and physical matter, for the animal soul originates from the earth. The lofty soul, by contrast, arrives from a very high spiritual plane, and therefore upon her departure she simply returns to that reality from which she came.
Why Scripture Addresses the Soul in the Masculine
There is an intriguing detail here: the beginning of the verse is in the feminine - "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, clinging to her beloved?" - yet immediately afterward, "I awakened you... there your mother was in travail with you... there she who bore you was in travail," in the masculine. Radak writes that we occasionally find masculine expressions used for feminine subjects and vice versa, as Moshe Rabbeinu said, "And if this is how You deal with me." But according to the Malbim's explanation in Shir HaShirim, the matter is truly wondrous.
For according to his explanation, until now the soul was inside the body, and now it separates from it. As long as the soul resides within the body, it is in the position of a recipient, one who is influenced. But when it detaches from the body, it is no longer influenced or receptive; on the contrary, it bestows, or at the very least is no longer in the category of a recipient. The general rule - certainly in Kabbalah - is that the feminine represents the recipient that is influenced, while the masculine represents the bestowal of influence.
Someone once asked: why in the Torah, in the words of Chazal, and throughout Scripture, is the Holy One, blessed be He, characterized in the masculine? And this person even offered his own explanation: because men invented God. These are vain and foolish notions; both the question is flawed and the answer is flawed. The question is flawed because we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, is also described in the feminine - the holy Shechinah, *Shechinta be-galuta*, and *Shechinah* is a feminine noun. And the answer is certainly absurd, requiring no refutation: men did not invent God, nor did the Holy One, blessed be He, wait for anyone to invent Him. Rather, He is the Master of all, Who was, is, and will be, before any creation was formed. Such a claim is the notion of heretics and the ignorant.
The straightforward answer is that the Holy One, blessed be He, is described in the masculine because the masculine represents the bestower of influence, and the Holy One, blessed be He, receives nothing from anyone. Of course, with Him, may He be blessed, there is no physical form, and He cannot be grasped by physical concepts; gender does not apply to Him at all. Rather, the masculine expression serves to convey the role of the bestower. And when we do find feminine expressions, such as the holy Shechinah, this refers to the holy Sefirot. There are ten Sefirot, and Malchut is the lowest Sefirah. In the language of the Kabbalists, *leit lah migarma klum* - it has no light of its own and no power of its own; rather, it receives from the nine Sefirot above it and channels influence downward, and this is the dynamic of *nukva* (the feminine). Therefore, the Sefirah of Malchut is called *nukva*, as it acts as both recipient and transmitter, just as a woman receives pregnancy and gives birth to children.
Based on this, the Malbim explains beautifully: when is the soul in the category of a recipient? When it is within the body, for then it is influenced by everything it undergoes, both from the Beloved on High and from the physical body. Now, however, it is no longer a passive recipient or subject to such influence, but a distinct spiritual essence like the supernal angels. Therefore, it is no longer appropriate to address it in the feminine, and Scripture switches to the masculine: "I awakened you, your mother, she who bore you" - because it is already outside the body, no longer influenced and no longer in the role of recipient.
"Place Me as a Seal Upon Your Heart" - The Intensity of Love
שִׂימֵנִי כַחוֹתָם עַל־לִבֶּךָ כַּחוֹתָם עַל־זְרוֹעֶךָ כִּי־עַזָּה כַמָּוֶת אַהֲבָה קָשָׁה כִשְׁאוֹל קִנְאָה רְשָׁפֶיהָ רִשְׁפֵּי אֵשׁ שַׁלְהֶבֶתְיָה׃ - "Place me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is as fierce as death, jealousy is as unyielding as the grave; its flashes are flashes of fire, a divine flame."
The holy soul pleads with the Beloved on High to cleave her to Himself - both in will and in deed. "For love is as fierce as death" - the love I bear for the Holy One, blessed be He, is as strong as death, meaning I am willing to surrender my life to death for love of Him, blessed be He. "Jealousy is as unyielding as the grave" - even though the jealousy of the evil inclination is as harsh as the grave, and the struggle against the impulses and cravings that seek to distance me from the service of Hashem and drag me down to the pit and to Gehinnom is fierce, nevertheless love is as fierce as death.
And how do I overcome? "Its flashes are flashes of fire, a divine flame" - through the power of the sparks of love of Hashem burning within me, with enthusiasm, longing, and a fiery passion for His service, may He be blessed. Through this, I burn away that "jealousy unyielding as the grave," the evil inclination that is jealous of man and seeks to cast him down into the depths of the netherworld. I burn through all the ropes trying to pull me down into earthiness, in order to unite with the Holy One, blessed be He.
And what are the heart and the arm? "Your heart" expresses His blessed will, while "Your arm" expresses the actual giving of the reward, bestowing the reward with His hands, as it were. That is: grant me the reward in actuality, and also with goodwill - the heart expresses the will and desire, and the arm represents the actual giving.
"Many waters cannot quench love"
מַיִם רַבִּים לֹא יוּכְלוּ לְכַבּוֹת אֶת־הָאַהֲבָה וּנְהָרוֹת לֹא יִשְׁטְפוּהָ אִם־יִתֵּן אִישׁ אֶת־כָּל־הוֹן בֵּיתוֹ בָּאַהֲבָה בּוֹז יָבוּזוּ לוֹ׃ - Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers sweep it away; if a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, they would utterly scorn him.
The poet says: we see that many waters cannot extinguish the love of the exalted maiden, the soul, for her God. All the forces of the evil inclination, that jealousy as unyielding as Sheol, cannot abolish the love of Solomon's soul for her Creator. And rivers as well - which represent, like a sweeping torrent, the vicissitudes of time and all the troubles of the world - cannot wash this love away.
"If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, they would utterly scorn him" - that is, they will say to him: is this all you give? Even if he claims, "I am giving millions" - they will utterly scorn him; it is nothing. For "it cannot be valued in silver or treasures"; this love is priceless, immensely powerful and precious, and the entire world is not worth the value of love for Hashem. Therefore, even if a person says, "I give everything," he is told: a person ought to surrender everything, his soul and his very substance, for the love of Hashem, and even then you have not given the slightest fraction of what one ought to invest and offer for His blessed love.
Conclusion of the Fifth Song and Opening of the Song of the Thousand
With this, the maiden, Solomon's soul, clings to the Eternal Living One and the God of spirits, and with this the Fifth Song is complete. At this point, Shir HaShirim reaches its end across its five songs, as the Malbim organized them and as we have studied. The entire process - the departures of Solomon's soul from the body to unite with her Beloved and receive prophecy - has ended, and the final departure is her departure from the physical body.
Now comes a separate song, in which the soul presents a request, as it were, to the Supreme King, the exalted Beloved. This is the familiar addition, "We have a little sister," which the Malbim defines as the Song of the Thousand, named for "The thousand is for you, Solomon." This corresponds to the phrase "and his songs were five songs and a thousand," and the Malbim explains there: the five songs of Shir HaShirim, and the Song of the Thousand, which is "The thousand is for you, Solomon" - is the sixth song. We deliberately do not count it as a sixth song, however, because it does not fit the continuous narrative, but rather stands as an appendix. We will explore this further ahead, examining both its parable and its deeper meaning.
In summary:
At the conclusion of the Fifth Song, Solomon depicts the great parting: the body rallies for a moment like a candle before it flickers out, promising the soul that it will become entirely sacred, but the soul replies that the time has passed, and she goes uprightly to her Beloved. The departure unfolds in stages - "let us lodge in the villages" - leading to the accounting of the vineyards: what among all our deeds truly blossomed and ripened, and what remained outside "at our doorways." The soul's answer is unequivocal: only "my Beloved, which I have stored away for You," only internal love for the sake of Heaven, enters into the inner sanctum. In the eighth chapter, she yearns not for the struggles of the body, but for the spiritual level of Moses and Elijah: to reside both in the upper chamber and the courtyard, perceiving Divinity while still in the body. To the question, "Who is this rising from the wilderness?" the Holy One, blessed be He, responds that the soul is returning to the place from which it was emanated. And finally, she pleads, "Place me as a seal upon Your heart," for love is as fierce as death, no waters or rivers can extinguish it, and all the wealth of a man's house cannot compare to the faintest fraction of its value.