The third chapter of Shir HaShirim continues the thread we saw at the end of the previous chapter: in the wake of our misdeeds, as it were, the Beloved departed - "Turn, my Beloved, and be like a gazelle" - and from this point onward, Keneset Yisrael describes her search for the Holy One, blessed be He, in the darkness. The chapter opens with search and frustration, moves to finding Him and holding onto Him, and from there to the depiction of the splendor of the Jewish people in the wilderness, the Mishkan and the Ohel Mo'ed, and concludes with the crown with which His mother crowned Him on the day of His wedding and on the day of His heart's joy.
I Sought Him, but I Did Not Find Him - The Years of Rebuke
עַל־מִשְׁכָּבִי בַּלֵּילוֹת בִּקַּשְׁתִּי אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו וְלֹא מְצָאתִיו׃ - Upon my bed at night I sought the one whom my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.
Rashi explains: "Upon my bed at night" - in my distress, when I sat in darkness throughout the thirty-eight years that Israel were under divine censure. Closeness to God is illumination, "for by the light of Your countenance You gave us," whereas distance from God is an aspect of darkness and absence; therefore, Scripture characterizes this period as "in the nights." In those years, even divine speech was withheld from Moshe Rabbeinu, for the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I gave you greatness only for the sake of Israel, and now that Israel are under censure and unworthy - the speech departed.
"I sought him, but I did not find him" - for I am not in your midst, "for I will not go up in your midst." However much I sought, I did not find, because the Holy One, blessed be He, explicitly told me that He would not accompany me closely. There is a clear statement here: you will not find Me.
I Will Rise Now and Seek - Being a Seeker
אָקוּמָה נָּא וַאֲסוֹבְבָה בָעִיר בַּשְּׁוָקִים וּבָרְחֹבוֹת אֲבַקְשָׁה אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו וְלֹא מְצָאתִיו׃ - I will rise now and roam about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek the one whom my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.
Rashi: "I will rise now and seek" - this refers to "And Moshe implored the face of Hashem." That is to say, it is not enough merely to say, "I want Hashem"; one must take actions that demonstrate just how deeply one is seeking. And even so - "I sought him, but I did not find him," I still had not found Him.
Once, someone asked the Alter of Novardok: Who is the most diligent student (matmid) in the yeshiva? He pointed to one young man. Who is the deep thinker and lamdan? He pointed to another. Who is the tzaddik? He pointed to a third. They asked him: And who is the very best student in the yeshiva? He pointed to a fourth. They said to him: But he is not the most diligent, nor the greatest lamdan, nor the most God-fearing - why do you point specifically to him? He answered them: Because he is the greatest seeker (mevakesh) in the yeshiva. And who was that young man? The Steipler. That is why he reached heights that no one else reached. When a person seeks closeness to God, even if he is not the greatest scholar, the most righteous, or the most diligent, the very seeking and yearning elevate him. It is not enough to say, "I want closeness to God," and then go read the newspaper; one must be a seeker of Hashem, seeking out Hashem, blessed be He, and pursuing Him. That is the essence of "And Moshe implored the face of Hashem."
The Watchmen Found Me - "What Did You Find in His Mouth?"
מְצָאוּנִי הַשֹּׁמְרִים הַסֹּבְבִים בָּעִיר אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי רְאִיתֶם׃ - The watchmen who go about the city found me: "Have you seen the one whom my soul loves?"
Rashi: "The watchmen found me" - Moshe and Aharon; and I ask them, "Have you seen the one whom my soul loves?" - what did you hear from His mouth? Rashi is resolving a difficulty here: of what benefit would their seeing Him be to me? After all, no one thinks that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not exist; of course He exists, but He is not with us. Therefore, Rashi explains that the question is not about the mere sighting itself, but rather "what did you find in His mouth" - what message did you receive from Him regarding His closeness to us in the dire state we find ourselves in, and is there any prospect that He will return and rest His Shechinah upon us?
"Until I Found" - "I Held Him and Would Not Let Him Go"
כִּמְעַט שֶׁעָבַרְתִּי מֵהֶם עַד שֶׁמָּצָאתִי אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי אֲחַזְתִּיו וְלֹא אַרְפֶּנּוּ עַד־שֶׁהֲבֵיאתִיו אֶל־בֵּית אִמִּי וְאֶל־חֶדֶר הוֹרָתִי׃ - Scarcely had I passed from them when I found the one whom my soul loves; I held him and would not let him go, until I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
Rashi explains: "Scarcely had I passed from them" - close to the time of their departure from me, at the end of the forty years. "Kim'at" (scarcely / almost) means like a little, as in the verse, "Had Hashem of hosts not left us a tiny remnant, we would have been almost like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah" (Yeshayahu 1:9) - in just a little while we would have been like Sodom. Here too: in just a short time I passed from them, meaning close to the time when Moshe and Aharon departed from Israel.
"Until I found" - for He was with me in the days of Yehoshua to conquer the thirty-one kings. Then I truly found Him, for prophecy returned and Hashem accompanied them in conquering the Land. "I held him and would not let him go" - I gave Him no respite, I did not loosen my grip on Him, until I brought Him to the Mishkan in Shiloh, on account of all that He did for me, meaning because of all the goodness He bestowed upon me. Of course, Heaven forbid that one could literally hold onto the Holy One, Blessed be He; rather, it means holding fast to Him: performing His will, observing His mitzvos, and clinging to Him and His Torah, until they merited that His Shechinah rested among them in the Mishkan of Shiloh.
"I Adjure You" - The Warning to the Nations
הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם בִּצְבָאוֹת אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה אִם־תָּעִירוּ וְאִם־תְּעוֹרְרוּ אֶת־הָאַהֲבָה עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּץ׃ - I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love until it please.
Rashi: "I adjure you" - the nations, while I am exiled among you. We have already explained above that the "daughters of Jerusalem" are the nations: Jerusalem is the central metropolis, and its "daughters" are the satellite towns and surrounding villages. The Jewish people are the center, and all the nations around us are like satellite towns, as in the verse, "Let the daughters of Judah rejoice" (Tehillim 48:12) - the villages adjacent to Judah.
"That you not stir up nor awaken" - the love of my Beloved from me, through enticement and incitement to abandon Him and turn away from following Him. And as Rashi explained earlier, "by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field" means that you will become ownerless prey and food like deer and gazelles. For what meaning is there in swearing by gazelles and hinds of the field? Rather, it is an oath formula warning that you will become defenseless prey. Likewise, "stir up" (ta'iru) and "awaken" (te'oreru) do not bear their usual meaning of arousal and awakening, but rather the opposite: "Ta'iru" means to cause enmity, as in "and became your enemy (eirecha)" (Shmuel I 28:16), or "the interpretation is for your enemies (le'eirach)" (Daniel 4:16); and "te'oreru" is related to contesting ownership (ore'rim), like someone who challenges title to a field, that you try to undermine and challenge the love. This has always been our plight in our proximity to the nations, who would entice us and distance us from the service of Hashem. "Until it please" - while His love desires me, so long as He desires me, do not awaken hatred toward me through temptations and by causing me to sin before the Holy One, Blessed be He.
"Who Is This Rising from the Wilderness?"
מִי זֹאת עֹלָה מִן־הַמִּדְבָּר כְּתִימְרוֹת עָשָׁן מְקֻטֶּרֶת מֹר וּלְבוֹנָה מִכֹּל אַבְקַת רוֹכֵל׃ - Who is this rising up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of the merchant?
Rashi: When I traveled through the wilderness, and the pillar of fire and the cloud went before me, killing serpents and scorpions and burning away the thorns and briers to level the path, the cloud and smoke ascended. The nations saw this and marveled at my greatness, saying, "Who is this?" - meaning, how great is this nation rising from the wilderness! This is the exclamation of the nations, those "daughters of Jerusalem" mentioned previously. This caused a great sensation throughout the world.
"Like pillars of smoke" - tall and upright like a palm tree (tamar), like smoke rising straight up into the heights. "Perfumed with myrrh" - referring to the cloud of incense (ketores) that rose above the Inner Altar; myrrh is one of the types of spices. "From all the powders of the merchant" - a merchant (rochel) is a perfumer who sells all kinds of spices, called a rochel because he travels around the towns, journeying on foot from place to place. The verse tells us that this incense of myrrh and frankincense is more exquisite than all the perfumes of the merchants. "Powders" (avkath) - because the spice is crushed and ground fine as dust (avak).
Behold the Bed of Shlomo
הִנֵּה מִטָּתוֹ שֶׁלִּשְׁלֹמֹה שִׁשִּׁים גִּבֹּרִים סָבִיב לָהּ מִגִּבֹּרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - "Behold the bed of Shlomo, sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel."
First, a grammatical observation: in Lashon HaKodesh, the word "shel" (of) does not exist as an independent word, and it never appears that way anywhere in Tanach, but always attached as a prefix - "shelishlomo". This is also true in the Midrashim: "Kriyat Shema sheleshacharit", "shele'arvit", all as a single word. And this is also the custom of formulation among Yemenite Jews to this day.
Rashi explains: "Behold the bed of Shlomo" - this refers to the Ohel Mo'ed (Tent of Meeting) and the Aron (Ark) that they carried in the wilderness. It does not literally mean the bed of King Solomon, for the subject here is the reality of our experience in the desert, and there is no reason to jump forward hundreds of years to King Solomon. Rather, it is spoken allegorically: "shelishlomo" refers to the One to Whom peace belongs, and the "bed" is the Ark carried in the wilderness, like a stretcher carrying the Luchot, a cradle or bed where the Shechinah rests. And so we find that the Kodesh HaKodashim (Holy of Holies) is called the "bedchamber", where Yoash was hidden until the age of seven to save him from Athaliah. Thus, the place where the Shechinah unites with Israel is called a bed.
"Sixty mighty men are around it" - this refers to the sixty myriads (six hundred thousand) encamped around the Ohel Mo'ed, meaning the entirety of Israel. "Of the mighty men of Israel" - those fit to go out to the army, excluding those under twenty and over sixty years of age. For the count of sixty myriads at the Exodus from Egypt was from age twenty to sixty, since in those days an exemption from military service was granted only at age sixty; in addition to them, there were the younger youths, the elderly, and the women.
כֻּלָּם אֲחֻזֵי חֶרֶב מְלֻמְּדֵי מִלְחָמָה אִישׁ חַרְבּוֹ עַל־יְרֵכוֹ מִפַּחַד בַּלֵּילוֹת׃ - "All of them handle the sword, trained in battle; each man with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night."
After describing the Ohel Mo'ed and the Ark carried in the desert, the verse continues: "Trained in battle" - this refers to the battle of Torah. Likewise, the Kohanim surrounding it, who encamped around the Mishkan, were well-versed and trained in the order of their service.
"Each man with his sword upon his thigh" - his sword represents his weaponry, and what is it? It is the textual tradition (Mesorah) and mnemonic devices (simanim) through which the text and tradition are preserved so that they are not forgotten. This is critically important, for if one does not recite the text accurately, distortions can arise: instead of "she shall be unclean two weeks (shevu'ayim) as in her menstruation," one might mistakenly read "seventy" (shiv'im), since it is written without a vav, and suggest that she remains impure for seventy days. "Because of fear in the night" - lest they forget it and tribulations befall them. That is to say, those weapons of war - the Mesorah and mnemonics - are meant to prevent the Torah from being forgotten, along with the tribulations that follow. As scripture says: "Pay homage in purity, lest He become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may flare up in a moment; praiseworthy are all who take refuge in Him" - if you stray and lose the way, His wrath will flare against you. So too here: if the Mesorah and mnemonics are forgotten, the correct reading and proper explanation of Torah teachings will be lost, and His wrath may flare in a moment; that is the fear in the night.
King Shlomo Made Himself a Palanquin
אַפִּרְיוֹן עָשָׂה לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה מֵעֲצֵי הַלְּבָנוֹן׃ - "King Shlomo made himself a palanquin of the trees of Lebanon."
Rashi explains: "A palanquin" (apiryon) - this refers to the Ohel Mo'ed established at Mishkan Shiloh. An apiryon is a canopy of sorts, a royal bridal canopy of honor. After entering the Land, the Mishkan was established in Shiloh, and this is the palanquin that the King to Whom peace belongs made for Himself from the trees of Lebanon.
עַמּוּדָיו עָשָׂה כֶסֶף רְפִידָתוֹ זָהָב מֶרְכָּבוֹ אַרְגָּמָן תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה מִבְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ - "He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple wool, its interior inlaid with love from the daughters of Jerusalem."
"Its base of gold" - His resting place and dwelling place upon the Kaporet (Ark-cover), which is gold. *Refidah* comes from the word for a cushioned or upholstered place upon which one rests, and the meaning is that the place of the Shechinah is upon the Kaporet. And as we mentioned, the Holy of Holies is called the bedchamber, the place of intimacy, as it were the place of union between the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah, where the Congregation of Israel unites with the Master of the Universe.
"Its seat of purple" - this is the Parochet (curtain) that hung and rode upon crossbeams from pillar to pillar. A rod was placed across, with a pillar on the right and a pillar on the left supporting it, and the Parochet hung from the crossbeam; therefore it is described as "riding" atop the pillars. "Its interior paved with love" - ordered with a paving of love: the Ark, the Kaporet, the Keruvim (cherubim), and the Tablets, all of which paved the Tent from within, as it were.
"From the daughters of Jerusalem" - these are Israel, who are *yere'im* (reverent) and *shelemim* (wholehearted) toward the Holy One, blessed be He. When referring to the nations of the world, it speaks of those who are on the outside; but here, speaking of the Jewish people, "the daughters of Jerusalem" is an allusion to *yarei* and *shaleim* - this is the composite meaning of the name Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). Indeed, Jerusalem is never written in the Bible with a final *yud* [as ירושלם], even though we read it that way. "Wholehearted with the Holy One, blessed be He" means that their heart is undivided with Him, in contrast to one who turns partly to idolatry, partly to vanity, and partly to the Master of the Universe. Here, their entire heart is wholehearted with Hashem, blessed be He, alone.
Go Forth and See, Daughters of Zion
צְאֶנָה וּרְאֶינָה בְּנוֹת צִיּוֹן בַּמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה בָּעֲטָרָה שֶׁעִטְּרָה־לּוֹ אִמּוֹ בְּיוֹם חֲתֻנָּתוֹ וּבְיוֹם שִׂמְחַת לִבּוֹ׃ - Go forth and see, daughters of Zion, King Solomon in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of the gladness of his heart.
Rashi: "Daughters of Zion (*Tziyon*)" - sons who are marked (*metzuyanim*) for Him with circumcision, tefillin, and tzitzit. *Tziyon* is from the word for a sign or marker, just as graves are marked with lime poured to indicate that a grave is there. And similarly, what we say in the Pesach Haggadah, "teaching that they were distinguished (*metzuyanim*) there" - the meaning is not that they were "excellent," but that they were distinctly marked: when one saw a person, one could tell he was a Jew, it was recognizable that he was a Jew, for they did not change their names or their clothing. Here too, "daughters of Zion" refers to children who bear a sign marking that they belong to Hashem, blessed be He: the circumcision that we all bear, the tefillin on the head of an Israelite, and the tzitzit on his garment - each of these is a sign that this person belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He.
"In the crown with which his mother crowned him" - the Tent of Meeting adorned with colors, sky-blue wool, purple wool, and crimson yarn; this is the crown with which the Tent of Meeting was crowned. But a difficulty arises: we are speaking of the Mishkan that we built for Hashem, and of the crown with which the Congregation of Israel crowned Him - are we then the mother of the Holy One, blessed be He? It would have been more fitting to say, "in the crown with which his daughter crowned him." Therefore, Rashi cites the Midrash.
Rabbi Nechunyah said: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai asked his teacher, Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Yose: "Is it possible you heard from your father what is meant by 'with which his mother crowned him'?" He replied: "A parable of a king who had an only daughter, and he loved her exceedingly. He did not cease cherishing her until he called her 'my daughter,' as it is said, 'Hear, daughter, and see' (Tehillim 45:11). He did not cease cherishing her until he called her 'my sister,' as it is said, 'Open to me, my sister, my love' (Shir HaShirim 5:2). He did not cease cherishing her until he called her 'my mother,' as it is said, 'Listen to Me, My people, and My nation (*ul'umi*), give ear to Me' (Yeshayahu 51:4) - where it is written *ul'imi* ('and to My mother')." Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai arose and kissed him on his head, thanking him for this wondrous exposition.
Let us explain: "He did not cease cherishing her until he called her 'my daughter'" - his affection was so great that he did not call her by her personal name, but "my daughter," an expression of endearment. "Until he called her 'my sister'" - and ostensibly, this seems like a decrease in level, for a person cherishes his daughter more than his sister, so it would have been more appropriate to say "my sister" first and then "my daughter." However, the distinction is not in affection but in authority: over his daughter he possesses authority; she is subordinate to him and receives instructions from him. With respect to his sister, however, there is a kind of equality. Therefore, when he called her "my sister," he elevated her to be an equal, as it were, and this is a higher level in our relationship with the Holy One, blessed be He.
Regarding the statement "where it is written *ul'imi*": in our Masorah, the word has a *vav* [ולאומי]. We have already noted that there are many rabbinic expositions based on a spelling that differs from our text; the Pele Yoetz cited examples, and Rabbi Akiva Eiger in his Gilyon HaShas enumerates twelve such examples from the Talmud. The explanation is either, as the Gemara states, that earlier generations were not as expert in defective and full spellings (*chaserot veyeteirot*), or that the exposition is based not on the written form but on how it sounds: the word *ul'umi* does not strictly require a *vav*, since it could be written *ul'imi/ul'umi* with a *kubutz* beneath the *alef*, and it would sound virtually identical. Since the *vav* is not indispensable to phonetics, it can be expounded homiletically as if it were not written. This is likewise found elsewhere, such as *pilegshim* (concubines) written *pilegsham* lacking a *yud*.
"Until he called her 'my mother'" - this is an even higher level: "my mother" means that you exercise authority over Me, as in the principle, "A tzaddik decrees and the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills." As it were, you guide Me like a mother, for through the deeds you perform down here below, you increase the divine bounty on high and effect unifications of the supernal attributes that draw bounty down to this world. Thus, the one who received dominion over all worlds, above and below, is the Jewish people; the Holy One, blessed be He, has placed all the keys into our hands, as it were, and that is the definition of "my mother."
"On the day of his wedding" - the day of the Giving of the Torah, when they crowned Him as their King and accepted His yoke. That is, even prior to the crown of the Mishkan, we crowned Him, made Him a crown upon our heads, and accepted the yoke of His kingship. "And on the day of the gladness of his heart" - this refers to the Eighth Day of the Inauguration (*Shemini Shel HaMilu'im*), when the Mishkan was dedicated in the wilderness.
To summarize: The chapter opens in the gloom of the thirty-eight years of rebuke, during which Knesset Yisrael sought and did not find, for "I will not go up in your midst." It continues with "I will arise now and seek" - the prayer of Moshe and the profound lesson that man's foremost virtue lies in being a seeker; moving through the question posed to Moshe and Aharon, "What have you found from His mouth?", and reaching the finding in the days of Yehoshua and the unyielding embrace that did not let go until the Mishkan of Shiloh. From there, the chapter turns to adjuring the nations not to incite or undermine our love for our Beloved, and to the nations' wonder, "Who is this coming up from the wilderness?" at the sight of the Clouds of Glory. Finally, Scripture describes the Ark and the Tent of Meeting as the bed of the One to Whom peace belongs, the six hundred thousand surrounding it, and their "sword" - the tradition and mnemonic signs that preserve the Torah from oblivion - and the palanquin, which is the Mishkan with all its vessels, whose interior is paved with love from the devout and wholehearted of Israel. Everything culminates with the crown with which His mother crowned Him: Knesset Yisrael, who ascended from the level of a daughter, to the level of a sister, and up to the level of a mother - into whose hands the Holy One, blessed be He, placed the keys of the worlds, on the day of the Giving of the Torah and on the day of the dedication of the Mishkan.