Chapter 4 of Shir HaShirim is a chapter of praise. The Beloved stands and praises His bride limb by limb, and in the allegory - the Holy One, blessed be He, stands and praises the Community of Israel. The chapter directly continues the conclusion of the previous chapter: there we spoke of "the day of his wedding and the day of his heart's gladness", referring to the eighth day of the inauguration of the Mishkan and the offerings brought before Hashem, "one silver dish weighing one hundred and thirty shekels", and this praise follows immediately upon that. It is important to bear in mind throughout the entire chapter the rule that Rashi reiterates: all of these praises are expressed "in the idiom of a woman's beauty", like the praise of a bride beloved to her groom, from which we derive the allegorical lesson regarding the Community of Israel.
הִנָּךְ יָפָה רַעְיָתִי הִנָּךְ יָפָה, עֵינַיִךְ יוֹנִים מִבַּעַד לְצַמָּתֵךְ, שַׂעְרֵךְ כְּעֵדֶר הָעִזִּים שֶׁגָּלְשׁוּ מֵהַר גִּלְעָד׃ - Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are like doves from behind your kerchief; your hair is like a flock of goats that stream down from Mount Gilead.
Rashi explains: "He praised them and was pleased with them, and their offerings were pleasing to Him." The Holy One, blessed be He, praises Israel and desires them, which means He willingly accepts their sacrifices. This is the direct continuation of that day of His heart's gladness: Hashem says, as it were - how beautiful was what you did then, My beloved, and how pleasing it was before Me.
Rashi immediately continues by anticipating a later matter (as noted by the Siftei Chachamim), citing "until the day cools" from verse 6: "until they sinned before Me in the days of Chofni and Pinchas." Rashi wishes to complete what he began: Hashem praised us, was pleased with us, and our offerings were pleasing to Him - until when? Until the day cools, until they sinned in the days of Chofni and Pinchas. They treated the Tent of Meeting, the Mishkan, with disrespect, turning it into a place of feasting and physical desire. In doing so, they caused tremendous harm: both in the Jewish people's attitude toward the sacrificial service, and regarding the laws of the offerings, as to when portions could be taken from the sacrifice. They caused a major spiritual decline, and from that time onward, the sacrifices were no longer pleasing before Him.
Now Rashi returns to explain the verse in its proper order. "Your eyes are like doves" - "your hues, your appearance, and your likeness are like this dove that clings to its mate, and when it is slaughtered it does not struggle but stretches out its neck; so too you turned your shoulder to bear My yoke and My awe." Note that "your eyes" here does not refer to the physical eye, but to appearance, as in "the appearance of crystal" (ein habedolach) - tone and appearance. In what way is the Community of Israel likened to a dove? In two qualities: first, that a dove clings faithfully to its mate. Second, while every other animal struggles at the time of slaughter, requiring that it be bound and restrained from moving, the dove stretches out its neck for slaughter. This is an expression of how the Community of Israel lent its shoulder to bear the yoke of Hashem and His awe, remaining willing to endure killings, slaughter, and persecutions throughout all the generations - "For Your sake we are killed all the day long."
"From behind your kerchief; your hair is like a flock of goats" - Rashi explains that this praise is patterned after the praise of a woman beloved to her groom: "From within your bindings, your hair is beautiful and glimmers with brightness and whiteness, like the hair of white goats descending from the mountains whose fleece shines from afar." The word "tzametech" refers to the head covering and bindings that women would place over their hair, a kind of kerchief tied in knots, through which the hair appears glistening from a distance.
And the parallel in the allegory: "From within your camps and dwellings, even the emptiest among you are as dear to Me as Jacob and his sons who streamed down from Mount Gilead when Laban overtook them there." That is, even those who are humble and hidden, unseen and of little account in the eyes of people, are also dear before Me like Jacob and his sons. Rashi cites an additional interpretation from Midrash Shir HaShirim: "Like those who mobilized for war against Midian on the other side of the Jordan, which is in the land of Gilead" - those seemingly empty individuals among you are as precious and significant before Me as those legions in the days of Moses, all of whom were righteous.
Rashi examines the nuance of the word "miba'ad": "It has the meaning of 'from within', for most occurrences of 'ba'ad' in Scripture denote a screen or barrier against something else." "And seals up the stars" (uve'ad kochavim yachtom) - the Holy One, blessed be He, acts as a screen and barrier against the stars. "The earth with its bars closed behind me" (ha'aretz beriḥeha va'adi) - the earth acts as a barrier before me. "Can He judge through the thick cloud?" (hav'ad arafel yishpot) - through the intervening cloud, does He judge? Thus, "miba'ad" refers to one who is situated inside that barrier and peers through it, just as we say: I am looking through the blinds, through the curtain. So too here: the hair is on the inside, peeking out from behind the kerchief.
"Tzametech" - "an expression for something that confines the hair so that it does not spread loosely outward, which refers to the hairnet and the bindings." The meaning is not a braid in the modern sense, but derives from the concept of constriction (tzimtzum): the net that women would place on their heads to restrain the hair so that it would not scatter.
Rashi adds: "And it is impossible to explain tsamatech as an expression of tzomet (a junction or knot), such that the tav would be part of the root of the word, for if so, it ought to have had a dagesh." The proof is simple: take the word Shabbat, where the tav is a root letter. When adding a hei for feminine or a vav for masculine, the tav takes a dagesh - "her festival, her new moon, and her Sabbath (ve-shabbatah)", "the burnt offering of Shabbat on its Sabbath (be-shabbato)", with a dageshed tav. If the root of the word were tzomet, we would have had to say tzamatteich with a dageshed tav. And since the tav is soft, it must inevitably take the place of a hei, and the root is tz-m-h. And how did the hei turn into a tav? In the standard grammatical manner of the language: shifchah (maidservant) becomes shifchatecha, shifchatah; amah becomes amato, amatah; ervah becomes ervato, ervatah. So too tzamah becomes tzamato, tzamatah, tzamati, tzamatech, and all of these with a soft tav.
"She-galshu" - not as people commonly understand, in the sense of sliding, but rather as Rashi explains: "that were made bare." The proof for this is that gibeach (bald on the front of the head) is translated in the Targum as gelosh, and gavachto (his bald forehead) as gleshuteih. The idea is: when a flock lies upon the mountain, the mountain appears hairy and covered with their wool, and when the animals descend from it, the mountain is left bare and stripped of them. This is the meaning of "that have descended from Mount Gilead" - the goats, as it were, made the mountain bare as they descended.
שִׁנַּיִךְ כְּעֵדֶר הַקְּצוּבוֹת שֶׁעָלוּ מִן הָרַחְצָה, שֶׁכֻּלָּם מַתְאִימוֹת וְשַׁכֻּלָה אֵין בָּהֶם׃ - Your teeth are like a flock of uniformly cut sheep coming up from the washing, all of which are matched, and none among them is missing.
"This praise as well is phrased in terms of a woman's beauty," Rashi emphasizes: "Your teeth are fine, white, and orderly in their arrangement, like the wool and order of a flock of ewes." Coarse teeth are not beautiful; therefore, the praise highlights their delicate fineness, whiteness, and even alignment. Here we have a source for something everyone seeks today - the whiteness of teeth as a mark of beauty.
And why specifically ewes? "Those selected from the rest of the flock in uniform count and measure, handed over to a wise and dependable shepherd to take care of their wool, for they are used to make fine woolen garments, and they are guarded from the time of their birth so that the wool does not become soiled, and they wash them daily." In their times, when they wanted to preserve wool to make fine garments - precious clothing - they would entrust the sheep to a wise shepherd so that he would not graze them among thorns or let them sit in filthy places, because if the wool became dirty, it would be extremely difficult to whiten. In the Gemara it is mentioned that they would even cover the sheep with a cloth, wrapping it up so that the wool would stay clean. They guarded them from birth, when the wool is at its whitest and cleanest, and washed them day after day so that permanent, indelible dirt would not set in.
"She-kulam mat'imot" (all of which are matched/complete) - "Related to metom, as in 'there is no soundness (metom) in my flesh', meaning wholeness." A metom is a sound, intact place; hence, "there is no soundness in my flesh" means that no part of me is intact, I am completely bruised. And mat'imot means they are all whole and complete. "Ve-shakulaha ein bahem" (and none among them is missing) - "There is no loss or defect among them," shikul with the letter chaf, denoting absence, as in "a bear bereaved (shakhol) of its cubs."
And the allegory: This simile was spoken in reference to the warriors of Israel, who cut down and devour their enemies all around with their teeth; yet they distance themselves from robbing fellow Jews and from illicit relations, so as not to become defiled by sin. Most especially, this praise was spoken of the twelve thousand men who mobilized against Midian - literally "in uniform count and measure." "She-kulam mat'imot" - not one of them was suspected of sexual impropriety, as it is written: "and not a man of us is missing," and they even brought an atonement offering for improper thoughts of the heart. Nor were they suspected of robbery, for the verse testifies concerning them: "And they took all the spoil... and brought it to Moshe and to Elazar the Kohen." Not one of them embezzled a single cow or a single donkey; rather, they brought all the spoil. Thus, there was no blemish or defect among them.
כְּחוּט הַשָּׁנִי שִׂפְתוֹתַיִךְ וּמִדְבָּרֵךְ נָאוֶה, כְּפֶלַח הָרִמּוֹן רַקָּתֵךְ מִבַּעַד לְצַמָּתֵךְ׃ - Your lips are like a crimson thread and your speech is lovely; your temple is like a slice of pomegranate behind your veil.
Rashi explains: "Your lips are pleasing to make a promise and keep their promise, just as the spies did with Rachav the innkeeper, telling her, 'this line of scarlet thread' etc., and they kept their promise." The lips are the expression of speech, and the praise is that this speech is faithful: you promised her that where the crimson thread hung, salvation would come to her family, and you fulfilled your word. That is why it is specifically "like a crimson thread" - a sign that your word is truth and you keep your promise.
"U-midbareich naveh" (and your speech is lovely) - some mistakenly read this as related to midbar (wilderness), but this is not so. "Midbareich" is an expression of speech (dibbur), from the same root as "who talk about you by the walls", "Then those who feared Hashem spoke (nidberu) to one another." That is to say, your speech is pleasant.
“Your temple is like a slice of pomegranate” - here too, the meaning is not what is commonly understood in modern speech. Rashi explains: “Your temple (rakatech) is the upper part of the face near the eyes, and in the language of the Gemara it is called romanei de’apei (cheekbones), and they resemble the outside of a half-slice of pomegranate, which is red and rounded.” The reference is to the prominence of the cheeks beneath the eyes, the contours beside the nose, which resemble the outer curve of a halved pomegranate - red and rounded (segalgal here means rounded, not the modern color purple), like women who apply blush to their cheeks. This is a praise of female beauty.
And the allegorical meaning: “Our Sages explained - the empty ones among you are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate.” And this too is “from behind your veil,” hidden inside your bindings: those who are inward, unseen and unrecognized, who do not appear to possess merits - they, too, are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate.
כְּמִגְדַּל דָּוִיד צַוָּארֵךְ בָּנוּי לְתַלְפִּיּוֹת, אֶלֶף הַמָּגֵן תָּלוּי עָלָיו כֹּל שִׁלְטֵי הַגִּבֹּרִים׃ - Your neck is like the tower of David, built with turrets; a thousand shields hang upon it, all the shields of the warriors.
Rashi comments: “An upright posture is a beauty in a woman.” We find in the Gemara that a woman who is short or stooped has a flaw in her beauty, whereas an upright posture is an ornament of beauty. “And the simile - like the tower of David, which is the stronghold of Zion, a place of strength, an elevated citadel and fortress, so is your neck: this refers to the Chamber of Hewn Stone (Lishkas HaGazis), which was the strength and fortress of Israel.” Ofel likewise denotes a fortified stronghold from which war is waged.
“Built letalpiyos” - “Built for beauty, that all may gaze upon it to learn its forms and the beauty of its design; and it derives from the same root as malfenu mibehemoth aretz (‘Who teaches us from the beasts of the earth’).” Malfenu means “He who teaches us,” as in the expressions a’alefcha chochmah (“I will teach you wisdom”) and a’alefcha binah (“I will teach you understanding”) (and in Arabic as well, the word for learning shares this root). As Chazal said: If the Torah had not been given, we would have learned not to steal from the ant, and modesty from the cat - that is the meaning of “Who teaches us from the beasts of the earth.” And if you ask why the word is talpiyos with a prefix tav rather than without it, Rashi explains: “And the tav in talpiyos is like the tav in tarmis (deceit) and tavnis (pattern)” - tavnis comes from the root of building with an added tav, tarmis comes from deceit with an added tav, and so it is here.
Thus, the neck represents the Sanhedrin, who stand, as it were, at the throat of the Beis HaMikdash, serving as the strength and fortress of Israel like the tower of David; and just as all look upon the tower to learn its beauty and the craftsmanship of its design, so all learn from the Sanhedrin the righteousness and justice of the laws they judge.
“A thousand shields hang upon it” - “Such was the custom of nobles, to hang their shields and quivers upon the walls of the towers.” They did not hang pictures upon the walls of the towers, but rather shields and shelatim. And what are shelatim? “Quivers in which arrows are placed,” as in the verse, “Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers (hashelatim)” for battle. “Corresponding to this is the Chamber of Hewn Stone, from where halachic ruling goes forth, for the Torah is a shield to Israel.”
“And it can also be said that elef hamagen means ‘the shield of the thousand,’ an allusion to ‘the word He commanded for a thousand generations.’” In a simple reading, we would understand this as a thousand shields, but Rashi explains: the shield of the thousand - that is, not a thousand shields, but the shield associated with the number one thousand. This refers to the Torah, which is associated with the thousand - not that He commanded a word for a thousand generations, but that the Torah was given in the thousandth generation. Thus, the Sanhedrin judge in accordance with the Torah, and the Torah is elef hamagen, the shield of Israel.
“All the shields of the warriors” - “We find that students are called by the name of arrows and quivers, as it is stated: ‘Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of youth; fortunate is the man who has filled his quiver with them.’” The days of youth are the time when a person fills his quiver with arrows - he should not squander his youthful years or waste them on pleasures and indulgences, but fill his quiver with them and remain attached to Hashem, blessed is He. And as is well known, the Torah a person learns in his youth is retained, like writing on clean paper, whereas one who learns in old age finds it difficult to remember and requires many reviews to retain it. What is engraved in a person in his youth remains with him forever. Fortunate are the disciples, the “shields of the warriors,” who already in their youth sit and immerse themselves in the study of Torah.
שְׁנֵי שָׁדַיִךְ כִּשְׁנֵי עֳפָרִים תְּאוֹמֵי צְבִיָּה, הָרוֹעִים בַּשּׁוֹשַׁנִּים׃ - Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies.
In the allegory, the two breasts that nurse you are Moshe and Aharon. The verse is also expounded as referring to the Two Tablets of the Law, which are "twins of a gazelle" - the five commandments on one tablet correspond directly to the five commandments on the second tablet. For example, one who steals will ultimately be made to take an oath and will stumble into swearing falsely; he may have had no intention of going that far, but in the end he deteriorates to perjury as well.
"Remember" corresponds to "Do not bear false witness" - for one who desecrates Shabbat bears false witness against his Creator, claiming that He did not rest on the Sabbath of Creation. After all, if there was no rest on the seventh day, there was no creation in six days, and he turns out to deny the work of Creation. It should be noted that in our times, reality has changed: many sin out of appetite and possess the status of a tinok shenishba (a captured child), having no intention to rebel against Hashem. A person might recite Kiddush and then drive out for a trip or a ballgame on Shabbat, seeing no contradiction whatsoever - it is simply a matter of upbringing. Therefore, he cannot be deemed a denier of the Creation, which carries halachic ramifications regarding joining a minyan and other matters discussed by the Poskim. Yet fundamentally, when one does not keep Shabbat, it is as if he declares that the Holy One, Blessed is He, did not rest on the seventh day, and if He did not rest - He did not create the world either.
"Honor" corresponds to "Do not covet" - for one who covets will ultimately father a son who disgraces him and honors one who is not his father. He coveted a woman who was not his wife and sinned with her, and she bore a son. The child is his biological son, but the husband does not know, the woman does not want him to know, and perhaps she herself does not know by whom she conceived. The boy grows up in the house, honoring one who is not his father, while his true father he might encounter in the marketplace, argue with him, and even curse him - since in his eyes, he is merely "that guy from the market." Thus the Tablets are "twins of a gazelle," aligned and corresponding to each other.
Rashi explains: "Who graze their flock among the lilies, guiding them along a comfortable and upright path." "Who graze" refers back to the two shepherds - Moshe and Aharon, who are the breasts that nurse Israel, and they pasture us among the lilies, in a pleasant, comfortable, and upright way.
Yet one must remember: among the lilies, there are also thorns. When Moshe and Aharon shepherded Israel, there was the well, the manna, and the Clouds of Glory, and everything was wondrous - but at the slightest deviation, they caught thorns: here "and the fire of Hashem burned among them," here twenty-four thousand perished, here complainers, here venomous serpents. And not for nothing is this compared to lilies: being in close proximity to God is tremendous bounty, but it is also exceedingly demanding. It requires constantly maintaining a high spiritual level, and any minor deviation immediately brings slaps. This was also why they grew weary of the manna - for the manna would expose their sins. The manna was a wondrous thing, but it is not pleasant to live with a camera constantly pointed at you: the slightest misstep, and the next day, go search for your manna in the mountains.
Rav Galinsky used to say regarding the verse, "He afflicted you and let you hunger, and fed you the manna": Seemingly, this is contradictory - if He fed them manna, how did He afflict them and make them hunger? Rather, this is what happened: A person sat yesterday between Minchah and Maariv with a friend and talked politics, speaking lashon hara about this one and that one. He woke up in the morning, looked for his portion of manna right by his entrance - and it was not there. He looked farther off, not there either, and realized he would have to wander after it in the mountains. He remembered: "Oy, yesterday I spoke lashon hara." He said to his wife, "Today is Shovavim, today we fast" - anything so she would not ask him what he did yesterday that caused his portion not to be next to the house. She asked, "What do you mean Shovavim? We are in Tishrei!" He replied, "They moved it earlier this year." Thus, "He afflicted you and let you hunger, and fed you the manna" - sometimes, to eat the manna, a person chose to fast, because he was embarrassed to go and search for his manna in public view where everyone would witness his shame. This is "grazing among the lilies": pleasant and lovely like a lily, but surrounded by a fence of thorns - deviate slightly, and you receive a scratch.
In this chapter, the Holy One, Blessed is He, praises the Congregation of Israel using the language of praise for a bride by her groom, where each limb corresponds to praise in the allegory: "Your eyes are doves" - devotion to one's spouse and readiness for self-sacrifice; the hair behind the veil - that even the simple and hidden among Israel are precious before Him, like Yaakov and his sons and the army that went against Midian; the teeth like a flock of evenly shorn sheep - the heroes of Israel who guarded themselves against theft and illicit relations, "and not a man of us was missing"; the crimson thread - fidelity in speech and keeping promises; the split pomegranate - that even the emptiest among you are filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate; the Tower of David - the Chamber of Hewn Stone and the Sanhedrin, for whom Torah serves as a shield for them and for Israel, and Torah scholars who are the arrows of the mighty; and the two breasts - Moshe and Aharon and the Two Tablets that correspond to each other. Finally, "who graze among the lilies" - gentle and upright leadership, provided we remember that closeness to God also demands that we live up to it.
All this continues "until the day cools" - until they sinned in the days of Chofni and Pinchas, when the offerings ceased to find favor before Him. From this we learn how much this great praise depends upon our deeds, and how beloved before the Omnipresent are even the simple and hidden among the people, who are likewise filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate.