Introduction: Between Knocking and Locking
The chapter before us continues the dramatic scene of the Beloved knocking at the door and the Maiden hesitating. In the section before us, we arrive at the breaking point: the Maiden finally rises to open, but the Beloved has already vanished. From here begins a desperate search, blows from the watchmen, an oath made to the daughters of Jerusalem, and finally a magnificent description of the Beloved and His virtues. Rashi, in his customary way, first explains the literal parable, and then turns to the nimshal - the relationship between the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Congregation of Israel through the generations of the kings and the destruction.
Verse 6: "My Beloved Had Slipped Away and Passed By"
פָּתַחְתִּי אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי חָמַק עָבָר נַפְשִׁי יָצְאָה בְדַבְּרוֹ בִּקַּשְׁתִּיהוּ וְלֹא מְצָאתִיהוּ קְרָאתִיו וְלֹא עָנָנִי׃ - I opened for my Beloved, but my Beloved had slipped away and passed by; my soul departed at His speaking; I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He did not answer me.
"My Beloved had slipped away and passed by" - He became hidden and concealed from me. Rashi brings a surprising explanation for the word chamak: it is like "the curves of your thighs" (chamukei yerechayich), meaning the hidden parts of your thighs, because the thigh is in a concealed place. Likewise, "How long will you turn away (titchamakin)" in Yirmiyahu, said of the wayward daughter, means "will you hide and conceal yourself out of shame for betraying Me." In other words, the root of chamikah denotes something that slips away from you - something you cannot see, that is hidden from you.
"My soul departed at His speaking" - when He said to me: I will not enter your house, since initially you were unwilling to open. And when Hashem spoke this word, my soul departed out of sheer yearning and longing for His closeness. And from then on: "I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He did not answer me."
Verse 7: The Watchmen Patrolling the City
מְצָאֻנִי הַשֹּׁמְרִים הַסֹּבְבִים בָּעִיר הִכּוּנִי פְצָעוּנִי נָשְׂאוּ אֶת רְדִידִי מֵעָלַי שֹׁמְרֵי הַחֹמוֹת׃ - The watchmen who patrol the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls stripped my veil from me.
"The watchmen who patrol the city" - these are the city guards who catch thieves roaming at night. That used to be the police's job: to catch thieves. Apparently, that has been somewhat forgotten. Once there was a story in Bnei Brak where someone tried to call the police because an Arab was acting violently, and no one showed up. Someone then called and said: There is an Arab here, and Haredim are beating him - and within four minutes, five patrol cars arrived. An Arab running amok is uninteresting; the police have more pressing matters.
"They struck me, they wounded me" - they inflicted a bruise upon me. Rashi notes precisely: a petza (wound) refers specifically to a blow from a weapon. It does not refer to an illness, as people might use the term today, but to a blow inflicted by a sword. "They stripped my veil (redidi) from me" - my hammered and flattened jewelry. Jewelry would be beaten thin and flattened (merudad), and designs and figures would be engraved upon it. And the entire wording of this passage is the voice of a young bride lamenting the absence of the husband of her youth and searching for him. This concludes the literal mashal: the Maiden goes out searching - where is the Beloved? Where did He disappear? My husband was knocking earlier, and now I am searching for Him.
The Nimshal: From Achaz to Yoshiyahu
From here, Rashi turns to the allegory, the nimshal. "My Beloved thrust His hand through the opening" - when I said, "I have washed my feet" and will not open for You, nor repent from the idolatry I have chosen, the Holy One, blessed be He, stretched forth His hand and displayed His retribution in the days of Achaz: He brought against him the army of the king of Aram, who struck him and took a great captivity from him; and Pekach son of Remalyahu slaughtered one hundred and twenty thousand in Yehudah in a single day. Try to fathom that number. At Nova, roughly twelve hundred were killed, and here we are talking about a hundred times that - one hundred and twenty thousand in one day. That was the Holy One, blessed be He, thrusting forth His hand: sending His retribution to awaken us.
"And my innards stirred for him" - to seek Him. When did this take place? In the days of Chizkiyahu (Hezekiah) the son of Achaz, who returned with all his heart to seek the Holy One, blessed be He, and his entire generation were wholehearted. There never arose a generation in Israel like them, as the Gemara explains in Perek Chelek, that they searched from Dan to Be'er Sheva and did not find an am ha'aretz (an unlearned person). And this is the meaning of "and my hands dripped with myrrh." The people of that generation repented and drew close to Hashem following the immense blow that had struck the previous generation under Achaz. Likewise, concerning Yoshiyahu (Josiah), Scripture states: "And like him there was no king before him," because he saw the calamity that befell Menasheh and Amon who preceded him - fulfilling "He sent his hand through the hole, and my innards stirred for him." He saw the retribution, and that led him to repent.
Teshuvah That Came Too Late: The Decree Was Not Annulled
"I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and gone" - He did not annul His decree. Even though Chizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu were upright and worthy, Hashem did not cancel the decree. Concerning Chizkiyahu it is said: "Behold, days are coming when everything in your house will be carried away... and of your sons whom you will beget" - these are Daniel, Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, who were taken to the palace of the king of Babylon. And concerning Yoshiyahu, the prophecy was spoken by Chuldah the Prophetess: "Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants." And Scripture says: "And like him there was no king before him... yet Hashem did not turn back from the fury of His great anger, which burned against Yehudah because of all the provocations with which Menasheh had provoked Him. And Hashem said, 'Yehudah also will I remove from My presence, as I removed Israel, and I will reject this city.'"
We see here that the measure was filled to overflowing to such an extent that the suffering could only be mitigated, not completely averted. We have mentioned this several times: teshuvah has an expiration date. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not promise that He will wait forever; He grants a window of opportunity, and if one does not seize it, he loses it entirely. Here they did seize it, but late; therefore, it brought somewhat less suffering, but it did not alter or annul the decree.
Menasheh: A Partial Teshuvah
Another example of this is Menasheh. We already discussed this when studying Sefer Melachim: although it is recorded that Menasheh returned to Hashem with all his heart, the decree nevertheless remained. Why? Because Menasheh repented from idolatry, but he did not repent from the murders he committed - for he filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end; who can even grasp such a horrifying expression? And from this he did not repent. Therefore, the Malbim explains that his teshuvah was only partially effective: it served to restore him to Jerusalem, but not to annul the decree. That is why, even after his repentance, Scripture says, "because of all the provocations with which Menasheh had provoked Him" - referring to the murders, for which he never repented.
And if you ask: How can one do teshuvah for murder? The answer is according to the Halachah: regret, confession, resolution for the future, and abandoning the sin. There are no alternative laws of teshuvah. The question of what uproots the sin on High is a different matter. There are two dimensions to a sin: first, I angered Hashem; second, I caused damage in the Upper Worlds. When we say that "teshuvah cleanses," it means that the Holy One, blessed be He, pardons and forgives the defiance against His word. But the spiritual ruin wrought by one's actions still requires repair; this is the purpose of the fasts and tikkunim prescribed by the holy Arizal. And even though Chazal teach that a person does not move from his place before he is forgiven - he is forgiven for rebelling against Hashem, but the damage he caused has already been done. As in the parable we once mentioned: a person burned down your car, and two days later he comes, filled with remorse, and begs for forgiveness, and you tell him you forgive him. Did the car come back to life? Did the insurance bring it back? It is exactly the same thing.
"My Soul Departed When He Spoke" - and the Prophecy of Yirmiyahu
"My soul departed when he spoke" - it left me when He spoke this word. That is, according to Rashi's explanation here, it was as if I lost my soul upon hearing this terrible decree. "I sought him, but I did not find him." And if you ask: Did not Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) stand and prophesy in the days of Yehoyakim and Tzidkiyahu, "Return to Me and I will return to you"? How, then, can it say, "I sought him, but I did not find him," and that the decree remained? Rashi explains: it was not to cancel the decree, but to mitigate the calamity and to prepare their sovereignty upon their return from exile, to plant them without uprooting and to build them without destruction. That is, two things: first, that the suffering would be less severe; and second, that when they return from the exile, Hashem would establish their kingdom, planting them never to be uprooted and building them never to be torn down.
And this refers to the Second Temple, which, as the Malbim famously writes, was built as a probationary period. Had we passed the test successfully, the Third Temple would have descended built of fire, and the ultimate Redemption would have arrived. But since during the Second Temple era we failed the test - "The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and we are not saved."
The Allegory of the Watchmen: Nevuchadnetzar and the Ministering Angels
"The watchmen who patrol the city found me" - these are Nevuchadnetzar and his legions, who came to strike us. Rashi raises a difficulty: Why are they called "patrolling the city," when earlier we saw that the watchmen guard the city? He answers: these watchmen patrol the city in order to execute the vengeance of the Omnipresent. "They took away my veil" - this is the Beit HaMikdash, which is the veil that covers and shields me, my crowning adornment. "The keepers of the walls" - even the ministering angels who guarded its walls, as it is said, "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen," ignited the fire in it, as it is said, "From on high He sent fire." The Holy One, blessed be He, sent fire from on high through the angels, and they set the Beit HaMikdash ablaze.
Rav Shalom Schwadron's Derashah: The Pajamas and the Shower
אֲנִי יְשֵׁנָה וְלִבִּי עֵר קוֹל דּוֹדִי דוֹפֵק פִּתְחִי לִי אֲחֹתִי רַעְיָתִי יוֹנָתִי תַמָּתִי שֶׁרֹּאשִׁי נִמְלָא טָל קְוֻצּוֹתַי רְסִיסֵי לָיְלָה׃ - I sleep, but my heart is awake; the sound of my Beloved knocks: "Open for Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled one, for My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night."
These verses are ones about which the darshanim made quite a stir. Rav Shalom Schwadron had a whole derashah on them: "The sound of my Beloved knocks" - Elul, Elul, Elul, wake up! But a person is still asleep, still in bein hazmanim. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Open for Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled one," and we reply: Master of the Universe, "I have taken off my coat, how shall I put it on?" - I have already put on my pajamas. "I have washed my feet" - I have already taken a shower, I have already washed, and to get out of bed now? It is a bit cold, "how shall I soil them?"
And then, "My Beloved put forth His hand from the opening, and my heart yearned for Him; I rose up to open to my Beloved" - and immediately, "but my Beloved had slipped away and was gone." And he asks: If I already got up to open to my Beloved, why did He slip away and leave? After all, there is seemingly a process of repentance here, and in a process of repentance, the door ought to be opened! As for the question itself, we have already answered with the words of Rashi, but he finds the emphasis in a single word: "I rose up," "I opened." That is, we approached it with the attitude of "I am the doer, I am the one fulfilling it, this comes from my own power, this was accomplished, as it were, by me." Missing here is the humility of knowing that everything is by the power of the Omnipresent - for He is the One who aroused me, He is the One who knocked at my door, He is the One who waited. And since "I rose up" and I take the credit for myself, in such a state, "my Beloved had slipped away and was gone; my soul failed when He spoke; I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer."
It was not my initiative at all. To what may this be compared? A gun is held to someone's temple, and after it is pointed at him he says, "Fine, fine," and afterward he goes around telling people: "I came!" What do you mean you came? Without that gun, you would not be here at all. He even takes the credit for himself - you did not come on your own, you did not want to; you were brought by force.
Verse 8: I Adjure You, O Daughters of Jerusalem
הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם אִם תִּמְצְאוּ אֶת דּוֹדִי מַה תַּגִּידוּ לוֹ שֶׁחוֹלַת אַהֲבָה אָנִי׃ - I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, what will you tell Him? That I am lovesick.
It is good that there are songs - thanks to them people also remember verses. The "daughters of Jerusalem" here are the nations, the men of Nebuchadnezzar, who saw Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah give themselves over to the fiery furnace, and Daniel to the lions' den over the matter of prayer, and the generation of Mordechai in the days of Haman. I adjure you: If you find my Beloved in the future to come, for the Day of Judgment, when you are asked to testify about me - as it is said, "Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified" (Yeshayahu 43:9). And so Chazal expounded: Who will testify on our behalf that we were righteous? Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, and all those who afflicted us while we remained attached to Hashem - they will bring their witnesses and be justified; they will come and testify how much they tried to make us abandon our faith and did not succeed. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to Nebuchadnezzar and to all the wicked: Prepare yourselves, you will yet have to come and give character testimony on behalf of the Jewish people.
"What will you tell Him?" - testify about me that for the sake of His love I grew sick with harsh afflictions among you. Nebuchadnezzar will come and testify; Eliphaz, Tzophar, and all the prophets of the nations of the world will come and testify about me that I kept the Torah. Therefore I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem - those who dwell around Jerusalem.
And by the way, even the thoughts of repentance that flicker within us at every moment - they are from Him, blessed be He, from that heavenly voice that goes forth from Mount Chorev and proclaims, "Return, wayward children." The Baal Shem Tov asked: What purpose does a heavenly voice at Mount Chorev serve, seeing that we are far from there, and who hears it? Rather, these are the thoughts of repentance that flicker in every heart and every day. If anything happened here - it is from Him, blessed be He. And had we come with humility and said, "Hashem aroused me to open to my Beloved," it might have been accepted.
Verse 9: What Is Your Beloved More Than Another Beloved
מַה דּוֹדֵךְ מִדּוֹד הַיָּפָה בַּנָּשִׁים מַה דּוֹדֵךְ מִדּוֹד שֶׁכָּכָה הִשְׁבַּעְתָּנוּ׃ - What is your Beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your Beloved more than another beloved, that you have adjured us so?
This is how the nations would ask the Jewish people: What is your God above all other gods, that you are burned and crucified for Him in this way? How is He different from all other deities? Every nation, as it were, has its own god, its own "beloved" - so how is your beloved different from any other beloved? "That you have so adjured us" - why do you adjure us like this to testify to him of your love? What makes your beloved so special that you give your lives for him?
Verses 10 - 16: The Description of the Beloved According to the Peshat
דּוֹדִי צַח וְאָדוֹם דָּגוּל מֵרְבָבָה׃ - My beloved is clear and ruddy, preeminent among ten thousand.
Here begins the response - a complete description of the reasons for our love of the Beloved. Rashi prefaces by stating his approach: I will first explain the entire matter according to its literal meaning, as praise for the handsome appearance of a young man who is fair with a ruddy complexion, and afterward I will turn to the explanation of the allegory. For Shir HaShirim is an allegory, and therefore we must first clarify how the youth's beauty is praised here. "Clear and ruddy" - fair-skinned, as in "dazzling and milky," with a ruddy face. "Preeminent among ten thousand [dagul merevavah]" - surrounded by many military divisions bearing banners (degel), for in those days soldiers would surround the king with their standards. "Ten thousand [revavah]" here does not mean merely ten thousand, but rather many tens of thousands are referred to as a revavah, as it says, "I made you as numerous as the growth of the field [revavah ketzemach hasadeh netatich]."
רֹאשׁוֹ כֶּתֶם פָּז קְוֻצּוֹתָיו תַּלְתַּלִּים שְׁחֹרוֹת כָּעוֹרֵב׃ - His head is the finest gold, his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
"His head is the finest gold [ketem paz]" - his head shines like pure gold. And what is ketem? An expression for royal treasures kept in treasuries, a type of precious ornament. Similarly, "how is the fine gold [hachetem hatov] changed," and "if I made fine gold [lachetem] my trust" - meaning that I relied on my wealth, and "an ornament of fine gold [vachali chetem]" - the jewel I possessed. "His locks are wavy [taltallim]" - from the root meaning hanging (pendeloques in Old French): the strands of hair are clustered and hang down, which is what we call curls or wavy locks today. "Black as a raven" - all of these are marks of beauty in a young man. In those days there were no blondes or light-brown hair types, and black hair was considered a sign of youthful vigor and beauty, for when a person begins to age, his hair turns white.
עֵינָיו כְּיוֹנִים עַל אֲפִיקֵי מָיִם רֹחֲצוֹת בֶּחָלָב יֹשְׁבוֹת עַל מִלֵּאת׃ - His eyes are like doves beside water brooks, bathed in milk, nestled in their fullness.
"His eyes are like doves beside water brooks" - his eyes beside the water brooks are as beautiful as doves. Water brooks are pleasant to behold, and young men go out there to row and swim; thus the poet praises: the eyes of my beloved when he gazes upon the streams of water resemble the beauty of doves. Now we must understand: wherein lies this praise? Apparently, beside the water brooks his eyes gleam more brightly and look more striking, or the overall beauty of the setting enhances the beauty of his eyes, so that they appear like doves.
"Bathed in milk" - here he praises the whites of his eyes, which are pure white and radiant like milk. "Nestled in their fullness [yoshevot al milet]" - this too is an expression of beauty: the eyes do not bulge out excessively nor are they sunken, but rather sit perfectly in their sockets, the eye fitting the socket precisely. "Milet" means sitting in its setting, the place designed to be filled by the eye, just as precious stones are set in their mountings: a sunken receptacle is made and the gemstone is placed inside. This is the expression for anything made to fill a hollow setting crafted to house it, as in "stones of setting [avnei milu'im]" and "the setting of a stone [mil'at even]."
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 like roses, dripping flowing myrrh.
"His cheeks are like a bed of spices" - and Rashi notes precisely that "banks of sweet herbs [migdelot merkachim]" is not a separate description, but rather a continuation of the metaphor: his cheeks are like a bed of spices in which there are aromatic plants grown for perfumes. "Merkachim" refers to various aromatic compounds and spices that are customarily blended - mixed, ground, and sometimes cooked - creating a fragrant confection that exudes a sweet scent. "Migdelot merkachim" - places where these species of spices are grown and compounded by the perfumer's art, that is, the process of producing perfume.
יָדָיו גְּלִילֵי זָהָב מְמֻלָּאִים בַּתַּרְשִׁישׁ מֵעָיו עֶשֶׁת שֵׁן מְעֻלֶּפֶת סַפִּירִים׃ - His hands are rods of gold set with beryl; his body is polished ivory overlaid with sapphires.
"His hands are rods of gold" - like cylinders of gold, like wheels of gold. "Set with beryl [tarshish]" - any setting of a precious gem in gold is called milat, as in milat even (the setting of a stone). When setting a precious stone, such as a diamond placed with its point downward, or rectangular stones whose lower part is recessed, a bezel setting (milu'ah) is made for it - a sunken groove where the stone is embedded, so that it does not protrude above the jewelry but sits flush with it.
"His belly is a tablet of ivory" - eshet is a term for a solid block, as in the phrase "they grew fat, they grew sleek [ashtu]," and a dense mass is called an eshet (massisse in Old French). We also find that they beat a solid ingot of gold (eshet zahav) to fashion the Menorah: they take a block of gold and sculpt from it. "Ivory [shen]" - from elephant bone, meaning ivory. "Encrusted with sapphires [me'ulefet sapirim]" - adorned and embellished with sapphires, which are a type of precious stone. The word iluf here is like va-tit'alef, which Targum renders as "and she adorned herself" (ve-itkanat), a term of beautification and adornment. It is unrelated to taming or fainting; it means ornamented.
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."
"His legs are pillars of marble [shesh]" - pillars of marble (shayish), and its parallel appears in Megillat Esther: "on silver rods and pillars of marble." "Set upon sockets of fine gold" - pillars have sockets below, which serve as the foundation of the pillar, just as we saw in the Mishkan; and here the sockets are made of gold, depicting the beauty and splendor of the craftsmanship. "His appearance is like Lebanon" - his stature is tall like the cedars of Lebanon. "Choice as the cedars" - chosen from among all the youths, just as the cedar is the choicest among trees.
חִכּוֹ מַמְתַקִּים וְכֻלּוֹ מַחֲמַדִּים זֶה דוֹדִי וְזֶה רֵעִי בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ - "His mouth is sweet, and he is altogether delightful; this is my beloved and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem."
"His mouth is sweet" - his words are pleasant, for the palate articulates speech. "This is my beloved and this is my friend" - this is the character of my beloved and this is the character of my friend, and because of all these I am lovesick for him. That is, I am describing what my beloved and friend is like, and because these are his virtues, I am sick with love for him and yearn so deeply to return to his closeness.
From Here to the Allegorical Meaning
Up to this point, Rashi explained all the virtues of the beloved on the level of peshat (the literal meaning): what the golden cylinders are, what beryl is, what his belly signifies, what ivory (shen, elephant bone) is, and how to understand the praise "tall as the cedars." From here on, Rashi, in his characteristic approach, brings these matters to the nimshal (the allegorical meaning), which is the love of the maiden for her beloved - Knesses Yisrael for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He calls this the dugma (the allegorical parallel): "And the parallel regarding HaKadosh Baruch Hu is as follows." In terms of the literal parable (mashal), we have concluded the chapter; from here we proceed to see how all these descriptions reflect the love between Israel and HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
In Summary:
In this section of the chapter, we saw the moment when the maiden rose to open, but the beloved had already slipped away and vanished. In the nimshal: HaKadosh Baruch Hu reached out His hand in the days of Achaz to awaken them, and Chizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu and their generations indeed repented; yet the decree was no longer annulled, only mitigated - for repentance has an expiration date, and once the measure of sin is full, all that remains is to lessen the suffering and prepare for the return from exile. From this we also learned about the partial repentance of Menasheh, and the distinction between forgiveness for provoking Hashem's anger and rectifying the damage that was done. We cited the homily of Rav Shalom Schwadron on "I rose" - that the downfall lies in taking credit for ourselves, whereas all awakening and all thoughts of repentance come from Him, blessed be He, as in the teaching of the Ba'al Shem Tov regarding the Heavenly voice from Mount Chorev. Finally, we examined the maiden's adjuration to the nations to testify on her behalf in the future, and their question, "What is your beloved more than another beloved?", to which Knesses Yisrael responds with a glorious depiction of the Beloved - a description that Rashi first explained according to its literal meaning, and from here on will explain as an allegory for the relationship between HaKadosh Baruch Hu and His people.