If only you could be like my brother: The Glory responded: “If you desire and yearn for me to join myself to you, ‘so will all of my desire be directed towards you’ [Ps. 38:10], that you might be a brother to me and that I might not be separated from you.”

As if you had nursed at my mother’s breast: You would receive your nurturance from the place of my suckling, that is the spirit of the living God.²⁰¹ as ruah hayyim.

footnotes: ²⁰¹ Most likely ḥokhmah

When I met you in the street: When I find you during the period of exile, all of my desire and will is that you be with them in their suffering.

Then I could kiss you: You would adhere to me.

I would lead you: I would raise you to my Holy of Holies [dvir ha-kodesh] and to my sanctuary. That is to the house of my mother, who taught me. The soul can not reveal its activities without the body and the body possesses no capacity for action without the soul. So too the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals His awesome deeds and signs by means of His attributes.

I would let you drink … : This is a parable referring to the provision of the transcendent light from which the parents and children²⁰² and Israel below. are blessed together.

footnotes: ²⁰² The sefirot

The language is in third person, referring to the Glory, who doesn’t descend but rather ascends.

I adjure you … : These are the words of the shekhinah during the time of exile, adjuring Israel not to force the coming of the End and not to arouse love until the time of favor arises. The verse does not stipulate either by the gazelles or hinds of the field [Cant. 2:7], for the shekhinah is not in her place.

Who is she who comes up from the desert?: This is the tenth of the ten journeys which the shekhinah undertook. As our Sages said: “The shekhinah undertook ten journeys when she departed the Temple: from the altar cover to the cherub, from the cherub to the threshold of the Temple, from the threshold to the court, from the court to the altar, from the altar to the Temple roof, from the roof to the wall, from the wall to the city, from the city to the mountain, from the mountain to the wilderness. From the wilderness she ascended and dwelt within her place as it is written: ‘I will go and return to my place’ [Hosea 5:15].”²⁰³

footnotes: ²⁰³ Rosh ha-Shanah 31a.

Yearning for her beloved: Yearning for and bemoaning her beloved’s separation from her.

As for the text’s statement, under the apple tree I roused you, this parable refers to the Cherub of the Left Side, that is the locus of the beginning of form. The usage “roused you” alludes to the intimacy and the awakening of love during the time when Israel are present in their land, performing the will of the Omnipresent, as our Sages said: “One verse states: ‘Their faces were directed towards each other’ [Exod. 25:20]. The other verse stipulates: ‘they were standing up facing the House’ [II Chron. 3:13]. There is no contradiction here. Their countenances face each other when Israel are performing God’s will. Their faces are directed towards the House when Israel are not performing God’s will.”²⁰⁴

footnotes: ²⁰⁴ Baba Batra 99a.

It is there your mother conceived you: The spirit of the living God.

There she who bore you conceived you: The spiritual entities [i.e., the sefirot]. Given that we had been intimate and had aroused love, having been emanated from a single place, she said:

Place me like a seal: When we separate during the time of exile, place me like that well known seal.

Like the seal upon your arm: Which corresponds to the heart, as our Sages said: “Whence do we know that the Holy One, blessed be He wears phylacteries?”²⁰⁵ 6a.

footnotes: ²⁰⁵ In Berakhot

If a man offered all of his wealth for love: All of his heart, soul, and might.

For love: To adhere to the shekhinah.

He would be laughed to scorn: They will publicly offer him splendor and majesty,²⁰⁶ is interpreted to mean “loot” or “bounty” rather than “scorn.” his head lifted in honor, and he will ascend to the highest level to be favored and accounted among those who receive the countenance of the divine Presence.

footnotes: ²⁰⁶ The word buz

We have a little sister: The parable refers to Israel in exile, despised and degraded.

Whose breasts are not yet formed: They have no place to nurse since they have left the land of life and are separated from the place of Torah. As it is written: “Torah shall go forth from Zion, God’s word from Jerusalem” [Isa. 2:3]. Concerning the exile it is said: “For many days Israel will be bereft of the God of truth and Torah” [II Chron. 15:2].

What shall we do for our sister when she is spoken for?: What shall we do for them? How shall we sustain them? How to provide them with a future, with hope in their exile?

If she be a wall, we build upon it a silver battlement: If she stands up to her enemies who entice her to deny her faith, we will build upon it a silver battlement: The parable indicates that no mortal will overcome them.

If she be a door: Which is easily opened, they similarly might be easily seduced, then even if we will panel [natzor] it in cedar, in accord with: “build a siege-work [matzor], the enemy will fight them and overcome them” [Deut. 20:20].

The Community of Israel answers, I am a wall and my breasts are like towers: She takes pride that she will be like a fortified wall, holding firmly to her faith in the two Torahs, written and oral, which are an individual’s vitality, just as the breasts provide vitality to the infant.

“Then,” she says, “I will appear in God’s eyes like one who finds favor.”

Solomon had a vineyard: To Him who is the possessor of peace, Israel is designated as His vineyard, as it says: “For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel” [Isa. 5:7] and “I the Lord keep watch over it” [Isa. 27:3].

In Baal-hamon: The parable refers to the people, great, splendorous, and numerous. But as a result of her sin, God gave her to the nations of the world.

A man would give for its fruit: They put both the bodies and material resources of Israel to hard labor.

A thousand pieces of silver: An allusion to the days of exile, the text not paying precise attention to those few years of our exile which extend beyond one thousand.²⁰⁷

footnotes: ²⁰⁷ The sixth millennium, thought by many to be the end of exile, began in 1240, shortly before the completion of this commentary.

I have my very own vineyard: I will bring them forth from exile and they will be under My supervision as in the beginning.

You may have the thousand, O Solomon!: Solomon here possesses a secular meaning, referring to the House of David. What is intimated here is that the days of the Messiah will last a thousand years, this being the sixth millennium of the world’s existence, which will extend for six thousand years.

Two hundred years out of this millennium belong to those who guard its fruit: to those meriting the reward of the study of Torah and the observance of its commandments who had died previously and had yearned for the coming of the Messianic consummation and the resurrection of the dead. That is to say that the resurrection of the dead will occur two hundred years after the redemption. Thus in the sixth millennium, two hundred years before the resurrection of the dead, redemption and salvation will be revealed.

Thus it states who lingers in the gardens: This is the shekhinah who is of the Central Column.

A lover is listening…: This is Israel who listen for your voice to gather their exiles, when you shall go forth before them as in the past. It is known that the ten tribes were exiled forty years before Judah and Benjamin. These underwent exile in three waves, as it is written: “for the first time brought abasement to the land of Naphtali and Zebulun while the later time was severe” [Isa. 8:23]. This is clarified in Seder ‘Olam, based on the verses. Judah and Benjamin also underwent exile in three waves, as it is written: “You walked in your sister’s path; therefore I will place her cup in your hands” [Ezek. 23:31]. And so it is clearly explicated in the verse.

Those who first went forth into exile will be the first to return. Some time later, the children of Judah will return. So Isaiah prophesied when he said: “In that day my Lord will apply His hand a second time to redeem the other part of His people from Assyria—as also from Egypt, Pathos, Nubia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands” [Isa. 11:11]. The verse specifies “a second time,” for the redemption of the ten tribes will come first. And thus “the other part of His people” who will have remained in Assyria. In the following verse Isaiah lists the two exiles and makes mention of the two acts of redemption, referring to each and every one with its proper name. He says: “He will hold up a signal to the nations and assemble the banished of Israel; and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” [Isa. 11:12]. He refers to the ten tribes as the “banished of Israel” as they dwell together but are banished from their land. The exile of Judah is designated as a dispersion, “and he will gather the dispersed of Judah.” The house of Israel will anoint a Messiah called Messiah ben Joseph; he will conquer lands and kingdoms and go to Jerusalem and rebuild it, as it is written: “The Lord builds Jerusalem, He gathers in the dispersed of Israel” [Ps. 147:2]. But he will die in battle. Of him it states: “In that day, the wailing in Jerusalem shall be great” [Zach. 12:11] and “they shall lament to Me about those who are slain” [Zach. 12:10]. Afterwards, the dispersed and scattered among the nations shall come and appoint a single leader, the Messiah, son of David, who was with them in exile. They will come to the Land of Israel with the permission of the kings of the nations and with their assistance. As it is written: “And out of all of the nations, said the Lord, they shall bring all your brothers on horses, in chariots and drays, on mules and dromedaries to Jerusalem, My holy mountain, as an offering to the Lord” [Isa. 66:20]. This kingdom will continue and never end. This is the meaning of “Thus declares the Lord God, Who gathers the banished of Israel” [Isa. 56:8]: these are the ten tribes. “I will gather still more to those already gathered” [ibid.]: I add yet another gathering to the first, the dispersed of Judah. This is the meaning of “The Lord your God will restore your exile and have mercy upon you. He will return and gather you from among all the nations among whom He scattered you” [Deut. 30:3]. It is possible that there may be a substantial period of time between these two ingatherings. Afterwards they might yet have to be as herdsmen in the wilderness of the nations, in order to separate out and purify the wicked among Israel, and to smelt them just as silver is smelt in the refining furnace, as happened during the Exodus from Egypt….²⁰⁸

footnotes: ²⁰⁸ An eschatological discussion of Zech. 9:9 etc. has been ellipted.

By means of the holy spirit he looked forward and prophesied concerning the seventh millennium, the day that is entirely Sabbath and rest, for life eternal. Souls will be bound up in the bond of life and they will be a throne for the Lord. Then the river which is the life and existence of the world, flowing forth from the Eden of Wisdom, will cease its flow. This is the meaning of Flee, my beloved: pointing to the rising of the Glory, its ascent into the upper light.

And be like a deer on the mountain of spices: That is a place containing all beings, filled up with all bodies, wondrous in counsel, entering all those heights. May I deserve to be counted among those who make less of themselves; “after two days may He quicken us” [Hos. 6:2] to see the glory of Jerusalem, when the moon’s light is bright as the sun, and the sun has sevenfold its light. Thus Scripture has foretold: “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the bruise of His people, and heals the stroke of their wound” [Isa. 30:26].