Song of Solomon — Chapter 4

1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.
2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.
3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Song of Solomon — Chapter 4
✦ Talmud

• Shabbat 30b records that Solomon composed Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs in middle age, and Ecclesiastes in old age — Song of Solomon 4:12 "a garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed" is the Talmudic soul-as-sealed-garden doctrine: the holy soul's deepest resources (the spring, the fountain) are inaccessible to the Sitra Achra precisely because they are sealed by covenant — only the divine Bridegroom holds the key.

• Berakhot 17b records the Sages' formula for the ideal world: sitting in the Garden, crowned, enjoying the Shekhinah's radiance — Song of Solomon 4:16 "awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits" is the full Garden-restoration prayer: the eschatological awakening of the winds (divine breath awakening the preserved soul-garden) is the tikkun that completes the counter-campaign against the Sitra Achra's desert-making operations.

• Avot 3:1 teaches to know before Whom one stands — Song of Solomon 4:9 "you have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace" is the Talmudic single-mitzvah doctrine: even one act of true orientation toward the divine ("one glance") penetrates the divine heart with full force — the Sitra Achra's strategy of demanding overwhelming proof of loyalty before the soul receives confirmation is defeated by the single genuine gaze.

• Sanhedrin 92a records the Valley of Dry Bones vision as the prototype of resurrection — Song of Solomon 4:1 "your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead" is read in Shir HaShirim Rabbah as a description of the generation of the desert, Israel's warriors who maintained loyalty through the Sitra Achra's four-decade wilderness campaign: the beauty the Bridegroom sees is specifically the beauty of soldiers who held formation under conditions designed to break them.

• Kiddushin 30b teaches that the Torah is the antidote to the Yetzer Hara — Song of Solomon 4:15 "a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon" is the Talmudic living-water-as-Torah image: the soul that has internalized the Torah contains within itself a self-replenishing spring that the Sitra Achra's siege cannot exhaust, because its source lies above the material plane the enemy can reach.