Embedded Files
Reflecting Targum and Midrash.
Reflecting Targum and Midrash.
Also reflecting the ArtScroll translation and other sources.
Also reflecting the ArtScroll translation and other sources.
Here is the link to the publication of this work on Sefaria Sheets,
(from where other connecting links are available).
1 This song is soul and spirit for all song.
It is sung to The Blessed Holy One,
Melek haShalom.
2 May the words of His Torah kiss me!
Your affection is the wine of true life.
3 Your scent-essence surrounds me
and clings to me like fine oil.
It is the fragrance of your name.
Therefore my gentile bridesmaids love you!
4 Draw me close in behind you!
We run to get near to you!
The King has secreted me in His chambers,
covered me within his holy cloud.
We will rejoice in the eye of the fiery storm
and be glad we are with you!
In the wild-land synagogues
at the world’s end
we have learned that your love is
the wine of heaven;
Your love is
the joy of Torah everlasting!
It is right that the children love you.
5 My heart has been like a black fire,
my children,
daughters of Jerusalem,
but you will see my heart written on white fire.
Though I am like charcoal,
exiled in the darkened tents of Ishmael,
I will appear in white,
like the High Priest’s linen garment,
like the curtains of God.
6 Do not look at me as worn and weathered,
although I have been left out in the sun.
I was kept from working in the vineyard of heaven,
from where my inheritance comes.
They said, We are all children of one mother
Then they betrayed me
and sold me into captivity,
to work in the vineyards of hell,
run by criminal lords
on this hot and alien earth..
7 Please tell me, I pray, my King,
where will you conceal your flocks
from thieves and predators like Esau?
Where will you shelter them
from the violence of the sun at noon?
Whisper this to me, oh One whom my soul loves!
For why should I forever be like one blinded
with the veil of mourning?
Why should I be one wandering without sight alone
beside the flocks of your companions?
8 If you do not know,
oh queen among women,
lead your kids and lambs
along the ancient footpaths of the flocks
and pasture them beside former shepherd's homes.
A guide will come to you.
There a guide will find you.
9 Remember, my bride,
When the steeds of Pharaoh's chariots assembled,
I gathered My steeds.
I quieted your cry, my beloved,
I made it known that you are my heart's queen!
10 Your face is adorned with gemstones.
These shine with the light of your face
when you meditate on the Torah's commandments.
11 Your neck is adorned with chains of gold.
These are the jewels of your redemption!
You, my bride, are the one
who is like jewels redeemed from the sea!
We departed the strange land together.
Together we set out from the land of slavery,
to go to the mountain
where your face would shine like gold
and the beauty of your ears
would be like pillars of silver,
hearing the word of God!
12 All You say is true, my King.
My story is a parable.
The King sat waiting at his table.
But my perfume gave off its fragrance too soon,
even before I had entered through the door.
So now I find myself walled off.
I am listening through the door.
13 Still now, like the fragrance of myrrh,
the scent of my Beloved clings to me,
anointing me and reviving me.
His love is an atonement for my heart,
like a pouch of spices between my breasts.
14 Indeed, like a bouquet of fragrant flowers
in the hand of the One who possess all things
is my atonement, the atonement I will receive
when I am received into my chambers in my home,
through the intimate embrace of my Beloved.
15 I see you, dear bride!
Your beauty is not hidden!
You are my beloved! You are the world of beauty!
Because of how you see me,
the beauty of your eyes, O fairest among women,
has the grace and innocence of heavenly doves!
16 I see that it is you, O King,
who is beautiful and makes beauty,
my Beloved, my Comforter!
I will be comforted forever when you alone are praised,
and we rest together in the garden of Your Temple.
17 The doors into our house are all of gold,
but the greatest one is made of the Cyprus of Eden.
For this is the door that held back
the waves of the sea,
when you led me by hand across the threshold.
Therefore the promise of our hearts is eternally faithful.
And therefore our covenant,
the covenant of our embrace,
rests in cedar served by gold.
1 I am a rose grown in the sands of Sharon,
to be moved upon my maturation
into the deep, well-watered valley.
There I will attain full beauty and fragrance.
2 Though the valley is abandoned to thorns,
my faithful beloved blooms among them.
My young bride begins to bloom
like a rose among the thorns.
3 My Beloved, for whom I wait,
is the apple tree,
lush and fruitful,
full of the sweetest fragrance,
a prince of trees
in the midst of the barren woods.
To sit beneath His shade was my delight.
His apples of Torah were my delicious food.
4 I stood at the entrance to His banquet hall
He drew me into His Tent of Meeting
with thrilling signs of love.
5 Now I am deathly sick with love and longing for Him.
I am tortured with pain in the memory of His apples of Torah.
Surround my sick bed with apples!
Fill my flasks with wine!
Give me cakes and raisins for my heartache...
6 I remember his promises
when we were alone together in the wilderness.
he whispered into my ear
his promise to sustain Judah,
while his left hand rested under my head.
He whispered his promise to deliver Ephraim,
while His right arm embraced me.
7 I charge you, my children,
daughters of Jerusalem,
whether you would run with excitement
like the gazelles,
hoping to bring closer the day
or graze openly like prey,
like the does of the field,
hoping to be blessed by the day of our union,
do not interfere with our love.
Do not seek for that day to save you,
until the time of its unveiling has come.
8 The days and hours of our exile are evil.
I and all my children desire to be saved from them.
But that day cannot be forced.
When the day of our union comes,
I will hear the sound of it approaching!
I will hear the voice of my Beloved singing my name!
See what I see!
I see Him leaping over the mountains,
skipping upon the hills,
coming to redeem me!
9 It is my Beloved who is the true gazelle!
He is like a young stag.
You can't see what I see.
Look with me!
I felt abandoned.
I feared I would be forever alone!
Look at what I see!
He's been standing all along beyond the wall.
He's been watching through the lattice.
It was a wall of wrong defences I built from fear,
but He saw through it with unwavering love.
His eyes are the windows of heaven.
10 Now I hear Him. I think I hear Him.
Yes, I hear My Beloved in my heart;
I know what his voice will say
when I hear his voice in my ears.
I cannot forget the sound of His voice.
I hear His voice in my heart now just as at first.
I hear my Beloved is speaking to me, and saying,
Wake up, my love! My beautiful one!
Come away with me!
11 The winter of hard labor is passed.
The cold and rainy season of terrors is over.
12 New flowers of life and love sprout from the land.
Your voice, too, will be new and your song new!
Yours is the voice of My young dove.
I will hear the voice of My dove throughout My land!
13 No longer do I find your fruits and fragrances immature.
Your new grapes will mature as true Torah wine.
Wake up with Moses!
Arise with Aaron!
Come away with Me!
14 Oh, My dove! hovering before the waters,
trapped before the sea,
as if caged in the cleft of a rock!
Through secret steps in the wilderness
you are concealed.
You are safe in my hand,
show your precious face to me
and let me hear your precious voice.
Talk to Me, and I will look deep into your faithful eyes,
and I will comfort you and soothe your fear.
15 Catch for us the Egyptian foxes,
even their offspring,
who today spoil Israel's vineyards.
For the new grapes are soon to appear on the vine.
16 My Beloved is mine and I am His!
He is my Comforter and I have no other!
17 I follow Him and feed among the roses of repentance,
until the day breaks
and the last shadows of my sin flee away!
And now I hear Him sing to me:
My beloved, you also are become like a gazelle,
like a young deer crossing distant mountains.
1 In the dark of the desert night
I lay on my couch yearning
My heart is seeking the one
whom my soul loves.
But I do not find him.
2 My soul stirred deeply in visions and I said:
I am determined to arise.
I will leave my bed in the wilderness.
I will leave the place of turmoil
I will leave behind my lonely darkness.
I will cross over dark waters
and go to the city in the land of light.
I will search the streets and squares
for the one whom my soul loves.
My soul searched for him there
but still I did not find him.
3 The watchers who protect the city found me.
The watchers who circle the city,
the city of holy visions,
the city of the land of light,
yes, the very souls of Moshe and Aaron,
they came face to face with me wandering in the city.
Immediately I asked them:
"Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
And then I found him!
4 No sooner did I follow their directions,
no sooner did I listen carefully to their voices,
than I found him whom my soul loves.
When I was first espoused,
I was unprepared and unworthy.
But when I left my bed in the desert,
when I passed out of the dark waters,
when I entered the land of light,
when I found him in the city of vision,
when my soul embraced the one it loves,
I was determined not to let him go
until I brought him into my mother's tent,
into her Tabernacle where she had conceived me.
5 Swear to me, daughters of Jerusalem,
my children who are being born,
all you seventy families of the earth,
have grace like a gazelle,
be humble like the deer of the field,
learn as I have learned,
swear that you will not press prematurely for his love,
for him to come into my mother's tent,
to embrace me.
Do not press for his love to save me,
to fill you with life and joy,
before the hour when his love is ready!
6 Who is this?
What bride is this coming up from the desert,
like smoke rising in columns,
like columns of perfume,
rising waves filled with myrrh and frankincense,
with all fragrances of the perfumery?
What bride is this who has made herself ready?
7 Look with me and see!
I see the bed of the King of Shalom,
I see the ark of the covenant of our espousal!
Sixty mighty ones stand guard around it,
sixty thousand valiant men of Israel.
8 The war-worn edges of their swords
are the commands of the King's mouth;
Their swords were lightening on their thighs
because of the dangers of the desert night.
9 A Tabernacle on earth
made of the trees of Lebanon,
like the Royal Chariot of the heavens,
the King of Shalom has made for Himself.
10 Its pillars of faith are secured with the silver of truth.
Its foundations of righteousness are overlaid
with the gold of divine charity.
Its curtain of modesty is woven
with holy royal purple,
like the weavings of the steadfast heart.
Its inmost chamber is inlaid
with the simplest adornments of love
by the poorest, child-like hands
of the joyously thankful nations,
the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Come out now from exile!
O daughters of Zion,
you loyal daughters of my own womb!
Look closely and see
the one whom my soul has forever loved!
Examine the King of Shalom,
for he has built me up!
Therefore my mother is his mother,
for she has crowned him on the day of his nuptials.
Examine the crown of salvation,
the salvation of his nation,
with which his mother crowned him,
when he gave his heart and Torah to Israel,
on the day his heart was turned to joy!
1 Now I see how fair you are my love!
I see how truly beautiful you are!
Your faithful eyes, like faithful doves,
with modest and humble faith,
seeing all from within your beautiful headscarf.
As your streaming hair is concealed,
like a flock of goats appearing like beads of light
streaming down from Mount Gilead
by great distance is concealed,
so through your holy concealment
the number of the tents of your children
is concealed in the wilderness
by the Cloud of Glory!
2 Your teeth are your spotless servants of truth,
like a shorn flock prepared for sacrifice,
rising up from the washing.
So are your valiant warriors unblemished,
rising up from their immersion.
There is no dark spot,
no miscarriage of justice among them.
3 Your word is your bond,
sealed by the scarlet thread of your lips.
It is right that Rahab the convert trusted you.
What you say is what you mean.
This is the beauty of your speech.
How glorious are your cheekbones,
like the locked doorway to the temple
behind the cloud of glory that is your headscarf!
Your cheekbones like the pomegranate
conceal the number of the children's shortcomings.
All are transformed to merits
in the temple behind your veil.
4 You are a woman of perfect posture!
Your neck is elegant with strength,
like the Chamber of Hewn Stone,
powerful with promise,
as the Tower of David,
central of stature,
it is a model of uprightness!
Yours is the uprightness of the Sanhedrin.
The shields of the halachah,
and the quivers of the arrows of the Talmud
hang upon the tower of your neck.
So your children shall fly straight like arrows
from the quiver upon your shoulder.
5 From the sustenance of your bosom
the health of the world is sustained.
These are Moses and Aaron giving their nourishment.
Your bosom is like twin fawns grazing,
concealed among the roses.
In these is the promise of two anointed ones
nursing the children from the mysteries of Knesset Israel.
6 As such you are concealed in your modesty
Your heart invites me in,
but you are modest and not confident.
You will remain in waiting
until that day comes and that night comes,
until the sons of the priest stand and fall.
Your beauty shall speak through your concealment.
My spirit will be there by your side.
But wait for the time of your revealing and grow
until the day breaks and the shadows of day flee away,
then I will meet you on Mount Moriah.
I will meet you my beloved,
my mountain of myrrh, my hill of frankincense.
There we will reveal our full unity!
7 You are perfect in beauty, my beloved!
I see no blemish in you.
8 You shall descend and ascend with me
from Lebanon, my bride.
You shall view our Land from Aman.
From the peak of Mount Hermon
you shall look from the west to the east.
With me, your home in exile
shall be like a lion's den.
Your house shall return to be built as a mountain,
like the mountain of leopards.
9 You have enlivened my heart
with the glance of your eye, my sister, my bride
with no more than a glint of light,
the certain promise of your Torah faithfulness,
from one link of your holy necklaces.
10 How attractive to me is your love, my sister, my bride
I desire your love and not wine.
I remember the places of your affection to me,
Gilgal and Shiloh, Nob and Gibeon.
Our embrace builds and everlasting Temple!
With you, Jerusalem, I am home.
11 Honey drops from your lips, O bride,
the honey of Torah.
Torah understandings are under your tongue,
like milk and honey.
The fragrance of your garments is divine.
It is the fragrance of the divine commandments.
The ritual fringes, the blue thread, the priestly raiment,
all your Torah garments smell of heaven.
12 A locked garden is my sister,
my faithful bride;
a gated spring, a sealed fountain.
And there, while you are there without me,
your thirsty thoughts produce only arid fields.
13 But even your arid fields
are as a pomegranate orchard,
producing wonderful offspring,
even the least like sweet fruit,
some like the best of spices,
henna and spikenard.
14 Even very great souls,
who are like spikenard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon,
with all frankincense trees,
myrrh and aloes,
with all the chief spices.
15 Indeed, you are
A garden fountain,
a well of living waters
and flowing streams from Lebanon.
16 Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind;
blow upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out;
Then the daughters of Jerusalem
will be drawn by the train of her bridal gown
by the scent-essence of Jerusalem,
when she returns.
1 I still hear her heart and soul clearly say:
Let my beloved come to his garden
and eat his sweet fruit
and be filled with the Torah joy of his people.
When I see My Tabernacle I see you,
my sister, my bride!
When I came to your dedication
of My Tabernacle
I was entering into My garden of love
You and I were there alone
My nostrils gathered the fragrance
of My myrrh and spices
I received with love
both the expected
and the unexpected from you
With My honey
I ate My honeycomb
I drank in your peace offerings like milk
We shared one shalom
Let the daughters of your soul
also partake of our love!
Eat and be nourished by this holy love,
my young groomsmen!
Drink of the spirit of the union of love
that Jerusalem and I have found,
all you beloved children.
2 Even when I saw my wedding approaching,
disaster came upon me
I was confident in myself;
and did not think only of the one whom my soul loves.
I no longer thought only to win his love;
I let my devotion to him slumber.
My heart was full of life and hope,
I expected to be most joyful,
yet I became most sorrowful!
Where is the one whom my soul loves?
My heart is listening for my beloved.
I hear him, my beloved is knocking!
He is come to take me to his home!
I will hear him say,
Open for me, my sister, my beloved,
my dove, my perfect one,
for my head is full of God's covenant dew,
of Divine Torah love for you!
The locks of my hair are dripping
with words of eternal life for you!
3 I hear him at the door.
My heart races!
Is this finally my time?
Am I dreaming?
I am as one asleep in over confidence,
I am as one asleep in self-assurance!
I say to myself,
I have taken off my day clothes.
I have slipped into my nightgown.
Should I now go to the door?
I hesitated to put my feet onto the floor.
I was a princess, should I soil my feet?
4 Then I heard him remove his hand from the latch...
My heart overcame me!
5 I arose to open the door for my beloved,
the espoused husband of my soul!
I stopped to first perfume my hands with myrrh.
My fingers flowed with myrrh as I opened the door.
6 I opened my heart completely for my beloved!
But my beloved had gone!
He was not there!
My soul had left me when he called to me,
just like the first time I heard his voice.
I followed my soul to the door.
My heart was opened completely to him!
It searched for him but he was nowhere to be found!
I called out after him,
but he did not answer me!
7 I set out to find where my beloved had gone.
I met the watchmen who patrol the city;
These did not treat me as those had before.
Those in authority over me were now foreign to me.
They struck me, they bruised me.
Though I thought they would defend me,
my beloved's guards upon the walls
stripped me of my wedding jacket and my jewels.
8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem!
my bridesmaids,
even those among you who are jealous of me.
Do not think this is your opportunity
to look down on me. No!
If you find my love, my king,
tell him: I am sick with love for him,
my heart and my soul are deathly sick
without his love.
9 Why do you ask us to do this for you,
O Jerusalem, fairest of brides,
fairest of all women,
O Knesset Israel, fairest of all nations?
Why does your beloved mean that much to you?
Are there not many others who want you,
who could be your beloved as well as him?
Who, indeed, is he,
that you have burdened us this way
on account of him?
10 As Israel, the bride in exile,
I said to them:
Do you know him?
Let me tell you part of his praise.
My beloved is white and ruddy,
distinguished among legions of angels.
He is white in his cloud of light,
where neither sin nor sadness appear.
He is ruddy in his readiness
to pass judgment on the wicked,
for he is the true defender of every victim.
11 His head is like the finest gold,
for the wisdom he speaks
enlightens the eyes like gold.
I heard his words and knew him,
that he is my golden one, my only one.
The locks of his hair are black as a raven,
and curled with curls of mercy for his own.
Heaps of laws are curled like crowns on his head.
Every letter the Torah went before his face
as black fire on white fire!
12 His eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
immersed in milk,
most handsomely set.
His eyes are eyes of hope and peace
as he watches over the halls of Torah.
The blessing of his eyes
nurse the understanding of his Torah
like a mother who nurses her offspring.
His eyes are set
upon the right balance
of the written and oral Torah.
13 His cheeks are a garden bed of spices
growing aromatic plants;
his lips are blooms of roses,
dripping with flowing myrrh.
Instructions for life were in his face.
Instructions for recovery from death were on his lips.
14 His hands are wheels of gold,
set with chrysolite;
his abdomen appears as a block of ivory,
overlaid with sapphires, illuminating worlds.
His Torah tablets were like wheels of wisdom,
spinning with spokes of eternal commandments,
spinning like miracles of golden truth
and like jewels of holy healing light they rest in his hands.
The innermost revelations of the Torah
sparkle like sapphires,
draw in the love of the soul, like ivory,
beckoning the soul to seek them out.
15 His legs are as solid as pillars of marble,
founded upon sockets of fine gold.
He is majestic as Lebanon,
as stately and select as the cedars.
His Torah servants are strong like pillars
solid like pillars of marble,
with a capitol above and a base below,
able to guide rightly in the fine points
and counsel well in the greater visions of the Torah.
So all who are guided in Torah
will find its wisdom blossom and sprout with majesty,
like the garden of Lebanon.
There upright understanding will be selected for teaching,
as the stately trees of Lebanon were selected
for the building of the Temple of God.
16 His mouth is sweet and most desirable,
and he is altogether delightful;
this is my beloved, and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem."
It is his mouth that teaches the sweetness of repentance.
It is his mouth that reveals the delights of atonement.
It is from his mouth that I seek the words of my forgiveness.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
Now you know a little about him.
Now you know why I seek him above all else,
and why I am sick with love for him.
1 To which place has your Beloved turned?
O Jerusalem, of fairest of brides?
Let us seek Him with you
and we will find him first, before you do."
2 You may imagine that my beloved has forsaken me,
that he has forsaken his Temple garden.
My heart, even separated from his embrace,
is his garden and his Torah Temple.
My heart is as a spice bed that his spirit savors.
His heart holds my love as a vase of roses.
He is gone only to find the way he can lead me
to where we can embrace forever.
3 I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine!
His nourishment is from inhaling my love like fresh roses.
4 I can hear him say to me:
You are so beautiful my love!
Our heart and mind are one because of love.
You build a Temple for me out of love.
You will be forever Jerusalem,
my first and only love!
You will march with me through the heavens,
as I marched with your legions,
your four bannered camps, in the wilderness!
5 What did he then say to me?
Do not look now too deeply into my eyes!
I will be overwhelmed with admiration for you.
I will be unable to resist you,
Unlock your eyes from mine,
for you are not yet ready for our complete embrace.
How the curls of your hair excite me!
But they remind me of a flock of kids and lambs!
What great beauty I find in you!
But the kids and lambs still need to be shepherded.
6 As Jacob’s sheep were clean
at the time they came up from the Jabbok river,
as the the bearers of the Ark of the Covenant
were white crossing the Jordan,
So are your teeth, perfect in their setting.
So are you to this day my perfect bride!
7 The commandments you now obey
through your faith in me
rebuild the temples of your mind.
Your temples are beautiful,
like a pomegranate split open!
I see them even behind your veil.
8 Before he tested me
Before I failed to open my door to him,
I had asked him,
Who am I that you have chosen me?
There are threescore queens,
and fourscore concubines,
and maidens without number
who you could claim as your own.
9 He replied to me,
You, Jerusalem, my dove, my undefiled,
you are my only one;
The one I love is the only one of her mother;
she is the choice of the one
who gave birth to her in the heavens above
and on the earth below.
The daughters saw her,
and called her the bride of blessings;
yes, all the queens and all the concubines!
All of them praised her as the wedding bride.
When I failed him and he was gone,
I remembered his words
and my heart cried out everywhere to him,
and my voice prayed above and below
that he would return
to take me to his house.
10 It is true what your beloved said to you.
We all are your maidens
even we who are queens and concubines.
It is of you we sing, O beautiful Jerusalem:
Who is this who looks like the dawn,
whose light now dawns upon us?
Who is this, fair as the moon,
modest as the new moon
with beauty like the full moon,
as strong in Torah revelation
as the light of the sun,
awesome with the bannered legions
that march beneath her wings?"
11 I know what my beloved has said
I know that he has heard my prayer
and the voice of my heart and soul calling out to him
I know my beloved has said:
I will conceal myself and go down to my nut garden
Every day she will see the signs that I was there
to see the green plants of the valley
to see whether the vine has blossomed
and whether the pomegranates were yet in bloom.
12 Do not rejoice over me; I have fallen, but I will rise.
My hour will come and I will not know it
I will hear him call to me like a bird in love.
Suddenly my voice will sing out to him with longing.
Chariots will lift my soul and I will fly to him!
His people will by my people,
for I will sit with him on his throne!
My maidens will be jealous of me no more,
for all will be the righteous daughters of his kingdom!
1 Turn this way or turn that way,
O one destined to be the Queen of Shalom!
We, the nations which you have adopted,
greatly desire for you to become more like us,
in order that we might serve you
and you might serve us.
Which way will you go,
as you seek to find your beloved?
Will you turn away from us,
or will you turn away from your past lonely devotion,
your past isolation,
and come our way?
Let us be the ones
to help make your beloved desire you,
and come to you, and to us,
to help make you the Queen of Shalom!
2 No, I hear him in my heart even now!
How desirable you are to me, he says.
How beautiful your feet,
walking in your sandals through the wilderness,
and then when you came to meet with me
on my appointed days!
You are truly the daughter
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Your legs became well-formed
like rounded, well-polished jewels
from following after me,
like the true disciple.
3 We are your companions.
We desire to be your eternal children.
We can praise you even more!
For your navel is to us the center of all.
For your center is God!
Those who are born from your chord
are those who belong to God.
Like a wine cup is filled with wine,
so your navel is filled with the holy spirit.
I hear you and
I will answer you, my companions.
For indeed, listen and hear these understandings
that he has taught to my heart:
It is to my heart that he says:
Eternal life is the blood that you give as milk
to those born from your belly.
Your belly is an eternal covenant
that is ripening like stalks of wheat
growing in a bed cultivated for roses.
4 Your breasts are like twin fawns.
For your obedient deeds are a set of twins,
your obedient deeds toward God
become your obedient acts of charity toward others.
You are the gazelle striding through the wilderness,
where your obedient good deeds give life to the desert.
These your twin fawns
They will share with all your twin redemptions.
Like Moses and Aaron, they will save you from barenness.
5 Moses was the president of the world court
when he issued the verdict that freed you!
And so now your neck is as a tower of ivory,
a tower from which your word is law.
The eyes of Aaron perceived the way of mercy,
So now your eyes are as the deep pools in Heshbon,
a place of mystics, of knowing the mysteries
marking the border between Gad and Reuben.
This is by the gate of Bath-rabbim,
the gate of understanding the singularity of the many.
For you judge the isolated one with equity
and the whole community with righteousness.
The fragrance of Moses and Aaron
remains about you.
It is the fragrance of the house I am building for you.
Therefore your nose and forehead
are like the tower of Lebanon
which looks with strength toward Damascus.
This is the promise of the greatness of your twins:
the blessing of Judah and Ephraim.
6 Listen and hear all he has taught my heart, saying,
Your head is adorned with the commandments of God,
Therefore, your head upon your shoulders is like Mount Carmel,
and the braided locks of your head like purple;
For as Elijah stood on Mount Carmel
to turn the wayward hearts of your children into Torah hearts.
And so the commandments of God are braided,
like a royal purple rope, as the crown of your thoughts.
The King is held captive in the curls and braids of your hair.
7 In a word, my companions,
He speaks to my heart and says,
How fair and how pleasant you are, O love,
My love is full with holy delights!
How fair you are in your entirety!
How pleasant you are with your spiritual love!
How proper it is to delight in you!
Your offer to me, my companions,
to help me to become enthroned as his queen
is innocent and childish and touching.
But I alone understand what his love has taught my heart.
8 He says to me,
Already you have grown to be like a palm-tree.
Already your breasts are like a cluster of grapes,
holding the messianic teachings of the sages.
Yes, I have heard his voice in my heart saying this.
9 "I have determined," I have heard him say,
"I will climb up into the palm-tree,
I will take hold of its branches.
I will let your breasts be as clusters of the vine,
I will let the messianic wisdom of your sages nurse the poor,
Your breasts will nurse even the children of your companions.
And the fragrance of your presence will be to me like apples.
10 "The utterances of your voice will be to me sweet wine."
Therefore, my companions,
I will respond to him, and I will tell him
that the only utterances of my mouth shall be prayer.
And all of my prayers will be worthy of my fathers,
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
For like them, I will pray for the resurrection of the dead!
11 Indeed, I, Jerusalem, assure you, my companions,
I am my beloved's and all of his desire is toward me alone.
12 Lean in close, my companions,
I will share with you the secret conversation
between my beloved and me.
This is the secret conversation
which we had in the days before my exile:
"Come, my love", he said to me.
Let us go into the field, among the nations.
Let us live among the poorest of the poor,
even in the villages of Esau, the atheist.
13" Let us get up early and go into the vineyards;
Let us see whether the vine has budded
whether the sages of the Torah
have begin to produce their messianic fruit,
whether the vine blossom has opened,
whether the children of Ephraim are repenting
and preparing the way of redemption,
whether the tribes of Benjamin and Judah
are being faithful brothers.
Let us go out into the fields and see
whether the pomegranates are in flower.
For there I will give my love to you,
and our covenant love,
like an orchard of pomegranates,
will nourish the world.
14 Listen now! I hear his voice!
He is somewhere near!
Do you hear the conversation of our hearts?
Hear what we whisper,
"We are stirred by a holy spirit of passionate love,
as though by mandrakes ripe with fragrance.
Above our door are all manner of precious fruits,
both sweetly fresh and sweetly dried.
Our fruits are abundant new and old revelations from the Torah.
All of these are the fruits of our love!
Therefore the time of this exile must soon be over!
Messiah's hand must now be opening the gate.
Our house must be almost ready to receive us!"
1 Because of my longing my heart is speaking,
My heart speaks to him as if he were here:
Oh that you were as my brother,
one that sucked the breasts of my mother...
Oh that you were like Joseph to me,
who endured all things,
who received all blessings
to save many alive!
I would kiss you like a long lost brother
and no one would be jealous.
2 I would take you by the hand
and lead you into our house.
My mother's house would once again be our Temple.
I would remain like a child there always,
that you might always be as Moses to me
and instruct me in your Torah forever.
I would wait on you as a servant,
serving you spiced wine with libations of love,
and pomegranate juice with tastes of Torah secrets.
You would see that I remained always a worthy student,
a true disciple of your heavenly teachings.
3 Alas, all I have to say is this,
I will express all of my feelings in a word:
When I made my bed in the barren wilderness,
your left hand of justice was under my head.
Now as you gather me in close to return to you,
your fragrant right arm of mercy embraces me.
4 I exhort you, oh daughters of Jerusalem,
oh nations not yet fully born...
Consider this carefully!
Why should you seek to force the time of love?
Why interfere between my beloved and me?
Everything there is depends on the wonder of our intimacy.
You might be jealous of our love
You might be jealous for our love.
Your jealousy inspires me and makes me zealous.
Why are you aggressive?
Why do you press so to be born?
Your deepest hidden soul longs and presses
for the time when my beloved and I will be one,
for the time of our intimate love
to finally give you full and final birth.
Still, our love must shine only when it is ready.
5 Hear the song that our hearts have written,
the song of my heart and of my beloved's...
His heart sings to my heart:
"Who is this that comes up from the wilderness,
leaning as she lay her head in the desert
upon the left hand of her beloved?
And my heart sings to his:
Under the apple-tree of of divine and spiritual love
I awakened in you a tender compassion.
Therefore I did not die unborn.
Therefore, Mount Sinai, like a mother, travailed;
there she gave birth to me.
For your sake I was born,
that I might grow and become the mother of nations.
Our love and our souls are truly one,
as though we began as twins.
6 Listen all you who care for me.
Hear the song of Jerusalem and her redeemer,
Listen as our souls sing to one another:
"Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm!"
Let us put on our tiffilin!
The seal of our love is strong as death,
but hardened jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Flashes of hardened jealousy are flashes of fire.
If you are jealous of me,
your jealousy is a burning flame ignited against God's own love!
7 Many waters cannot quench this love,
neither can the floods of jealousy drown it;
if a person would give all the substance of their house,
or all the labor of their life,
thinking they could gain spiritual love as an exchange,
they would be utterly ridiculed.
8 At the beginning the angels said about me:
We have a little sister in the realms below.
She is attached to us and we to her.
She is still young and has no breasts;
We must learn well the plan
for how we are to protect our sister,
in the day when she shall be spoken for,
in the day the nations become jealous of her,
in the day they try to take her place in the huppah.
For she must nurse the worlds.
9 If she becomes a wall,
an impenetrable wall of holiness,
we will build upon her a turret of silver,
we will place on her head
the silver tiara of faithfulness;
but if she be a door,
swinging this way and that,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar
we will place the ark of the covenant before her mind,
as an instrument to surround her with chastisement,
until the Torah is housed in her heart.
10 Now the day is come
that I, Jerusalem, will say, "I am a wall,
and my breasts are like the towers of a wall.
When the time comes, I will declare this!
I will be seen as a perfect partner in his eyes,
I will find my place as my beloved's holy Temple.
11 I will tell you the truth:
The King of Shalom had a vineyard
at the place of Isaac's field of prayer,
on the mountain of Abraham's testimony.
This vineyard was his young bride.
He gave over the vineyard for a time unto keepers,
to cultivate and raise her,
to care for her until she would reach maturity.
Some of them tried to become rich through her.
Some of them tried to siphon off her blessings,
her blessings of her wine, her silver and her goodness,
The caretakers stole the resources of her wealth.
12 I know what my beloved shall say:
My vineyard, which is mine alone, is here before me;
I will judge the caretakers of my vineyard!
This will be the outcome:
The King of Shalom shall receive a thousand
blessings from his vineyard,
and those who were his vineyard's caretakers
shall return two hundred blessings to him
as freewill offerings.
Their blessings shall be blessings of silver mitzvot,
blessings of voluntary service,
labouring in the fields of his vineyard.
13 I am Jerusalem, this is my song,
You, my beloved, who dwell in the gardens,
the faithful angels in heaven
listen for your voice: to hear your voice,
when you come to lay claim to your vineyard
and to judge the caretakers.
Cause me to hear now that voice of judgment, I pray.
14 Come quickly, my beloved!
Move like a gazelle or a young hart
over the mountains of the empires of nations!
Arrive soon to save and redeem me!
Arrive soon to rest upon the mountains of spices,
to rejoice with joy unending
in the cloud of my incense and prayers.
With prayer and joy I will forever embrace you!
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