Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, is one of the five Megillos, or Sacred Scrolls, that are part of the Hebrew Bible. It was written by Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon. It is a timeless allegory of the relationship between Hashem and the People of Israel, in terms of the love between a man and a woman. It is recited on Pesach, the holiday that celebrates the liberation of the Jewish People from slavery in Egypt.
On Shabbos Chol HaMoed, the Shabbat that occurs during the Intermediate Days of the Holiday, [or on the Seventh Day of that Holiday when Shabbat coincides with that day], the reading of the Megilla of Shir HaShirim is incorporated into the services in most synagogues in the Jewish world.
It is most appropriate that this Megilla be read on Pesach, because this is the holiday of Spring, the holiday of the return of life, of creativity, to the world. Its theme is love, the rebirth of which is also symbolized by Spring.
As mentioned above, this Megilla is an allegory for the relationship between G-d and Israel in terms of the love of a man for a woman. The mashal, or the metaphor, focuses on the man and the woman; the nimshal, or referent, is the relationship between Hashem and the People of Israel. According to the Rambam [Maimonides], a twelfth century Torah giant of the Jewish People, the highest form of relationship between a human being and Hashem is the relationship based on love, Ahavas Hashem, even higher than the relationship built on fear or reverence, Yiras Hashem. The Rambam continues, "Just as when a man loves a particular woman, he cannot remove her from his thoughts, with just such intensity should a person love Hashem."
And since Judaism regards the relationship between a man and a woman as potentially holy, Rabbi Akiva argued (Mishna Yadayim 3:5) for the inclusion of Shir HaShirim in the Sacred Canon when its inclusion was questioned because of the apparent earthiness of the mashal. He said that if all the other Books of the Bible are considered Kedoshim, Holy, then Shir HaShirim must be considered Kodesh Kadoshim, the Holiest of the Holy, because both its mashal and its nimshal are holy.
(Adapted from the OU’s “Introduction to Shir HaShirim”)
Another explanation:
…from earliest times the Song of Songs has been interpreted, not as an expression of human romance, but as an allegorical conversation between G-d and Israel. The literal words of the book are simply King Solomon's way of casting deep meanings into poetic and beautiful language. He brilliantly chose the metaphor of love, with all its ramifications---including sexuality---to explain and explore the various aspects of G-d's complex relationship with His chosen people.
Rabbi Akiva himself argued strongly that the allegory was the only way to interpret the book; his famous words are "All the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies." And that's how it comes to be in the Bible.
Now we see the connection between Shir HaShirim and Pesach: Pesach is the holiday commemorating the awesome physical realization of the relationship between G-d and Israel: the creation of Israel as a people via the Exodus from Egypt, an unprecedented event carried out by G-d personally. So of course the appropriate book to read is the poetic exposition of that same relationship.
And finally, from Rabbi Yehuda Prero of Torah.org:
Pesach is a holiday on which we celebrate our freedom. We were freed from physical enslavement and from spiritual bondage as well. Perhaps it is because of the dual aspect of our freedom that we read Shir HaShirim on Pesach. Once G-d released the nation of Israel from Egypt, they were free to serve G-d with both body and soul. On Pesach, we focus on using our power of speech, which we said is the prime example of the convergence of physical and spiritual. Shir HaShirim contains many praises of the body, the physical. Why is the body praised? Is it because of the aesthetic value of the human form? No. It is because of the spiritual value of the human form, something very physical, something that we often remove from the realm of spiritual. To focus on the newfound freedom that Pesach celebrates, we read Shir HaShirim. This book, the holiest of all, contains the praise that comes when symbiosis exists within ourselves, when our physical body is used spiritually. The unity of physical and spiritual was only possible when we were free from bondage in both realms, a liberation which Pesach commemorates. Because we can now use our physical for the spiritual, we sing the praise of the physical (which is spiritual as well) on Pesach, as Shir HaShirim.
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The lyrics to Daniel Shalit's Cantata - click to enlarge
All of this is an introduction to my post, which was inspired by a wonderful concert I attended Monday afternoon-evening here in Yerushalayim. The truth be told, in addition to authentic Jewish Negina, I like and listen to a wide variety of music. Over the years, I have gained an appreciation for classical music, and enjoy listening to it, especially to a live performance. Here in Yerushalayim we are blessed with some wonderful opportunities for this – not the least of which is a weekly, free concert of chamber music performed in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall of the Jerusalem Theater, called “Etnachta”. These concerts are also broadcast live on Israel’s classical music radio station, Kol HaMusica [the Voice of Music]. The catch is that these concerts are on Monday afternoons between 5 and 7 pm, and one should really be at the theater by 4:30 in order to get a free ticket.
So, in order to treat my wife and myself to a brief musical respite to the heavy season of Pesach cleaning, this week’s concert really caught my eye: a performance of Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei,” Orit Wolf’s “Memories from the Synagogue,” Ernst Bloch’s “Niggun from the Baal Shem Suite,” and a Shostakovich Trio for piano, violin and cello. But the wondrous, beautiful surprise of the evening was a Premiere performance of Daniel Shalit’s Cantata for Tenor and Piano entitled, “HaShirim Asher L’Shlomo – the Songs of [King] Solomon.”
Shalit is an Israeli-born [1940] composer, who also happens to be a philosophy professor and a baal teshuva, and was present in the audience at the concert. A sample of his music (Rondeau, 1972) can be found here. He introduced the Cantata with a brief explanation, and after its performance, came up to the stage to congratulate the performers – Yosef Aridan, the tenor soloist, and pianist Shlomi Shem Tov.
The Cantata begins with a Midrash from the Yalkut Shimoni, explaining how it is that Shlomo HaMelech wrote Shir HaShirim, Mishlei [Proverbs] and Koheles [Ecclesiastes]. “Rabbi Yochanan said, ‘Shlomo first wrote Shir HaShirim, then Mishlei, and then Koheles.’ Rabbi Yochanan’s reasoning is from the way of the world: when a man is young, he sings and writes poems and songs; when he matures, he speaks of wise parables; when he is aged, he speaks of ‘vanities’ ”. The Cantata then goes on to develop these themes, by citing verses from these works of Shlomo’s, all of which is sung or recited.
But then comes the finale – an exhortation to Shlomo HaMelech from an imaginary “chorus” to return the Song to us. Daniel Shalit explained that indeed, Shir HaShirim is the deepest of Shlomo HaMelech’s works – in the words of Rabbi Akiva, “the holiest of the holy.” Indeed, its depths are a pathway to the book of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar, as the Zohar itself says: “Shir HaShirim – the Song of those Sarim [Ministers] Above; the Song that includes all aspects of Torah, wisdom, strength and power, of what was and what will be. The Song which the Ministers Above sing” [Zohar, Shemos 18b].
One can also say that Torah is an unending cycle – as soon as we finish the Torah with Parshas Zos HaBracha on Simchas Torah, we begin it anew with Breishis. The Gemara starts on Daf Beis, to indicate that you never really begin, nor do you end. And in Koheles [1:5] itself we find, “V’zarach hashemesh uva hashemesh – the sun rises and the sun sets,” about which the Gemara [Yoma 38b] says, “A tzaddik does not depart from this world until another tzaddik like him is created [born].”
So, Shalit’s Cantata ends with the chorus exhorting Shlomo HaMelech: “Give us, Shlomo! Give us, return to us, that which you took and divided and cut and investigated and criticized and surrounded and straightened out and tied! Give us back the song and the dew, return the secret of the Shulamis [the complete or peaceful one] to us, and [return] the lions’ dens, and the panthers’ mountains. Teach us the wisdom that is Niggun, teach us the reason for the advantage of Man’s striving! Sing us a Song, give us a Song, a final Song, Shir HaShirim! Give us the last Song, [you] the wisest of all Men – Shir HaShirim!”
