The Song of the Individual and his Pining for the Schechina

Through the vacillation, suffering, doubts, distance and closeness passes each individual soul inShir HaShirim. The beautiful description of how the beloved knocks on the door and the object of his love does not want to come down and open. By the time she comes to the door, he is gone. She searches for her beloved through the streets and is injured, but she continues her search.
its connection to the Schechina. Just like the relationship between two people who love each other. The drama, tragedy, joy and vacillation. Sometimes he loves and she loves whereas at other times there is great distance that separates between them. This is the wonderful metaphor of
So, too, is the relationship between mans soul and the Schechinah; on the one hand great closeness, on the other distance. A person vacillates, errs, since, suffers, repents, comes close and achieves high levels. "Behold the voice of my Beloved comes jumping on the mountains skipping across the hills." After the doubts, the many prayers, crying and the suffering of the human soul the person suddenly feels that he hears the voice of God from a distance speaking to him. A powerful song bursts forth, "The voice of my beloved comes."

The Tragic Relationship

The relationship between the Jewish People and the other nations is one that is both amazing as well as tragic. On the one hand, anti-Semitism is present around the entire world, and on the other, Jews have always been ready to engage in self-sacrifice on behalf of the rest of the world. In every social revolution that exists in the world, in every national revolution that improves the world there are always Jewish sacrificing their lives for the cause. It is in the very nature of the Jew to be concerned about international matters. There is no other nation as concerned with every other nation and with what goes on in all places. This idea finds expression in the Midrashic statement that on Sukkos seventy bulls were offered in the Bais HaMikdosh on behalf of the seventy nations. Sukkos symbolizes international peace. The Jewish Nation seeks peace with the nations of the world.
On the other hand, the name Har Sinai indicates the mountain which caused sinah, Anti-Semitism. There are many nations which have no interest in finding peace with the Jewish people. The Jews engage in self-sacrifice on behalf of the nations, but they hate us.
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Wine: Double Edged

On the one hand we are taught that joy can come only through wine, as it says in Mishle, "One who has a good heart, drinks constantly." Wine draws people closer, and, if one merits, wine can bring joy to God and man. On the other hand, wine can be destructive. There are people who try to enjoy a spiritual experience by intoxicating their senses, and engaging in all sorts of physical pleasures. This exists throughout the entire world and leads to people doing frightening things in their drug induced frenzy: murder, idol worship and licentious behavior. The tragedy is that the same path that leads to divine service also leads to the worship of the Golden Calf. The true test of any path is to see if it leads to increased love and brotherhood within a group, does it connect people, does it improve relations between man and wife, does it lead to love for God. If it does all these things, then it is a holy path. But if it creates a storm of hatred, an angry experience, then it is coming from an impure source it confuses the senses and is dangerous. It removes a person from the world, even though its goal would appear to be connecting to God
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In Perfect Harmony

Any light-shedding understanding casts a shadow. The more that a person researches, studies more and acquires new knowledge, as he progresses farther than his peers in Torah study, belief, recognizing God, and philosophy, his pain grows. As it says in Koheleth, יוסיף דעת יוסיף מכאוב, an increase in understanding creates a commensurate increase in suffering. As the person's mind broadens he discovers more contradictions between his various bits of knowledge.
The question is: How do you cast a light in the shade and chase away the darkness?
We can find the answer in the words of Rav Kook that we heal the suffering by ignoring the reckonings and overcoming them with love, the loftiest type of love, and striving to connect to God, the foundation of all knowledge. Love heals all doubts, knowledge and errors.
Shir HaShirim, which is focused on the love between man and woman, is a parable for this. It alludes to the love between כנסת ישראל, the corporate body of the Jewish people, and God, or between man and the Schechina. Chazal explain that שיר השירים אשר לשלמה, the Song of Songs to Shlomo, refers to מלך שהשלום שלו, the King who peace is his. Gods name is Shalom, peace and connecting to God creates peace between all ideas. When one finds a loving connection all divisions between ways of understanding disappear. The love overcomes and the distinctions are pushed away.
People do the most frightening things in the name of the highest of ideals. They stand firmly with their opinion and lack the ability to see and understand other viewpoints. They think they are serving God or the ideal in which they believe, but in reality they are serving themselves. If we understand that the root of all opinions is in God, then our understanding changes. A believer has a desire to get closer to his God, and, in his great thirst, to draw from Him the wellsprings of salvation. The key, however, is to truly listen to what God is saying.

The key to modern riches is gathering all the wealth to a relatively small area or part of the economy which causes opposition from others and often leads to war. The greater the wealth, the greater the opposition. The same is with knowledge and understanding. It is difficult to acquire them without creation opponents. Only God can make peace between the opposing forces, which is why he is called שר שלום, the Master of Peace. The only option is to connect to the source of peace and thereby to achieve true peace and moved beyond the opposing forces. Harmony between man and God leads to harmony between man and his fellow. If one is in opposition to another, it is a sign that he is not at peace with God.

Shir HaShirim: The Passing of Rav Kook

I recall that when the Light of Israel, Rav Kook, zt"l passed away, my father, the holy Nazir, zt""l brought me to take leave of him. When the time came for him to pass away Rav Kook indicated with his finger that my father should leave as he was a Kohen. The great people of Jerusalem, led by Rav Yichiel Michel Tikochinski, Rosh Yeshiva of "Etz Chaim" stood around the rabbi's bed, while I, who was just a young child, left with my father and stood in the courtyard. After they recited Shema loudly with Rav Kook they began to recite Shir HaShirim as was the custom of the great Kabbalists to say Shir HaShirim at the passing of the leaders of Israel. Also at the funeral of my father the members of the Chevra Kadisha recited Shir HaShirim as they walked alongside his bed.
At first glance it seems difficult to comprehend why specifically as someone is dying it is appropriate to say Shir HaShirim. But after contemplating the matter we understand that the moment that the pure soul of the Tzaddik returns to its source is the most appropriate time to recite Shir HaShirim.
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The Line Connectng Eternity

The desire for God is so great for the leaders of Israel that their souls separate from their bodies. They did not die but went up in a kiss to the eternally good world. There are a number of great people throughout history about whom it is said that they did not die, they are Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, Miriam and Dovid.
The first word of each Parsha that is focused on the life of Yaakov begins with the letter vov. The word יצא indicates the future (will go out). Add the letter ו, which indicates the present (because it is the central letter of the word הוה which means the present. CL) and it changes the future to the past and you get ויצא, which means "and he went." So through the Parshios of ויצא, וישלח, וישב, ויהי מקץ, ויגש, ויחי there is a connection between the past, present and future. This is Yaakov who symbolizes eternity who existed outside the boundaries of time.
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Kiss Me with the Kisses of His Mouth

The Zohar says:

Rabbi Yitzchok began: "He should kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, etc." Knessesth Yisroel, i.e. the Schechina, says this verse. Why does it say, "Kiss me?" It should have said, "Love me!" It is teaching us that kisses are the connecting of one spirit (Ruach) to another. This is why kissing is done with the mouth, since the mouth is the source of the spirit. Kisses are given lovingly with the mouth, connecting spirit to spirit, which are never separate from one another.

The Zohar goes on to explain that the death of Neshika (kissing, the death given to Moshe, Aharon and Miriam) is one in which the person's spirit connects to the spirit of God and remains eternally connected, even posthumously.
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Philosophy vs. Kabbalah

Gift of Love quoting Rav Kook:
Philosophy only covers a limited portion of the spiritual world, and is, by its very nature, disassociated from that which is outside its scope and is essentially distcint and separate from those areas. The ability to recognize how all the opinions, feelings and inclinations, from small to large, are connected how they affect each other, and how disparate worlds are interconnected, is beyond the ability of philosophy to describe. Philosophy, therefore, will always be an aristocratic discipline dedicated to a select group of people.
Kabbalah, by contrast, has the ability to delve into the depths of all thoughts, feelings, inclinations, ambitions and worlds from beginning to end. It recognizes the unity within all of existence, physical and spiritual, on macro and micro levels, in a deeply penetrating manner. There is no great and small within Kabbalah, everything is significant, everything has inherent value, there is no wasted movement, no empty thought.

Rebbe Akiva: The Man who Understood Love

The path of Rebbe Akiva's life is pretty amazing. It would appear that there is no more moving love story in all of Chaza"l than the story of Rebbe Akiva and Rochel. The daughter of the wealthy Kalva Savua and the simple shepherd.
Chaza"l describe their great poverty, how they lived in a silo as Rochel pulled straw from his hair and he from hers. Is there a greater love story? But their love was directed to the study of Torah, as Rochel waited twelve years for Rebbe Akiva's return, and then another twelve during which he studied Torah and turned into the greatest Torah scholar and teacher of Israel. Rebbe Akiva returned after twenty-four years at the head of his 24,000 students when his wife Rochel was already old and he was at the pinnacle of his greatness.
Chaza"l describe how she fell at his feet and his students tried to push her away. Rebbe Akiva ordered them to leave her alone, "What is mine and what is yours, is hers." There is no more amazing song of love than this song, this story. From this story we get a glimpse of the stature of Rebbe Akiva, that he knew that pure love must emanate from holy roots and not, God forbid, from impurity. It was from this understanding that he rose to the highest of levels.
כ"ג

Rav Kook: Shir HaShirim had to be

Rav Kook is quoted as follows explaining the place of Shir HaShirim in the canon of Jewish Holy Writings:

Any person from whom God has not withheld wisdom will recognize and feel that there cannot possibly be a wealth of holy writings of a holy nation - whose entire history is replete with compostions expressing love to the Rock of its Fortress, during its says of greatness and glory that came about through divine kindness replete with glory, and in its days of being impoverished and downtrodden through rivers of blood and a flood of terrible calamaties, which all awakened the love, strengthened it and actualized it - there is no way possible that all of these longings are not transcribed in a book in the national storehouse where all holy expressions find a place.

Only someone (Rabbi Akiva) who as his skin was being combed with iron combs was able to say, "My entire life I was concerned if I would ever have the opportunity to fulfill the verse 'with your entire life,'" and to elongate his saying the word Echad until his soul left him, only he could say that nothing in the history of existence is as valuable as the day that Shir HaShirim was given to the Jewish people. That all of the Writings are Holy, but Shir HaShirim is the Holy of Holies.

True Spiritual Experience

Spiritual experience, that which the Kabbalists call R'usa D'liba, is found in the heart, not in thought.
When we describe a person who is great in Torah we generally refer to his Torah intellect. We need, however, to remember that genuis in studying the revealed Torah is only one step on the path of a Torah scholar. His true greatness is revealed through his ability to acheive a loving relationship with God, not only with knowledge and intellect, but through the heart. The intellect only opens up before us the possibility to feel the pleasure of an amazing experience, that which the Tzaddik feels when he succeeds in relating lovingly to God.

The Gift of Love

On my trips to Jerusalem I usually make a stop at Pomerantz bookstore. In the United States the Seforim stores as a rule sell to a Charedi population and are not inclined to carry works from authors in the Religious Zionist camp. Unfortunately this attitude means that there are many amazing Seforim that are unknown and unavailable to the American public. My visits to Pomerantz are my annual opportunity to learn about Seforim that I cannot learn about otherwise.
Yesterday I visited Pomerantz. I wasn't planning to so as not to break my budget, but I had committed myself to visiting as many used bookstores as possible during my visit (more on that elsewhere) and Pomerantz has a large used section. Once I was there I found a Sefer on Shir HaShirim published a few short months ago only days before the passing of its author Rav Shaar Yoshuv Cohen, zt'l.
Shir HaShirim ranks among the more difficult to understand books of Tanach, and here is a 700 page magnus opus going through each verse as well as the Midrash on Shir HaShirim. So far I have made it through most of the introduction which alone is worth the price of admission. My goal is to be sharing some of the highlights on this blog.