by Rabbi Shefa Gold
"The whole
Torah is Holy, but the Song of Songs is 'The Holy of Holies'." This means
that it must be placed at the center of our concerns, as the core text of our
spiritual life. He also said that had the Torah not been given, we could live
our lives by the Song of Songs.
Rabbi Akiva said that "Had
the Torah not been given, we could live our lives by the Song of Songs." For
the last couple years I have immersed myself in this holy text - learning its language,
receiving its passion, and entering into the reality it describes. I have lived
with the question, "What would it mean to live my life by the Song of Songs?"
Listening for its instruction for my life, opening to its wisdom, I feel in
some sense commanded by its voice. The Song of Songs is about relationship. It
is about the giving and receiving of Love. Though the Song of Songs describes a
very human relationship, it is understood to illuminate all relationship, most
importantly the relationship with God, that Mystery that shines forth from
within and beyond this world. When
Love flows freely between us and that Great Mystery, the whole world is watered
and nourished.
1.
Thou shalt explore intimacy, allowing thyself to be drawn by Mystery and be open
to the power of yearning for God.
2.
Thou shalt be fully engaged, enjoying whatever it is that is before thee now
and learn to perceive the perfection behind this seemingly imperfect world.
3.
Thou shalt cultivate generosity and appreciate the beauty that is before thee.
4.
Thou shalt truly experience pleasure and surrender to the intoxication of Love,
occasionally losing "control."
5. Thou shalt experience and know thy
complete purity and innocence and yet pay careful attention to the timing of Love.
6.
Thou shalt be in conversation with Nature and through that conversation explore
the Mystery of Love and Death.
7.
Thou shalt treasure, protect and honor the gifts given to thee and allow
thyself to be addressed personally by God through the gifts of this world.
8. Thou shalt invite all the winds of
the world to blow upon thee and use everything that happens to strengthen your
commitment
to fully waking up.
9.
Thou shalt discern the uniqueness in each opportunity for love and risk
everything in order to rise to the challenge of Love.
10.
Thou shalt play... with enthusiasm and curiosity while listening attentively for the voice of the Shechinah.
Commentary:
1.
Thou shalt explore intimacy, allowing thyself to be drawn by Mystery and be
open to the power of yearning for God.
Oh,
give me the kisses of your mouth, For your sweet loving is better than wine.... The very first words of Shir Hashirim send us on
the journey of relationship. We don't ask to hold hands or turn our face for a
peck on the cheek. We lift our face and wet our lips in anticipation of meeting
Life and Love in its fullness. We
are commanded to pucker up, as it were, to explore the boundaries of our
separate self, and to keep challenging those boundaries. Every word of Shir
HaShirim can be read as both the word that I speak to God and the word that God
speaks to me. As we ask for Love, we must also rise to its challenge.
Each relationship in our
lives opens the door to a whole other universe. As we step through that door we
escape from the confining prison of self and get a glimpse of the world through
the eyes of the "other." Entering through the Other we are drawn by the Mystery
of innumerable galaxies, swirling around each other, all interconnected. As we
stand in awe of this vast cosmic drama, we experience it all unfolding within a
great Oneness. That great Echad is
supremely conscious and supremely loving. When in a moment of loving we can
feel ourselves inside that Oneness, then the power of Yearning is unlocked.
This is the power that frees us from separateness and sends us into the arms of
the Beloved.
2.
Thou shalt be fully engaged, enjoying whatever it is that is before thee now
and learn to perceive the perfection behind this seemingly imperfect world.
The challenge of Love
requires that we not hold anything back. We are commanded to be fully engaged
with Life, with whatever we are experiencingat this very moment. This is what
it means to "Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your
might."
I had been on various
Buddhist-style retreats where I was instructed to watch or pay attention to my
breath. The instruction was helpful at the time. Then I had the opportunity of
being with Thich Nat Han, and he said it differently. In the most sensuous tone
of voice he said, "Enjoy your breathing!" That changed everything for me. In
order to really "enjoy," I also needed to pay attention, but I took it a step
further. I could open to the gift of each breath, and receive its bounty. No
matter what is before us, The Song commands us to bask in its miracle.
Wherever we lie, our bed is
green,
Our roofbeams are cedar, our
rafters, fir.
When the lovers of The
Song of Songs see each other as "perfect," you might think they have been
blinded by Love. On the contrary, their eyes have been opened to a deeper
perfection that gets obscured by a surface perception. Our whole world wears a
mask of Tragedy. The perception of "what's wrong," is so compelling, that it
takes the most powerful force in the universe to pry the mask loose for even a
moment so that we can receive the perfection underlying all of Reality. We
return from that experience of perfection with the challenge of expanding our
consciousness ever wider to embrace the paradox.
3.
Thou shalt cultivate generosity and appreciate the beauty that is before thee.
The Language of Shir
HaShirim teaches us to be extravagant with praise. The Lovers of the Song keep
on giving, finding new gifts and showering them upon each other. The Song
commands us to cultivate that same generosity of spirit that looks for the good
in others and allows us to reach ever deeper into our capacity for giving.
There are so many
teachings in our Tradition about lashon HaRa (bad speech), rules about what you
can't say, because words are such a powerful force. The Song turns this around
and commands us to express the goodness that is in our hearts. If you have
something nice to say and you don't say it, you have broken the commandment of
Shir HaShirim. Expressing our appreciation for beauty transforms that beauty
into something that is soul-transforming.
4.
Thou shalt truly experience pleasure and surrender to the intoxication of Love,
occasionally losing "control."
He brought me to the tavern,
And his banner over me is Love.
The "tavern" of mystical
literature is the place we go to be freed from categories, definition or
concept regarding the nature of Self, God or Reality. There we can be "claimed" by the naked truth of our direct
experience unmediated by what we think is real or possible or desirable. We are commanded to let go of control...
(which is to actually let go of the illusion of control)
long enough to be filled to overflowing with a Spirit that cannot be tamed or contained. The Song of Songs commands us....
Feast, friends, and drink till
you are drunk with love!
5. Thou shalt experience and know thy
complete purity and innocence and yet pay careful attention to the timing of
Love.
Shir HaShirim commands us
to be Lovers and to know our love as something completely innocent and pure. It
is not a love that requires anything in return. There is no shame in it, no
fear, no ulterior motives. In the heart of hearts there is this sweet radiance
of who we really are underneath all the layers of false-self. We are commanded
to let that radiance shine forth into the world. And though this shining of
Love is completely innocent, through the lessons of Life we must acquire the
wisdom of Love. These words of warning are repeated three times:
6.
Thou shalt be in conversation with Nature and through that conversation explore
the Mystery of Love and Death.
God speaks to us through the wonders and beauty and mysteries of
Nature, but we must learn how to listen. We are commanded to go out ...
" To see the new green by the
brook,
To see if the vines had blossomed
And the pomegranates had
bloomed,"
And not only must we
listen and watch and wonder, but we must know our own wildness, experience all
the passion of being a holy animal. We are commanded to...
"be like a gazelle, a wild stag
On the jagged mountains."
As we get to know the
cycles and rhythms of the Natural world and begin living those rhythms of moon
and tide, seed and harvest, the power and intimacy of Love can transform us. As
our conversation with Nature deepens, we begin to notice that everything dies
and in every death, the seeds of new birth are hidden. With the Lovers of Shir
HaShirim we cry,
"For Love is as strong as Death
Its passion is as harsh as the
grave,
Its sparks become a raging
fire,
A Divine Flame."
7.
Thou shalt treasure, protect and honor the gifts given to thee and allow
thyself to be addressed personally by God through the gifts of this world.
We are commanded to open
our eyes and enliven all of our senses so that we can know that the garden of
our lives is exceedingly precious. Each fragrance, each color, each touch, each
moment represents the fruit of eternity. When we awaken to this preciousness,
we can begin living from this awareness.
Shir Hashirim commands
us to treasure each day, to hold sacred each opportunity for the giving and
receiving of Love. We must call on every ounce of strength and integrity in us
to protect what we love and not to take it for granted. And we are commanded to
honor the gift of new life as it is re-created in us at every moment. The Song
commands us to receive and open the personal letter that God has written to us
in the details of our everyday life.
8. Thou shalt invite all the winds of
the world to blow upon thee and use everything that happens to strengthen your
commitment
to fully waking up.
So much of our energy is
habitually directed towards protecting ourselves from the winds of change. We
hunker down and stay hidden and hope to keep from aging. In trying to hide our
flaws, our own treasures lay buried, concealed even from ourselves. The Song of
Songs commands us to invite into our lives the forces of change which carry
insight, possibility, and new perspectives. Only then can our fragrance, the
uniqueness of who we are and are becoming, be revealed.
Awake north wind! Oh South wind,
come!
Blow upon my garden
and let its spices stream out.
Let my lover come into his garden
And taste its luscious fruit.
We are commanded to open to the energy of each direction, each aspect of awakening so it can blow through the garden of our souls. We invite the winds of change to awaken our unique essence so that our treasures can be released and shared.
9.
Thou shalt discern the uniqueness in each opportunity for love and risk
everything in order to rise to the challenge of Love.
When I live my live by the
Song of Songs, I can't just say, "Oh I love everyone or everything..." Each person, color, flower, river,
place has a spirit that's waiting to be discovered by my attention and love.
Although there is a great interconnectedness and weaving between us all, each
being stands in its uniqueness. I must stand in my own uniqueness in order to
discover and appreciate the uniqueness of another. To stand in my uniqueness means be on a path of
self-knowledge and self-realization.
10.
Thou shalt play... with enthusiasm and curiosity while listening attentively for the voice of the Shechinah.
Without playing we will
never find our power or humor or love. We are commanded to "Go out and play!"
Experiment with who you think you are. Try on some new identities. The Song
commands us to be a wild stag, a King, a shepherd or a mare among Pharoah's
chariots, in other words... Play! Without playing, we become grim and
dull. The Song commands us not to
take ourselves too seriously, but to take our playing seriously.
The imagination is
essential. Without a dynamic and constantly fluid vision of Love, we will not
be able to rise to its heights or explore its depths. The imagination expands
the range of the possible. We cultivate the imagination by taking time to dream;
by closing our eyes to the outer distractions long enough to open the eye of
the heart to inner treasures. We nurture the imagination by honoring the
images, feelings, colors and flavors that are glimpsed, and by planting those
glimpses as if they were seeds in the fertile soil of our lives. We refine the
imagination through continual and concerted practice.
Oh woman in the garden,
All our friends listen for your
voice,
Let me hear it now!
All of our passion and
creativity, our playfulness and imagination allow us to enter the Garden. And
there, the Song tells us, we must listen for Her voice, that Divine voice that
has been whispering to us all along.