Chapter 2:10-12
My beloved calls to me:
Arise my friend, oh beautiful one,
Go to yourself…
For now the winter is past,
The rains are over and gone,
Blossoms appear in the fields,
The time for singing has come.
The sound of the turtledove
Echoes throughout the land.
For now, my struggle is over. I struggled with the belief that I shouldn’t be exactly who I am and sing myself aloud from the nearest tree. I struggled with the belief that I should have a different fragrance—something sweet or perhaps, something smarter, a fragrance that might be acceptable, that might perhaps blend in. I lost the battle against who I am, yet in my losing I am victorious. In my losing I have found myself. My song echoes throughout the land. I exult in the fragrance that is mine alone.
In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
Illustrations ©2009 Phillip Ratner, courtesy of the Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum and the Israel Bible Museum collection. All rights reserved.
Practice
Chant: Kumi Lach
Commentary
What if every relationship could be an opportunity for us to call each other into the realization of our full potential?
What would it mean to let our gaze penetrate the façade of another and see through to reveal a glimmer of the core, authentic Divine essence; thereby sending that other to her truth. And, what would it mean to receive the gaze of the world as a force of sending, to respond to each and every being by rising up into our full stature and beauty as we take the journey to the center of our being, the place where self and other meet?
Bridge to Torah
In the depths and suffering of enslavement/conditioning, God, The Beloved calls to me, “Arise, awaken from your complacency and numbness, and go to your true self, your freedom.” This process of awakening, this journey to freedom begins with saving that spark of prophesy in us called Moses, tending it in the court of Pharaoh, sending it into the wilderness and awakening it to service and destiny at the burning bush. For lo, the winter of our enslavement is past; the time for singing has come. And it is this song, echoing throughout the land, that will guide us through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
Click to see Exodus 1:1–6:1 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.
Question for Contemplation
How can I treat every relationship as an opportunity for us to call each other into the realization of my full potential? (This includes my relationships with the non-human world of rocks, trees, blossoms, birds, clouds and so forth.)
Resources
View Love at the Center Resources.
See also SHS Commandment 7.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 2:10-12 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.