Shir HaShirim (V’etchanan)

Chapter 7:3-4

Your navel is the moon’s goblet,
Ever filled with wine,

Your belly is a mound of wheat,
Fringed with lilies,
Your breasts are two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle.

If I listen well, get out of my own way, give honor to this curve of thigh, this mound of belly… then I will be danced.

I will be held in Love’s embrace.

As my heart expands, I am called each day to receive this gift of Life from You, my Beloved;
I am called to pour myself out in response to Your flow.
You flow through my body…

In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.

Practice

Chant: The Moon’s Goblet

Commentary

I sing these words as a blessing on the continuity of life in its fullness. The navel is the place where the imprint of the umbilical cord forms a magical moon-shaped goblet, filled with the wine of everything beautiful, joyous and life-giving. That ghost of an umbilical cord connects me with my Source. The moon’s goblet is filling us with a remembrance that nothing is lacking. HaMazeg is sometimes translated as “mixed wine” — nourishment and beauty combined. We celebrate this round belly — a mound of wheat, fringed with lilies — nourishment and beauty combined.

Bridge to Torah

When Moses pleads with God that he might enter the Promised Land, God’s answer comes as a mystery that is meant to awaken us. God says, “Rav Lach!” You have SO much, but you must open your eyes and the eyes of your heart to receive that abundance. Don’t you see, you are already HOME.

  • V’etchanan blesses us with the mystery and challenge of Rav Lach. The Song of Songs helps us to receive that abundance, by pointing us towards the mystery of our own continual rebirth.
  • V’etchanan goes on to remind us to receive again the laws of goodness and justice. The Songs of Songs softens the edges of those laws with beauty and the nourishment available to us in Nature.
  • V’etchanan gifts us with the central commandment to LISTEN, experience the essential Unity and then to love from that place. The Song of Songs provides us with a manual on how to manifest that loving towards the world in an embodied, sensual, generous, flowing way.

Click to see Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.

Questions for Contemplation

Can I connect myself with the Source that is always flowing? Can I let the fullness that I experience overflow into my life as service?

Resources

View Love at the Center Resources.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 7:3-4 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.