Chapter 1:1-3
The Song of Songs: A Journey (through love) towards Peace and Wholeness.
Oh, give me the kisses of your mouth,
For your sweet loving is better than wine,
Your juices are fragrant,
Your essence pours out like oil,
This is why all the young women want you.
I am called to intimacy, and my longing calls me to Life.
I request Your mouth; I invite the Supreme Risk.
Your kiss is Death as well as Revelation.
Yet I know that all the wine I have drunk is just a taste;
each and every moment of ecstasy only stirs the coals.
A spark, my true spark, awakens, leaps and then grows dark again.
Each time I feel Your breath on my face, my spark awakens and twinkles with laughter or trembles with terror.
And then, I am all lips, all expectancy, all hunger.Your fragrance, the scent of Reality, lures me
Beneath the dry surface of this seeming world…
Behind the shadows that confound me…
Between the sureties of conception and form
The tantalizing fragrance of Your Presence calls to me.
In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
Illustration ©2009 Phillip Ratner, courtesy of the Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum and the Israel Bible Museum collection. All rights reserved.
Practice
Chant: Kiss Me (Yishakayni)
Commentary
The words at the beginning of The Song of Songs set the tone for passion, intimacy, yearning and fulfillment as we journey forth into the adventure of Love that is Shir HaShirim. These words teach us that the stance we must take towards life is “Puckered up”: be ready, willing, expectant and committed to the journey of Love.
This verse is a request to invite God – Reality – the World-as-it-is – Existence-itself… to an intimate direct encounter. That Divine kiss in turn invites us into our passion. Our practice is to release all passivity, pucker up and engage with Life. To receive the Divine kiss is to die to this moment and be reborn in love. Can we receive it in the color of the sky? In this breath? With this step? Can we open to the gift that God is giving us in “this”?
Bridge to Torah
As we open to the Divine kiss as this world we can remember the very first “kiss” that animated and enlivened Creation. A kiss is a sharing of breath. We receive that Divine kiss in the garden and grow up as spiritual beings, as lovers of The Beloved who has kissed us into life; we can grow up to become fully engaged, and fully responsive. R. Arthur Waskow calls the Song of Songs, the grownup Eden. We grow up to become full participants in this dance of love, giving and receiving at once.
Click to see Genesis 1:1-6:8 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.
Questions for Contemplation
Can I receive the Divine kiss in the color of the sky? In this breath? With this step? Can I open to the gift that God is giving me in “this”?
Resources
View Love at the Center Resources.
See also SHS Commandment 1.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 1:1-3 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.