Two Minute Torah Podcast

Shabbat Hol HaMoed Pesah 5770 by Rabbi Elyse Winick

Shalom! This is Rabbi Elyse Winick, Associate Director for KOACH in the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Department of Youth and Young Adult Services. Welcome to KOACH's Two Minute Torah.

My lover responded, saying to me: Rise up, my darling, my beauty, come away. For behold, the winter is past, the rains are over, gone away. The buds are seen in the land, the time of singing has arrived, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. (Shir HaShirim 2:10-12 - trans. Benjamin J. Segal)

One of the great delights of Pesah is reading Song of Songs on Shabbat Hol HaMoed. An extended love poem, Shir HaShirim gives exquisite voice to deep and heartfelt longing. It's somewhat shocking that this book is included in our canon. It seems out of place amidst the history and the memory, the telling of the story of our people. And yet, Pesah seems to be the ideal moment to reflect on this part of our story.

Traditional commentators suggest that Song of Songs is a metaphor for God's love for Israel. How fitting to define the redemption from slavery in the context of love. God takes us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, it is true, but perhaps the outstretched arm evokes the embrace by which we are drawn near to God who loves us.

The leap of faith we take by accepting the Torah and its obligations is our loving response to God. We tell God na'aseh v'nishma, we will do first and through doing we will come to understand. Love must run deep to engender that kind of response. Our relationship with the Divine is defined not by law, not by mandate, but by love.

Created in God's image, we must then wonder aloud about what it means to love one another, what message Shir HaShirim offers not only about our relationship with God, but also our relationships with those God has created.

The renewal of springtime, the sweeping out of the crumbs which clutter our souls, these call to us to look at how we might begin anew. How might we redefine our relationships and frame them with the presence of God? How might we see the sacred in the human, see the trace of God's presence in all whom we know and love?

And with that, the time of singing will surely arrive. Shabbat Shalom.