The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXII)

We define this kind of love as the one that yearns not only for a complete redemption from exile among the nations, but also from what these represent as addictions, obsessions and attachments to the negative traits and trends of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions.

This kind of profound passionate love must have indeed a powerful spiritual essence that also strongly yearns and aspires to come up to the realms of divine consciousness, as God promised Israel in her final redemption in order to fully realize that He is the reality of all existence.

“‘Return, backsliding sons’, says the Lord; ‘for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds as for My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding’.” (Jeremiah 3:14-15)

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion for him and [he] to our God, for He abundantly pardons.” (Isaiah 55:7)

This calling culminates with the final and eternal encounter in the Temple of Jerusalem at Zion, as the “apple” tree (which is another reference of the Torah as the tree of life) where the Creator arouses us to who we truly are.

“So that I tell all Your praise; in the gates of the daughter of Zion I rejoice in Your redemption.” (Psalms 9:14)

Here we see again that God and Israel are bound by the Torah and the Temple of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, as the sources of our redemption, and unified means of connection between God and Israel.

“Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God, forever.” (Ibid. 87:3)

Let’s be aware that Jerusalem is the heart of the world from which all is nurtured and sustained, as the one that beats in our body. Jerusalem is our heart of love that spreads the goodness of God’s love in every aspect and dimension of life.

“Extol the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion, for He strengthens the bars of your gates, and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders, and satiates you with the finest of wheat.” (Psalms 147:12-14)

This is the heart of goodness, for we praise God whose loving kindness fills all. In this awareness of being, having and doing goodness with its ways and attributes we come to love God “with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our resources”. Thus we also return to Him to come up to the new consciousness in His promised Messianic era.

“(…) O Zion, bearer of good tidings; lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good deeds. Lift it up, do not fear, say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God’!” (Isaiah 40:9)

“(…) How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring goodness, who proclaim peace, who bring good deeds, who proclaim redemption, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’!”

(Ibid 52:7)

The Torah and the Temple of Jerusalem united as the mother from which God’s love was revealed in His Creation. In this metaphor the revelation of His presence in the world happens by the birth of Israel. The triple emphasis of her birth in this verse is to make Israel fully aware that her origin, identity and purpose, all come from her connection with God.

“Because part of the Lord is His people, Jacob is the line of His legacy.” (Deuteronomy 32:9)

Also the “apple” (usually considered a citrus fruit by our sages in the Talmud) symbolizes the Garden of Eden. Thus we understand that God’s love awakens Israel’s love in the highest level of spiritual awareness, also represented by the Garden of Eden.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXI)

“I take You, I bring You to my mother’s house to teach me. I give You scented wine to drink, of the juice of my pomegranate.” (Song of Songs 8:2)

Israel tells God that by her returning to His ways and attributes, she brings Him to their eternal bonding in the house of her mother (the Temple of Jerusalem). There God instructs Israel His plan for the Messianic era, and she will bring Him the goodness of the expressions (pomegranate juice) of the new future consciousness as a delightful scented wine. Also in Jewish tradition the seeds of pomegranates represent God’s commandments.

“His left hand is under my head, and His right one embraces me.” (8:3)

Israel’s love joyously and proudly reaffirms her unchanging bond with God’s love, as declared at the beginning of this poem. This time has a special twist, for it is the bond with the eternal quality fully manifest after Israel’s final redemption and the advent of the Messianic era.

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem. How do you stir or how do you arouse the love until she pleases?” (8:4)

In this new redeeming reality, God commands the traits and characteristics of the highest level of consciousness (the daughters of Jerusalem) to wake up and stir Israel’s essence and identity in order for her to express the new qualities of the inherent goodness of her love as much as she pleases.

In the fulfillment of His final redemption, God will stir up our inherent goodness to bring our love back to His love.

“Who is she ascending from the desert, leaning upon her Beloved? Under the apple [tree] I aroused you. There your mother was giving birth to you, she who bore you delivered you.” (8:5)

God responds by also returning to her as we quoted the prophets earlier, “Return to Me, and I will return to you”. He asks rhetorically who is the one who returns from the desert (among the harshness and desolation of the suffering in Israel’s exile among the nations), by leaning upon Him as she returns to Him. This returning is motivated, attained and successfully achieved by having and manifesting an extremely intense love for God, for there is no other way to return to Him.

“And if from there you seek the Lord your God, you shall find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”, “Then the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you; and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.” (Deuteronomy 4:29, 30:33)

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXX)

“Who does make You as a brother to me, who has nursed at my mother breasts? I would find You outside and kiss You, and no one would despise me.” (Song of Songs 8:1)

The bonding of both loves continues, looking forward to delight in closeness. Israel asks God again to remind her about the common traits they share, that make them as brother and sister of the same mother. This is the sweet allegory of a common bond as the common “origin” they share.

“And I have betrothed you to Me forever, and betrothed you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in compassion. And betrothed you to Me in faithfulness, and you have known the Lord.” (Hosea 2:19-20)

Israel simultaneously speaks to the nations, telling them that she finds God’s love without them or their help. Then she kisses Him in front of them. Now that the nations finally realize and accept Israel’s preeminence in the world, due to her intimate connection with the Creator, they do not despise, harm or hate Israel as they enter the Messianic era. Thus is God’s will.

“For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one purpose.” (Zephaniah 3:9)

“All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and they shall glorify Your name.” (Psalms 86:9)

All the nations of the earth will partake in the Jewish final redemption and the advent of the Messianic era, in the new consciousness whose thought will be directed toward the single purpose of knowing the Creator, as a new language that will reflect only goodness as the spiritual and material manifestation of God’s love.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXIX)

“Come, my Beloved, let us go into the field.” (Song of Songs 7:12)

God asks His beloved to go with Him to the field where His redeeming love makes everything flourish and blossom. This field is another clear reference to the Messianic times, when the material world will share the same dimension with the spiritual heavens. The earth will return to its original state as the Garden of Eden, also known as “the field of God”.

“Let’s us lodge in the villages, we rise early to the vineyards, to us see if the vine has budded, the blossom has opened, the pomegranates have blossomed. There, I shall give My loves to you. The mandrakes yield fragrance, and at our doors [are] all precious fruits, new and old, I have hidden for you My beloved.” (7:13-14)

The Creator continues introducing the coming Messianic times. In this part the poem mentions villages (lit. towns) and not cities, referring to new ways of fathoming, reasoning, thinking and feeling what He reserves for us.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, but man can’t fathom the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

These are the new dwellings of the divinely redeemed human consciousness. From there God’s love and Israel's love will partner promptly (“rise early”), guiding and directing the nations and humankind as vineyards. The new trends in the new human consciousness will yield their produce as their budding, blossoming and ripening of their fruits as deeds and actions to build the renewed earth.

“The peoples will thank You, O God; all the peoples will thank You. The nations will be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with equity, and lead the nations on earth forever. The peoples will thank You, O God; all the peoples will thank You, for the earth will have yielded its produce. And God, our God, will bless us; and everyone from all the ends of the earth will revere Him.” (Psalms 67:4-7)

In these joined partnership, God will share with Israel the unrevealed hidden ways, means and attributes of His love (“My loves”).

“And all your sons shall be taught from the Lord, and abundant is the peace of your sons.” (Isaiah 54:13)

“(…) For they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord (…).” (Jeremiah 31:34)

“As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.” (Micah 7:15)

All these are about the endless journey of knowing our Creator, who will give us a new consciousness capable to guide us in this path.

“I have given them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord. And they have been My people and I will be their God for them to return to Me with all their heart. (…) I have given My Torah in their innards and in their heart will I write it. And I have been a God for them, and they have been My people.” (Jeremiah 24:7, 31:33)

We will smell the concealed fragrances of odorless plants, the hidden nurturing qualities of fruits (“new and old”) God has stored for Israel after her final redemption and in Messianic times.