Editing Song of Songs (section)

=== Judaism ===
[[File:Rashi megillot.jpg|thumb|A page of Rashi's interpretation of the megillot, National Library of Israel]]
The Song was accepted into the Jewish canon of scripture and was understood as "an allegory for the love between God and Israel", a view "dominant for a thousand years and more". However, according to Catholic priest Fr. Andrew Greeley, Song of Songs is "secular love poetry, a collection of love songs gathered around a single theme" and scholarship has "routed the allegorical interpretation".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scolnic |first=Benjamin Edidin |date=1996 |title=Why Do We Sing the Song of Songs on Passover? |url=http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/jewish-law/holidays/pesah/why-do-we-sing-the-song-of-songs-on-passover.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906072220/http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/jewish-law/holidays/pesah/why-do-we-sing-the-song-of-songs-on-passover.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |journal=Conservative Judaism |volume=48 |pages=53–54}}</ref> Although "there is a tradition that even this book was considered as one to be excluded", as stated in [[Avot de-Rabbi Natan|Aboth d'Rabbi Nathan A1]], a 700–900 CE work, the Song of Songs was not only included but regarded as "especially meritorious". Reformed Jewish Solomon Freehof notes that one must think "if the book is so gross ... unlike all other books of the Bible tradition ... why accept it at all?" <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freehof |first=Solomon B |date=1949 |title=The Song of Songs: A General Suggestion |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1453261 |journal=The Jewish Quarterly Review |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=399 |doi=10.2307/1453261 |jstor=1453261}}</ref> 

Canonicity was tied to its attribution to Solomon, and based on an allegorical reading where the subject matter was taken to be not sexual desire but God's love for Israel.<ref>[[Avot of Rabbi Natan]] 1:4, "At first they buried [Song of Songs], until the [[Men of the Great Assembly]] arrived to explain it ... as it says, 'Come my beloved, let us go forth to the field ...'" Cf. [[Talmud|b.]] [[Eruvin (Talmud)|Eruvin]] 31b for the Rabbinic homily on this verse, "'Come my beloved' – so the congregation of Israel said to the Holy One, blessed be He ..."</ref>{{sfn|Loprieno|2005|p=107}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Japhet |first=Sara |date=2007 |title=Rashi's Commentary on the Song of Songs: The Revolution of Prashat and Its Aftermath |url=http://www.lineas.cchs.csic.es/inteleg/sites/lineas.cchs.csic.es.inteleg/files/Japhet-Rashi's%20Commentary.pdf |journal=Rashi: The Man and His Work |pages=199}}</ref> For instance, the famed first and second century [[Rabbi Akiva]] forbade the use of the Song of Songs in popular celebrations. He reportedly said, "He who sings the Song of Songs in wine taverns, treating it as if it were a vulgar song, forfeits his share in the world to come".{{sfn|Phipps|1974|p=85}} However, Rabbi Akiva famously defended the canonicity of the Song of Songs, reportedly saying when the question came up of whether it should be considered a defiling work, "God forbid!&nbsp;[...] For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies."{{sfn| Schiffman|1998|pp=[http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Mishnah_Yadayim_3:5:_The_Debate_Over_the_Biblical_Canon 119–20]}}

Other rabbinic scholars who have employed allegorical exegesis in explaining the meaning of Song of Songs are [[Tobiah ben Eliezer]], author of ''Lekach Tov'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Jonathan |year=2015 |title=The Allegorical Exegesis of Song of Songs by R. Tuviah ben 'Eli'ezer—"Lekaḥ Tov", and Its Relation to Rashi's Commentary |journal=Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) Review |language=en |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=75–92 |doi=10.1017/S0364009414000658 |jstor=26375005 |s2cid=164390241}}</ref> and [[Zechariah ha-Rofé]], author of ''[[Midrash ha-Hefez]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Qafiḥ |first=Yosef |title=The Five Scrolls (Ḥamesh Megillot) |publisher=ha-Agudah le-hatsalat ginze Teman |year=1962 |location=Jerusalem |pages=13–ff |language=he |oclc=927095961 |author-link=Yosef Qafih}}</ref> The French rabbi [[Rashi]] did not believe the Song of Songs to be an erotic poem.{{Sfn|Zafar|2014|p=24}}  

Song of Songs is one of the overtly mystical Biblical texts for the [[Kabbalah]], which gave an esoteric interpretation on all the Hebrew Bible. Following the dissemination of the [[Zohar]] in the 13th century, Jewish mysticism took on a metaphorically anthropomorphic erotic element, and Song of Songs is an example of this. In Zoharic Kabbalah, God is represented by a system of ten [[sephirot]] emanations, each symbolizing a different attribute of God, comprising both male and female. The [[Shechina]] ([[Divine immanence|indwelling]] Divine presence) was identified with the feminine sephira [[Malchut]], the vessel of Kingship. This symbolizes the Jewish people, and in the body, the female form, identified with the woman in Song of Songs. Her beloved was identified with the male sephira [[Tiferet]], the "Holy One Blessed be He", a central principle in the beneficent heavenly [[Ohr|flow]] of divine emotion. In the body, this represents the male torso, uniting through the sephira [[Yesod]] of the male [[Brit milah|sign of the covenant]] organ of procreation.

Through beneficent deeds and [[Mitzvah|Jewish observance]], the Jewish people restore cosmic harmony in the divine realm, healing the exile of the Shechina with God's transcendence, revealing the essential unity of God. This elevation of the world is aroused from above on the Sabbath, a foretaste of the redeemed purpose of Creation. The text thus became a description, depending on the aspect, of the creation of the world, the passage of ''Shabbat'', the covenant with Israel, and the coming of the Messianic age. "[[Lecha Dodi]]", a 16th-century liturgical song with strong Kabbalistic symbolism, contains many passages, including its opening two words, taken directly from Song of Songs.

In modern Judaism, certain verses from the Song are read on [[Shabbat]] eve or at [[Passover]], which marks the beginning of the grain harvest as well as commemorating [[the Exodus]] from Egypt, to symbolize the love between the Jewish people and their God. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel.{{sfn|Sweeney|2011|p=unpaginated}} The entire Song of Songs in its original Hebrew is read in synagogues during the intermediate days of Passover. It is often read from a scroll similar to a [[Torah scroll]] in style. It is also read in its entirety by some at the end of the Passover [[Seder]] and is usually printed in most [[Hagadah]]s. Some Jews have the custom to recite the entire book prior to the onset of the Jewish Sabbath.