Chizuk from Shir Hashirim by Yael Dworkin

okay wellow how is everybody it's um it's late are you guys in Israel are you in klar it's I just can I have an indication like are we like dealing with like people who are very tired here in Israel at this late hour most of people are I think we're mostly from here but people could write in the chat if they want to be curious to see okay very good um I was given the um T neck okay good um I was um okay Jerusalem so um my uh my contribution will be on shirim and um there's a lot of distracting things happening here on my U on my desktop I'm trying to like close them and not be distracted okay hopefully the distractions will be to so as we know okay good um all the learning should go to benefit uh hi rabbitson okay good oh Celeste is there okay excellent hi celest okay so umem we'll hear good news with all this learning that's going on we're sending our forces and troops uh Victorious um energy Vibes so um um okay so as you know it's it's an allegory it's a love story between KES and and uh it's not to be meant it's not meant to be taken ASAT it's not meant to be read on theat level nobody I know who translates sh shim translates a word for word they're always transl in it uh with an interpretation because what is this now I only have like 10 minutes I might go over 10 minutes uh so like if I would give a full-blown hour Shear um that could be like even two hours I would give you a lot more but I I'm going to be M my words constricting my uh my uh offering here so I'm going to screen share with you something oh do I have cap ability to screen share yeah can Samir can you allow me to screen share yes okay you can now I can now okay what am I screen sharing okay so traditionally when do we read when do we read shim we read it on PES as we know but on a weekly basis it's part of the Liturgy that we read Arab Shabbat um before or Kabal shabat many synagogues get together and the men read it and uh I have a practice to say it in my home it's why do we say it on Shabbat because Shabbat is a time where we Unite with a we have the we have the shabat and it's a time that our soul can just give itself over to this relationship now these for suim in the sitter if you find it in your sitter and in the AR shabas section right before Shabbat right before Kabal shabat there's a text of the aim of shim but then it says after that if you didn't get a chance to say the whole shim it's recommended to at least say these these four suim that encapsulate the totality of the like the main ideas the main ideas um that are reflected in shirim and that's what I chose to share with you today and you'll see here that these four psim the acronym of it the first letter of each one of these Pim spell out the word Yakov the name Yakov and this is significant why is yako featured here as um as a an encapsulation of the whole shim if you didn't get to say it all you can say these Pim and you're pretty much covered covered the basis of all the main ideas well you know that Yakov is another name for is for the Jewish people and so we tend to think that sikim have this super relationship of and closeness to a KES but BYOB being pointed out here and we know that as as students of tanak whenever yov is mentioned in tanak as opposed to is we're sometimes referred to as sometimes the difference between the two is when we're um spiritually high um doing what we're supposed to do according to Torah and MIT and we are B we're on a high spiritual standing when theim referred to us as we're kind of a on a lower stature we need we need so BYOB being mentioned here the indication is that even the simple Jews are full of love for a and a who loves them no matter what just as he would the biggest sadic we all have that portion within the heart of hasem his is upon all of us and there's no such thing as a pretty much this is why Yakov has mentioned here that's what the commentators say why are these fors who came the ones that were picked out from from the from the pram of of of uh of of Shir shirim because they all mention um a unique relationship the unique relationship that we have with a K what makes this relationship very special it also has references to the G which is very timely for the situation that we're living through now so I'm just going to read in Hebrew and then I'm going to move to another document that has the translations of them and then we'll flush out the the meanings of [Music] them each one of these is like every is like a bomb of like of of such deep reflection of this love that's going on between am Israel and a so I'm going to stop sharing now and then I'm going to share again because I need to move to another document so where are these Pim from I need to make it bigger for you so that you can see it better how come it's not going getting bigger um okay maybe I'll just do it with this okay so let's focus on the first P we're just going to go down the line and hopefully you'll be with you stay with me because it's very late the that begins with the of this comes from oh give me the of the kisses of your mouth kiss me for the kisses I don't like this translation because it doesn't have the double of of of kissing here kiss me of the kisses give me of the kisses of your mouth for your love is more delightful than Wine this is how this is the second PUK of sh what's going on here what are the kisses here so again because of the limited time I'm I've I'm uh choosing only one particular commentary for each one of these so when a um Gave Over the Torah and Hari there are two Commandments that we heard directly from his mouth this is referred to as the kisses of hasem give me of the kisses of your mouth as we experienced at the Revelation the closeness of you of of of of being so close to you like a between and of a bridegroom and his and his um and his bride in the innermost chambers of yud for your love is more delightful than wine so the commentators explain that when Hashem said basically hasem gave us over all the and when he said it covers all of the MIT the prohibitive mitzvas of of what we're not supposed to do and every time and when he said an he planted within the heart of every Jew the love of hasem with an unwavering um commitment to stay in this Bond forever the root of like the the amuna of that we belong to him and he belongs to us God established in the hearts with Ani that's one kiss the second kiss is L and that's with like the approving of a v Zara from our heart anything that keeps us estranged from Hashem anything that brings a distance between of was uprooted when we heard and so the commentator say just as we experience the love of Hashem and the exclusive love of Hashem to the exclusion of of anything else that happens in the world we are distancing ourselves we are only exclusively for Hashem hashem's bride and he is for us the Beloved so too we want that relationship to manifest itself in all of our doings throughout our life through every aspect of our daily living that we should feel that closeness we should feel those kisses we should feel that Bond and um and then it's explained here because your love is more delightful than Wine why is the Torah why is our relationship with hem why is this intimacy that we have with theem that's specific to the Jewish people with the K with the creator of the world why is it compared to Wine one of the things I'm going to tell you from all of the commentators that that said that said about it is that wine is one of those rare drinks that gets better with age so no matter how often how long we've been doing this exercise of being Jews keeping Torah and Mitzvah it just keeps deep deeper deepening our appreciation of what that relationship means just keeps getting deeper and deeper like like aging wine becomes vintage wine becomes exclusive becomes something very desirable and never gets old and never gets stale and this is the the description of of of you know of of what's going on between the slave relationship with Hashem and the Jewish people that is upon us always he's a to and he loves us and he will not forsake us and he will not replace us with anybody else and we are um expressing that same commitment to him the second PUK whoops what's going on here this is from chapter 4: 16 awake o North Wind come O south wind blow upon my garden that its perfume May spread let my beloved come to his garden and enjoy its luscious fruits so the commentators explain this the word Ur comes from the word it's like it's an Awakening it's a call to be awakened so something that is sleep that has to rise up from sleep and come back to its conscious State what is being awakened Theon The North Wind what do we know about the north wind those of us who have been studying t for as long as you're your like Master tan students at this point is a is like a code for um the gulas uh that um The North Wind uh in inc's Vision uh the the evil that befell the bad that befell the Jewish people with theban it came from the northon comes from also it's something hidden the love of AEM is is concealed in the time of gas but now in peric verse 16 says it's time to come out of gas wake up from this place of saon of the north and come oh South Wind come and bring the people back let us renew our relationship like as it was before the gas that his perfume May spread let my beloved come to his garden and enjoyed slush's fruit so it opens up the PK opens up with with with a with a reference to the galot with the Exiles that when the Exiles will wake up they will come back south they will come back to Jerusalem and when Mia also will will uh you know in if I remember doing this zir asked me to give something over fores and um that time that yel opens up with a certain Vision but he closes the book with another vision and as the left Jerusalem and left from the north leading the leading the um the Jews into Exile into bavel the rectification of that follows the same steps we will be coming back from the forth from the north and we will be coming back to Jerusalem from the same exit point we will become that will become our entry point so this is a reference to mhia Bringing about the galut U bringing about the G that it's a call for for mashiach to to wake up also that he should bring back the Exiles and here's a I'm gonna just read it for you from the war that's going to be fall before the final gah Mia will come back from the north and do battle with Gog whose Menace is from the north and it's at that place that he will fall and there's a p that I'm going to read you from from that makes a reference to this I will turn you around and drive you you on and I will take you from the far north and Lead You toward the mountains of Israel so this is a a p that is direct reference to the G so the first P references our relationship through Torah and Mitzvah and the and the unbreakable bond that we have this love relationship with Hashem that's never never wavering even in times of gas and the second P refers to the end of gas there's a a mid also that speaks about the that that in in the future Hashem will make a sud for theik and once we're in ganeden you don't really need perfumes because everything is perfumed over there but this makes a reference to fragrances this is that the that the honor the fragrances of ganeden will make themselves also felt in the time of Gul as we're going to be experiencing it and it's like an invitation and it's an invitation for everyone to partake of the great suda and the great um rejoicing that we will bring that we will that we will um um experience at that time let my beloved come to his garden so am Israel is inviting us Hashem we want to feel your presence in that time we want you to manifest yourself we want to see you amongst us and enjoy its luscious fruits and you will be with us enjoying and celebrating with us in a palatable way the third my beloved there he comes leaping over mountains bounding over Hills this is from from per chapter 2 verse 8 so Rashi on this PUK says this is a reference the Rashi um all of his interpretation makes references to the Gul from this is how he tches this is how uh pretty much running through the shim is a reference to so when hasem came to redeem us from from he was in and the reference like is the the are the mothers and the of the and and he brought the children back before the appointed time we were supposed to be there 400 years he shorted into 210 years so he's made the leg he's sleeping over the mountains to be able to save us from there so there's a mid that says says three different opinions the voice of my beloved uh hearkens he's coming so um oh the reference according to this is a reference to when he came to them to say it's on this month that you are that you're going to be redeemed they said but how could we be redeemed we were told we were going to be in MIT 400 years only 210 years passed because wants to redeem you to bring the Gula he's not going to look at these calculations he's going to skip over M leap over mountains and bound over Hills another opinion is that um that the the the voice of the Beloved through the the says it's time to redeem you oh Israel and they would tell them but we don't have we don't have any merits we're not holding on to enough not enough and he answers them because Hashem wants to redeem he wants to bring about the G he's not going to look at your Deeds he's not going to look at your bad deeds and he's going to look at the sikim and their actions and he's going to look at the pemus of every Jew because there's a sadic within every Jew so all of the bad behavior really is to the Jew in the p p self in the in the internal aspect of our Essence We're All Pure we're all kados as we saw in this mat a week before balagan and diso two weeks before so much Strife you think are we ever going to get it together this is so bad as soon as anybody tries to hurt anyone of them we we're all together we see that the Falls away and the true essence of the Jew as we all experienced and we're all so proud of being Jews now because the true Essence is coming out so he says I'm going to look at your true Essence never bind the nonsense aspects that um Miss Miss on um um you know don't rise to the call on the day today but when it comes down to it you are pure and you are worthy to be redeemed we should see it in our times like M soon the Third I have come to my garden my own my bride where come I I have plucked my mire and spice eaten my honey and honeycomb drunk my wine and my milk so this is the fourth P now this I'm I'm finishing I have come to my garden my own bride I've plucked my M and spice eaten my honey and honey drunk my wine and my milk Hashem is saying in this PUK um I'm coming to my garden you invited me I'm going to be with [Music] you comes from like to to weave things together we're going to fix this like an like we're going to be United we're going to be again and um and and it's and it's going to be beautiful and uh we're going to be celebrating and again this is a reference to um to the G um so so he's he's taking his place U the whole the whole of shim is a is a is a back and forth conversation between Israel he says she says this is what happening to him this is what happening to her and eventually we're going to get together the G is going to come um shim has a way of Awakening the soul of a person [Music] um there's I'm just going to finish by saying that um in the gamar they weren't convinced that shim was actually going to be part of tanak because it seems like a love song between a man and a woman there's there's no references to Hashem clearly there it's all an allegory but RAB AKA says all the songs of holy and shim is holy of holies is KES Kash and there's no better way of describing the connection that we have with the kades then the joyous unification of a bridegroom in his bride under the and the rambam speaks about the love that we're supposed to have with theem he goes into very great details that it should M he he describes like the desire that a bridegroom has for her is bride and the bride has first bridegroom and um and and there's no better um analogy when it works there's no greater sweet sweet relationship than a good relationship between husband and wife especially on their wedding night and um we see the final g that everything that's happening in Israel now and in the Jewish people all of this is to bring about this great Unity again that we have not forsaken all these soldiers that are wearing toot all of the people didn't keep Shabbat say I want to keep Shabbat teach me how to say etc etc all the the are going we're it's all like an expression of love for Hashem Hashem we're we have not forsaken you we may have fallen off we may have like lost our mind along the way for a bit we may have fallen into forgetfulness but when you touch us what's going to come out is the tremendous love that's at the root of our Nish because the and we're all holy and we're all sweet Jews and everything that we're seeing today and everything the shirim um represents will be able to see and manifest and actualize in our own life with the coming of Messiah with the reestablishing of Mal in the world reestablishing Mal based in the world with the building the base of make because that's the ultimate expression of closest toes thank you so much for having me