We begin the Torah portions again with Bereishit, "in the beginning." In that sense, there is no beginning or end, merely stages in the cycle. Rather than bring you a commentary on the Torah portion in the newsletter, we're saving that for the livestream on Shabbat so that you can benefit from the motion graphics.
Instead, I'd like to share a beautiful insight from our Torah class, which is studying the Song of Songs. The Song is a parable of the relationship between the Holy One and Israel, a parable of the resurrection. It opens with a most intimate statement:
May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!
For Your love is better than wine.
To understand the "kisses of His mouth" is critical to decoding the rest of the Song. Understand the kisses, and you'll understand the wine...and a context that is easy to miss when one is dazzled by flaming tongues of fire!
First of all, what is a kiss? It has multiple meanings, which vary from a literal kiss, to joining together, to an armed archer, to catching fire. Those cloven tongues of fire in Acts Two are looking pretty kissy!
There are multiple explanations of ”the kisses of his mouth” in the traditional sources. Most derive from the giving the Torah at Sinai. The Midrash says,
“The statement itself would go around to each and every one of the people of Israel, and ask him, ‘Do you accept me upon yourself?’ ...and the Israelite would respond, ‘Yes!’ And the statement would continue and ask him, ‘Do you accept upon yourself the Godliness of the Holy One, blessed is He?’ And the Israelite would respond to it, ‘Yes and yes!” Immediately, the statement (dibbur) would kiss upon his mouth and teach him the commandment.”
In other words, the words of the Torah were extracted from within the mouth of the Holy One, and then kissed, or breathed, upon those who would receive it. As the Divine breath radiates outward, it is thought that it becomes somewhat more material, and is perceived as a “voice” by a human prophet who can execute the will of Heaven. At Sinai, the words could even be seen (Dt 4:12) as they were heard.
Moses received the words “mouth to mouth” (Nu 12:8), which is the first level of prophecy, the most intimate. The second level is when the Divine breath first separates from God’s mouth, and then it proceeds to the prophet’s mouth. While still a Divine “kiss,” it is the Divine statement itself that kisses the mouth as with the Israelites at Sinai. The lowest level of prophecy is through an intermediary, an angel.
A desire to be kissed “with the kisses of His mouth" alludes to the two most intimate levels of relationship with the Holy One. The most intimate level is the direct kiss. The Holy One Himself teaches the Word to the recipient of the kiss. The second most intimate is for Him to breathe out the statement, then the mitzvah itself teaches the one who is kissed.
“So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (Jn 20:19-22)
So Yeshua sends his disciples to await the re-giving of the Torah at Shavuot (Pentecost), when he will once again send the words, cleaving them into tongues of fire.The Midrash to Song 1:2 and "the kisses of His mouth" explains what the disciples may have understood about their experience that made it even more profound as it related to the kisses at Sinai:
“As the words traveled around the Israelite camp and back to the Holy One at Sinai, He would receive the statement with His right hand and engrave it onto the Tablet; as the statement was being engraved, God’s voice would travel from one end of the world to the other, in fulfillment of that which is stated, ‘The voice of HASHEM cleaving with shafts of fire.’ As each statement came forth from His mouth as a flame in the shape of visible letters and words [Ps 29], the voice of God cleaved the letters into the stone Tablets."
The right hand is understood to be Messiah. At Sinai, the voice of the commandments traveled all the way around the world and offered the Torah to each nation in its own language. As the disciples experienced the voice of Adonai being cleaved into visible words in Acts Two, they knew that Messiah was near, even at the right hand! They were being kissed with the kisses of His mouth, the breath of the Holy Spirit teaching them the commandments directly. Yeshua had told them before that a day would come when the teaching would be put in their mouths directly by the Ruach HaKodesh; they wouldn't have to worry what to say:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (Jn 14:26)
Lest we take Yeshua’s words out of context and think we need no instruction in the Word except the Spirit, Yeshua reminds the disciples that they’ve already been personally instructed; they weren’t given a scroll, told to run along, and the Holy Spirit would keep their interpretations honest, nor were they dismissed without any foundation or accountability. They'd studied, learned, prepared, practiced, and suffered with Yeshua for the sake of the Word. Because of that experience, the Ruach HaKodesh would be free to move and speak through them in precarious times. The cloven tongues of fire would burn in their hearts of flesh, not shatter under pressure like hearts of stone tablets. Peter stands to explain the Divine kisses as he is instructed by the Ruach HaKodesh.
The scoffers, however, did not understand. The mockers refused the kisses of His mouth:
But others were mocking and saying, 'They are full of sweet wine.' (Acts 2:13)
Oh no they weren't! They'd been kissed by the Lover of their souls with a Divine kiss, something better than wine! For the Song proclaims:
May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!
For Your love is better than wine.
Do you hear the voice, O nations? The Lover of our souls has sent out His voice once again to kiss us with the kisses of His mouth. He wants to breathe His Ruach HaKodesh into us and write His Torah on the tablets of our hearts. The Teacher is cleaving His Word into tongues of fire, kindling a kiss upon our hearts.
We will do, and we will hear!
May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!
