The Song of Songs is more than a love song between Israel and the Holy One; it is prophecy. We’ve worked our way through three chapters in the Footsteps of Messiah series to see if any of these Good News footsteps on the mountains fit our generation. As it turns out, the prophecies are a huge encouragement to those who find the Light of the Torah as part of their walk with the Beloved Yeshua. Loving the commandments as Yeshua urged is part of responding to those footsteps of return.
In Chapter Two, we saw the Beloved compared to a gazelle, a fast-moving animal. He returns at the cool of the day when the shadow flee; that is, they disappear quickly.
- “Until the cool of the day, when the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle…” (So 2:17)
Now we have arrived at Chapter Four of the Song of Songs, which contains some repetition from previous chapters. This allows the reader…if he or she has parsed the previous three chapters…to read more intelligently, to see more fine print of prophecy. This is a good opportunity to introduce a study tool for all Scripture study; it is handy to have in your toolbox!
The pattern is one of twins and pairs, or zugot. In the late Second Temple period, there were famous zugot, or pairs of rabbis, who complemented (and sometimes antagonized!) the work of another. Ezra and Nehemiah complemented the work of the other. Joshua and Caleb. You get the idea.
Why is this important?
It won’t change the meaning of the verses you read, but it can enhance the significance of the verses when you are able to spot a pattern in context. For instance, let’s take a passage from Chapter Four. Try to spot twins, pairs, or equivalent expressions (one term or phrase similar to another) in the repetition:
How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep which have come up from their watering place, all of which bear twins,
and not one among them has lost her young.
Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is beautiful.
Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate behind your veil.
Your neck is like the tower of David, built with layers of stones on which are hung a thousand shields, all the round shields of the warriors.
Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that graze among the lilies.
Repetition can signify importance or additional fulfillments of a particular prophecy. The Shir (Song) sometimes mentions “twins.” The idea is that pairs or twins represent how “one opens the other.” Just as the firstborn "opens the womb" for the subsequent children, so the first prepares the way for the next. This may apply to people or commandments.
One great scholar can open the minds of students to receive the other’s teaching. Some of you may remember when Brad Scott and Bill Cloud team-taught, each complementing the teaching of the other. Often these pairs will have different personalities or study methods, which expands the number of students who can benefit, for there are different listening and learning styles as well. The idea is that one “opens,” and the other is able to plant deep seeds of the Word. This doesn’t mean that the “opener” is shallow! It may mean that he can come back in and augment deeper teaching as well behind the planter, forming a kind of tag-team in a cyclical style, not open-and-closed.
Think of other “pairs” of things, one opening for the other. For instance, the pair of goats on Yom HaKippurim, one's blood opening the way for the other to carry away the sin. The sin sacrifices were offered with accompanying sacrifices.
In reading a Jewish text one time, I read, “Everything that happened to Messiah happens to Israel.”
This is consistent with Yeshua and the apostles’ teaching that his disciples would also have to suffer, take up their crosses, and sometimes literally die for the Good News of the Kingdom. Yeshua and Israel are a kind of “pair,” Yeshua opening the way so the world could receive those who would follow and proclaim his sin sacrifice.
The commandments themselves sometimes come in pairs, the first opening the way for one like it.
In the mitzvah of tefillin, placing the shel yad on the arm first, placing and facing it toward the heart, one prepares the heart for the deeds of obedience that the hand will do. Secondly, the shel rosh is placed on the head, representing the full understanding that will follow the obedience heart. “We will DO; and we will HEAR (obey in understanding).” One will open the way for the next. The prepared heart willing to act opens the way for the mind to grasp the spiritual depth of the mitzvah.
The Shema is a great example of twin commandment:
Dt 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children...
"You shall talk of them when you sit in your house" opens the way to "when you walk by the way."
"When you lie down" opens the way to "when you rise up."
And others:
- The altar of sacrifice opens the way to the incense altar.
- Adam opened the way to Eve.
- The first pair at Hebron (Kiriat Arbah/city of four "pairs"), Abraham and Sarah [or Adam and Eve, according to tradition] opened the way to Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah.
- Elijah opened up double miracles to Elisha.
- John the Baptist opened the way for Yeshua.
- Yeshua selected twelve disciples to be sent in pairs to open the way for him. (Mk 6:7)
Now you try. Add a second mitzvah to the following to demonstrate how mitzvot may open the way or “twin.” Better yet, find your own examples!
- The separation of challah from the whole loaf opens the way to...(Ro 11:16)
- Tithing and leaving of corners, forgotten sheaves, and gleanings to the poor open the way to...
- Placing a mezuzah on the door leads opens the way to placing a mezuzah on...
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Shabbat Shalom!
