Pesach 5786

Pesach 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Shir haShirim asher l'shlomoh [Shir HaShirim 1:1]

We have a deep-seated tradition to read the Song of Songs on Shabbat morning during the week of Pesach. Some also have a tradition to read it after the seder. But the entire megillah is impossible to understand in its simple meaning, as would have been typical for any other book of the Canon, so this book is obviously all an allegory. Looking at just the first verse here, what does it mean? There are as many ways of translating these few words as there are people translating or understanding those words.

Starting with the first two words, the title by which the entire megillah is known, Shir HaShirim, literally this means "Song of the Songs" or possibly (depending on vowelization) "Sing the Songs". When a word is doubled like this in Hebrew, it signifies some special meaning. Doubling a verb, for example ya'an u'b'ya'an (doubling the word 'because'), might mean "certainly because", or it might mean an emphasis to do something with gusto. Doubling a noun is less common, and the two words would usually stand alone, such as here might be "a song about the songs". Most commentators read our verse as "the song that is the greatest of all songs". Why is it the greatest? Perhaps the answer comes from the fact that many look at this book as a love song between Israel and God, which reflects our true purpose.

To understand this further we must look to the rest of this short verse: "asher l'shlomoh". At first glance, this means "something that belongs to King Solomon", and is often understood as self-documentation telling who wrote the megillah. But there are other ways to read it.

The word shalom means peace. L'shalom means "to peace". In Torah literature, sometimes the lamed prefix is replaced with a hey suffix,  thus 'shlomah' also means "to peace". Some commentators read the whole verse as "a song of songs to peace" applying that hey suffix. But this seems difficult in our verse, almost redundant, and we do not find elsewhere the use of both the lamed and the hey, as is here, l'shomoh. This would argue for understanding the word as meaning "to Solomon", for his name is spelled with a hey at the end, so the lamed prefix and hey ending are not redundant. In the Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah [1:1:10] R'Aivu says that 'shir' is one song, 'hashirim' being plural refers to two more songs, and since things happened to Solomon in threes, our verse is referring to him.

The word shalom is also used as a name for God, so our verse might be understood "a song of songs which is for God", or as some write it, "a song of songs for the One to Whom peace belongs". In fact, the Gemara [Shevuot 35b] notes that all the usages of 'shlomo' in Shir HaShirim refer to God except in the verse "My vineyard is before Me, one thousand are for you, Shlomoh" [8:12]. A second opinion there says also the verse "Behold the couch of Shlomoh, sixty" [3:7]. Thus this Gemara concludes that our verse refers to God. The Artscroll Machzor concurs, noting that l'shlomo is short for "she'ha'shalom shelo", meaning the One to Whom peace belongs.

The Dubner Maggid relates an interesting viewpoint. He cites the next paragraph after the Midrash brought above [1:1:11] that states that in all the other songs, either God praises Israel or Israel praises God. What we see in this megillah is both. He gives examples of verses 1:15 and 1:16 for specific proofs. But we might be able to expand upon his argument. The doubled word 'shir' and the two ways of reading "asher l'shlomoh" all point to the same conclusion. The song is Shlomh praising God and also God praising Shlomoh (and thus the entire Jewish people). This would explain the way the prose is broken down into a two-way dialogue, almost as though it were two simultaneous songs. Thus we have two songs in one, the first praising God (shalom), the second praising Solomon (shlomoh) and Israel.