SONG OF SONGS:
1. "Behold, you are fair, my beloved; behold, you
are fair; your eyes are [like] doves, from within your kerchief; your hair is
like a flock of goats that streamed down from Mount Gilead.
2. Your teeth are like a flock of uniformly shaped
[ewes] that came up from the washing, all of whom are perfect, and there is no
bereavement among them.
3. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your
speech is comely; your temple is like a split pomegranate from within your
kerchief.
70 SOULS THAT DESCENDED TO EGYPT: Merari
TALMUD SHEVUOTH:
Daf 16 - Holiness of the First Temple
BOOK OF JEREMIAH: Chapter 16
Week 16 in the Jewish calendar is the
third week of Teveth. As mentioned
previously, Teveth is known as the
month in which “the body takes pleasure in the body,” a reference to how the
essence of the Jewish People connects to the essence of Hashem. (See Book 1) The Song of Songs verses for
this week and next, the first six of Chapter 4, are the ones that most openly
use the metaphor of the female body as a reference to qualities of the Jewish
People.
Of the
seventy souls of the Jewish people that descended to Egypt, the sixteenth
mentioned is Merari. Merari family’s task regarding the Tabernacle was the least
prestigious, and yet the hardest: carrying the beams, crossbars, pillars, and
bases.[1]
Merari comes from the word Mar, bitter,
the same root of the name Miriam. The Rebbe’s father explains that of the three
children of Yocheved, Miriam parallels Merari. These were the foundations of
the Tabernacle, without which the other parts could not stand, similar to the discreet
yet crucial role of Miriam as a midwife. Teveth
is a cold and is some ways bitter month, yet it is also connected to strength/foundation and the capacity to multiply
(characteristics of the Tribe of Dan).
Daf Tet Zayin (Folio 16) of Shevuoth discusses whether the holiness
of the First Temple was temporary or permanent. It also discusses the case of
someone who became impure when in the Temple, and the laws related to bowing in
it. The fast of the tenth of Teveth is
particularly linked to the destruction of the First Temple.
Chapter 16 of the Book of Jeremiah
contains a similar theme to the above, especially regarding marital relations
and our ability to multiply:
1. And the
word of the Lord came to me saying:
2. You shall
take no wife, and you shall have no sons or daughters in this place.
3. For so
said the Lord regarding the sons and the daughters born in this place and
regarding their mothers who bear them and their fathers who beget them in this
land. (…)
9. For so said the Lord of Hosts, the God
of Israel; Behold, I will cut off from this place in your presence and in your
days a voice of mirth and a voice of gladness, a voice of a bridegroom, and a
voice of a bride. (…)
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