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Friday, April 06, 2018

Literal interpretation of the Song of Songs

STILL FOR PASSOVER: Song of Songs: The Emergence of Peshat Interpretation (Dr. Barry Dov Walfish, TheTorah.com).
The Song of Songs is a collection of love poetry. The Rabbis read it as an allegory of the relationship between God and the Jewish people. Only in the Middle Ages, in Spain and Northern France, did scholars begin to pay attention to the plain (Peshat) meaning of the text. Some went as far as dropping the allegory altogether and treating it as love poetry, as it was originally intended.
If I have this right (it's not my area of expertise) — the Song of Songs is customarily read on the Sabbath that falls during the intermediate days of Passover or, as this year (beginning this evening), on the seventh day of Passover. So some Song of Songs themed items have been coming in.

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