What Is the Meaning of King Solomon's Song of Songs?
The Song of Songs is the greatest love song of all time. Beyond being deeply moving, it is also filled with hidden meanings. In an age when even films rarely portray true love, let us uncover one layer of the mystery concealed within the Song of Songs.
Songs are usually written for someone. So, who was the Song of Songs written for?
According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Song of Songs was written for a person who already feels that life itself is love. That all of nature is love. That the general force governing the world is characterized by love. Also, that wherever we do not perceive love, it is actually an invitation for us to complete what is missing through our own love.
What is love? When we love someone because they do good things for us, that is not truly love for that person, but rather love for the pleasure they bring us. Naturally, we draw close to whatever benefits us and distance ourselves from whatever harms us. We act according to our instincts, impulses, and desires. Therefore, our love for anything outside ourselves is essentially self-love.
True love means rising above our desires, feeling others, participating in their experience, sensing what they want, and striving to fulfill what they lack.
Ultimately, this is how we should relate to everyone and everything, i.e., the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as all human beings. In doing so, we align ourselves with a world that is entirely love. We must see ourselves as loving everyone, i.e., sharing in everyone's desires, everyone's sorrows, and sensing what each person needs.
When we relate to the world in such a way, we begin to discover that there truly is a higher force of love operating in everything. The Song of Songs begins from this exalted perspective.
Through his exploration and understanding of reality as a whole, King Solomon, the wisest of all men, composed the Song of Songs. It is not a romantic tale between two lovers, but the development of a loving relationship between a person and all of reality.
“The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”
These are its opening words.
In the state described here, we are connected in love to all of reality on a very elevated level, where we long "to kiss," i.e., to give, to bestow, and to fill everything with goodness. From there, we begin to examine how to deepen and expand these bonds of love.
The love described in the Song of Songs is like putting on a new pair of glasses. Instead of looking at reality through the lens of "How can I consume everything?" I now view reality through the question: "How can I complete everything? How can I bring everyone to a state where they feel delight through me, where I add goodness to their lives?"
This is what it means to love. In such a state, endless opportunities open before us to do good, every moment of my life.
The Left Hand and the Right Hand
Twice in the Song of Songs it is said:
“His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.”
The left and right symbolize two forces within us: a negative force and a positive force.
Naturally, through the negative force we sense what we lack, what others lack, and how we might use that knowledge for our own benefit. But if our desire is to truly love, then we must use this same left force, which enables us to feel others, in the opposite way, with the intention of embracing them.
An embrace requires two arms. With the left force, we identify what another person lacks. With the right force, we embrace them, i.e., we use our awareness of their needs not to exploit them for our own gain, but to discover how we can benefit them. Without the left force, which is the ego and also called “the evil inclination,” we would not feel others at all.
Animals possess neither an evil inclination nor an awareness of others in this sense. When they need food, for example, an instinctive urge arises and they satisfy it. Human beings, however, possess an ego structured in a unique way. It constantly urges us to rise above others, to be smarter, more successful, stronger, and more attractive. It does not matter how, only that we are "more."
The ego compels us to derive satisfaction from being above others. For example, if I invest in the stock market and others earn $10,000 while I earn $20,000, I feel pleased. But if I were told that instead of earning $20,000 I could earn $40,000, provided others earned $100,000, I would likely feel bad about it.
Without the ego, love cannot be attained.
This is why King Solomon said:
“Love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12).
The perfection of our relationship with others, i.e., the balance between the left and right forces together, is what is called “love.” The expression of love is that we relate to ourselves as a means of fulfilling others. When that becomes our source of pleasure, we live in the feeling of love itself.
The Beauty of Reality
The Song of Songs declares:
“You are beautiful, my beloved; your eyes are like doves.”
And:
“You are altogether beautiful, my beloved; there is no flaw in you.”
All these detailed descriptions of beauty testify to great love.
In everyday life, a mother who loves her baby sees that child as the most beautiful in the world. Whoever we love appears beautiful to us. Our care for them, our desire to fulfill their needs, our investment in their well-being all make them beautiful in our eyes.
On a deeper level, when the Song of Songs describes the beloved as beautiful, it teaches that creation itself is perfect and contains no flaw. The only thing that requires correction is our attitude to the world. The woman, the beloved, symbolizes all of creation, while the man symbolizes the Creator. When we develop the attitude of "Love your neighbor as yourself," we too will discover that reality is beautiful and that every detail within it is perfect.
Love That Depends on Nothing
The Song of Songs was written from the level of unconditional love.
In ordinary songs, when someone says, "I love you," the hidden meaning is often: "I want to use you for my own benefit." I may offer attention, affection, and even gifts in order to draw you closer to me and increase my own enjoyment.
In the Song of Songs, it is the opposite. I seek your good. My love and giving are not dependent on receiving anything in return. In such a state, it is as though I myself no longer exist. I live within the one I love.
“My dove, my perfect one, is unique.”
Who is this "one"? All of creation is a single complete system, built upon the growing integration of positive and negative forces. Beauty is perfection, and perfection is felt when we see how good and evil complement one another, how neither can exist without the other. When what appears evil becomes the foundation upon which good is revealed, a feeling of wholeness and joy emerges.
Lovesick
After building within ourselves an attitude of love to everything and everyone around us, we discover the upper force in nature, a force that is wholly love. We feel as though we receive waves of warmth from it, beautiful and benevolent waves that surround, embrace, and continually sustain us.
“I am lovesick.”
Love overtakes us so completely that we no longer feel ourselves. We feel only the love that fills us. We emerge from ourselves, rise above our nature, as though we no longer exist, and only this sensation of universal love remains.
This is our point of union with the Creator, the point of adhesion, the supreme spiritual union between ourselves and the universal force of love that fills all creation. This is how we reach the pinnacle of our development and realize the full potential that lies within us.
Based on “New Life 189 – Song Of Songs” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.