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During the festival of Pesah, it is customary to read Shir HaShirim – Song of Songs, a beautiful collection of poetry extolling the splendor and the power of love. Its first verse identifies Shir HaShirim as “The song of the songs,” the consummate song, but Rabbi Akiva (Mishna Yadayim 3:5) adds the title of “Holy of Holies” (Kodesh HaKodashim), the most sacred book of Tanakh. The Song of Songs not only relates the story of the intimacy and longing between two lovers, but is also traditionally interpreted as chronicling the epic relationship between God and God’s chosen bride, the Jewish people…
And… there is another way to understand this beautiful collection of poetry that calls to mind the love between partners, the springtime of the year, the beauty of life and nature, nature’s abundance and generosity, and a strong sense of the interconnectedness of all of the afore-mentioned that brings about an appreciation of wholeness… in our world that is far from whole. I would like to explore these themes in the Song of Songs as presented by Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, z”l, in her recently published book entitled Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis (2024). Rabbi Bernstein “blazed a spiritual trail in the environmental movement by undergirding it with the Hebrew Bible’s veneration of nature.” (NYTimes, March 5, 2024) In describing her haggadah for Passover, The Promise of the Land, Rabbi Bernstein wrote:
“On Passover we tell the story of the Jewish people’s journey from slavery to freedom. Yet, for every story about peoplehood, there is a backstory about land and the natural world. All our biblical holidays commemorate the harvest and the land, the very soil out of which Judaism grew. The haggadah, the Jewish people’s origin story, is necessarily embedded in an earthy reality.
Today, we know that our well-being and our freedom depend on the earth’s well-being. If the earth and its systems are compromised, our freedom is compromised; life is compromised. This haggadah seeks to enlarge our focus. It seeks to reveal the seder’s ecological dimensions and awaken its quiescent [dormant] environmental meaning.”
And so, too, her commentary and translation of the Song of Songs is an ode to the ecological nature of this beautiful collection of poetic songs… a five-fold song… that can awaken us to our role as partners in and stewards of our environment.
It is a song of Ecological Identity. It is a song that invites us “to be one with the land.” (Toward a Holy Ecology, p.11) As the lovers liken themselves, so too, we are to imagine ourselves as the plants, animals, minerals, cities, and monuments in the land of Israel. It is a song that teaches that “this ecological identity is an elemental aspect of human nature.” (ibid., p.15) And this identity is what roots us, what connects us to all of nature that surrounds us. However, we have become disconnected from it in our highly technological world. Without our sense of connection, how can we care about our planet? How can we really understand the effects of climate change? Without our ecological roots, we are instead mired in the Mitzrayim – the Egypt – the narrows of instability. Singing this first song of ecological awareness and connection is a first step toward repair of our natural world.
The Song of Songs is a song of the Cycles of Time. Rabbi Bernstein writes that in the Song “… time slows down and spreads out. Time is rhythmic and cyclical, not just linear. There is a season for everything.” (Ibid., p. 16) In the Song, love and nature ripen together – over the cycles (and seasons) of time. When we become more conscious of nature’s cycles, we can learn to live more harmoniously and respectfully with the earth.
The Song of Songs is a song of Beauty. The lovers awake and see the earth’s beauty and appreciate the beauty surrounding them. We, too, are called upon to awaken ourselves to the beauty that surrounds us. The beauty. The awe it inspires. This can energize us and motivate us to act on behalf of the earth. This song of Beauty “excites the senses, stirs the imagination, and quickens the heart.” (Ibid., p. 23) Rabbi Bernstein invites us to open ourselves to the awesome beauty in our world… open ourselves to curiosity, to appreciation, to humility… and to share this appreciation of the earth’s beauty with others – working together to help insure the health and resiliency of the earth. (Ibid., p. 24)
The Song of Songs is a song of Justice. Justice flows when people, attuned to the cycles of nature, live simply within nature’s limits, when everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the common wealth. Justice flows when people recognize the gifts of each other and the gifts of the land. The song of Justice is a song of appreciation of nature’s abundance and generosity… and the importance of each person. (Ibid., pp. 25-30)
The Song of Songs is a song of Ecological Identity. It is a song of the Cycles of Time. It is a song of Beauty. It is a song of Justice. AND it is a song of, what Rabbi Bernstein calls “Wholiness.” It is a song that underscores wholeness, which leads to the holy. This vision of wholeness is a vision of the interconnected, inviolable relationships that underly the health of the whole earth. This is a song of the land and bodies in their prime, promising a world that will flourish, diversify, and blossom forever. This is a song of that which is holy, leading us on a path to the divine presence. In its wholeness, it is also a song of oneness – creatures (including humans) and habitats interconnected. (Ibid., pp. 33-35)
And when all the songs are sung together, they become a five-fold song. They are the “Shir HaShirim asher l’Shlomo – The Song of Songs for Solomon… Shlomo… Shalom… the song of harmonious peace and completeness.” (Adapted from Rav Kook’s Orot HaKodesh vol. II, pp. 444-445) That was Rabbi Bernstein’s vision and hope. May we join our voices, our hands, and our hearts together to bring healing and wholeness and peace to our world.
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Rabbi Enid Lader (AJR ’10) is the Rabbi Emerita of Beth Israel – The West Temple in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a member of the Association of Rabbis and Cantors, and is the secretary for AJR’s Board of Trustees.
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