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The earth is round and flat at the same time. This is obvious. That it is round appears indisputable; that it is flat is our common experience, also indisputable. The globe does not supersede the map; the map does not distort the globe. Winterson (1989, p.87)
Poetry is textual alchemy. Poems present truth in layers … evolving truth. They conceal and reveal layers of truth. They absorb contradiction, seamlessly. This is the magic of poetry.
The Song of Songs and Psalm 119 are both Hebrew poems. The form of these texts —the poetic form — models a concept of wisdom where truth is revealed within contradiction. Truth as enigma.
They are also both love songs which celebrate the joy of connectedness.
The Song of Songs, written by Solomon, relates joy experienced through sensual connection — man with woman, flesh with flesh. It relates the joy and wisdom we experience when we experience our connectedness with one another and with the rest of God’s creation, living and non-living. When we experience oneness with the created universe. Truth and wisdom here are illuminated by love of flesh.
The Psalm, written by David, relates the joy which is experienced through spiritual connection — man with God, creation with divinity, flesh with spirit. It seems to relate the joy and wisdom we experience when we experience our connectedness with God. When we experience oneness with a universal divinity. Truth and wisdom here are illuminated by love of torah.
The two poems relate different pathways to divine wisdom. The first relates the transforming power of sexual love. The second relates the transforming power of adherence to law. In the context of a contemporary culture where so much sexual expression is against the law, socially if not literally, the two poems can seem to present a contradiction. Separated from current social dogma they present simply as universal truths.
That isn’t to suggest that in a traditional Hebrew context they present no dilemma. The Hebrew Bible contains ample evidence that joyful sexual expression was only seen at the time, as compatible with social law in a very narrow context. Rape (Judg. 5.30; Lam. 5.11; Amos 4.2-3), promiscuity and sexual appropriation of women (Gen. 34) seem to have been acceptable in Hebrew story; however female sexual expression — pursuit of lovers and promiscuity — is related with moral outrage and is violently punished (Hos. 1-3; Isa 3.16-24). A favourite metaphor for Israel’s faithlessness is illicite sexual activity, always female (Exum, 1996).
So joyful sexual expression, for women at least, would need to have been practiced most judiciously as a pathway to divine revelation. Our interpretation of the Song, in any particular era or social context, will always reflect our comfort (or otherwise) with sexual expression and all of its diverse possibilities. I suspect, however, that the universal truth — sexual connectedness as divine blessing and revelation — remains true and compatible with law (torah, the way the creator intended) regardless of fashions in sexual morality.
The Song of Songs tells of the love between Solomon and the Sulamitess. Diverse meanings have been attributed to the story. Traditional interpretations focus on the story as allegory (Jamieson et al., 1871). Sensuous love parallels divine love. On this level the Song of Songs relates joy experienced through spiritual connection — Jehovah with Israel, Christ with Church. It relates the joy and wisdom experienced when we experience our connectedness with the creator. When we experience oneness with God. Wisdom is illuminated by love.
More recently, literal interpretations have been embraced and some interesting extremes proffered: The final scene lives up to generic expectations: although it is somewhat amorphous, it fulfils the normal expectation for an all out orgy. And indeed we find a whole range of people here — brothers (8:1), mothers (8:1-2,5), daughters of Jerusalem (8:4), a little sister (8:8), then the director, Solomon, makes an appearance (I:11-12), vineyard keepers (8:11-12), those ‘who dwell in the gardens’ (8:13), and a woman’s companions (8:13) — enough for quite an orgy. Boer (1999)
A single interpretation is not necessary. Poetry, at its most powerful, defies singular interpretation. The earth is round and flat. Psalm 119 is universally interpreted as a poem of the law — a celebration of torah as a gift from God. It reflects on the value of living life in accordance with the will of God as preserved in the torah. Loughran (1998) captures the essence of the Psalm when he notes, of the Psalmist:
He knew that God's law represented His Name, His character and His will; that it was a transcript of the Almighty's own soul and an everlasting fountain of blessing. To obey Yahweh's law was the psalmist's one goal, the all-consuming passion of his life.
Both poems — the Song of Songs and Psalm 119 — celebrate love. Love as illumination. Love as wisdom. The Hebrew concept of wisdom seems to recognise wisdom as illuminated truth. Wisdom is illuminated through connectedness with the divine.
Cooper (1997, p. 35) notes: The erotic imagery of the merging of lovers is a common theme in the Zohar. Jewish mystics generally agree that the Song of Songs, with its allusions to love and sexuality, holds more secrets of the universe than any other scriptural work. For example, concerning the verse “I am my beloved’s and his desire is towards me, “ the Zohar says, “The inner meaning of this verse is that stirring below is accompanied by stirring above, for there is no stirring above until there is stirring below.”
Wisdom and truth are illuminated through oneness. The Hebrew concept of wisdom contrasts significantly with the Greek concept of wisdom. The Greek concept of wisdom sees truth as fact, not divinely illuminated but achieved through objective observation.
Plato praised “the man who pursues the truth by applying his pure and unadulterated thought to the pure and unadulterated object, cutting himself off as much as possible from his eyes and ears and virtually all the rest of his body, as an impediment which by its presence prevents the soul from attaining to truth and clear thinking.” (Frederick, 1969)
Truth is fact. Wisdom is achieved by accumulating verifiable truths. This wisdom philosophy underpins contemporary Western science and law. Fox (2000) notes the impact of Greek wisdom concepts on Western spirituality and on early “Hellenistically influenced” Christian theologians. Hellenic denigration of the body, he proposes, influenced early interpretation of the wisdom literature: While the Hebrew love song in the Bible called the Song of Songs celebrates our sexuality as a revelation of the Divine, Augustine linked original sin with sexuality.
In his commentary on that biblical book, Origen interjected Plato’s distinction between sensual and spiritual love: “There is a love of the flesh which comes from Satan, and there is also another love, belonging to the spirit, which has its origin in God … “ (Fox, 2000, pp 30-31)
The Hebrew and Greek wisdom concepts also differ significantly in their treatment of contradiction. The Greek wisdom concept does not embrace duality or contradiction. Contradiction must be explained. Resolved.
The Hebrew wisdom concept embraces paradox. Paradox is not resolved; it is valued. Rather, wisdom is achieved through illumination which requires surrender to paradox. The attainment of wisdom is in itself a paradox. Detachment and illumination are felt in the moment of conscious connection.
The Hebrew wisdom concept is closer in nature to eastern gentile traditions, in particular mystical traditions such as Shin Buddhism. Not surprisingly, in Buddhist traditions powerful poetry is also used to relate layers of truth:
Over the mountain edges
Slips the moon;
Watching it
I too enter
The west of my heart. Saigyo (1977)
In the Shin Buddhist tradition related by Unno (1998), the Primal Vow mirrors divine love. It is “the powerful magnet that draws all beings to itself”. It is primal “in the sense that it is prior to the beginningless beginning of time” (Unno, 1998, pp19-20).
Self-cultivation (like torah) is the driving force in a person’s attempt to live the highest possible ethical life, not in words but in deeds. It is at the core of the quest for authenticity as a human being in the diverse paths of spirituality. (Unno, 1998, p. 46).
Wisdom is realised as connectedness. “The core of deep hearing is nonduality, whereby the subject and the object become one” (Unno, 1998, p. 48) and, of course, poetry captures the experience:
Music heard so deeply
that it is not heard at all,
but you are the music
while the music lasts. T.S. Eliot (1952, p. 136)
Paradox is embraced. Ultimately, awakening requires letting go of the religious path. Enlightenment or illumination is not possible without first letting go. Affirmation of delusion leads to illumination. In Buddhism, Light illumines the karma-bound self and brings about its transformation. It is the “form” taken by wisdom (prajna) to liberate us from self-delusion. Unno (1998, p.53).
Mascaro (1962) introducing a translation of the Bhagavad Gita notes similar themes in the Sanskrit text: We thus find in the Bhagavad Gita that love is interwoven with light. Love is the power that moves the universe, the day of life, the night of death, and the new day after death. The radiance of this universe sends us a message of love and says that all creation came from love … Love leads to light. Mascaro (1962, p.30)
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks: The Yogi who pure from sin ever prays in this harmony of soul soon feels the joy of Eternity, the infinite joy of union with God. He sees himself in the heart of all beings and he sees all beings in his heart. This is the vision of the Yogi of harmony, a vision which is ever one. Bhagavad Gita 6:28-29 Trans. Mascaro (1962)
Wisdom and joy are revealed through connectedness. Interpretation of the Sanskrit texts is, perhaps, as problematic as interpretation of the Hebrew, but it would appear that some aspects of the Hebrew wisdom concept are universal. Round and flat, only a very little has been discovered. Winterson (1989, p.87)
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References
Boer, R. (1999). Knockin’ on heaven’s door: The Bible and popular culture. New York: Routledge.
Cooper, D. A. (1997). God is a verb: Kabbalah and the practice of mystical Judaism. New York: Riverhead Books.
Eliot, T. S. (1952). The Dry Salvages. In The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Exum, J. C. (1996). Plotted, Shot and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Fox, M. (2000). Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Lessons for transforming evil in soul and society. Dublin: Gateway.
Jamieson, R., Fausset, A.R. & Brown, D. (1871). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. (www.blueletterbible.org)
Loughran, D. B. (1998). Sermon note: Psalm 119. Stewarton: Stewarton Bible School. (www.atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sbs777).
Mascaro, J. (1962). The Bhagavad Gita: Translated from the Sanskrit with an introduction by Juan Mascaro. Middlesex: Penguin.
Plato. In H. Frederick (Trans., 1967), The Last Days of Socrates. England: Penguin.
Saigyo (1977) Mirror of the Moon. Trans. William LaFleur. Grove Press, New York, p. 43.
The Catholic Encyclopaedia: Volume III (1908). New York: Robert Appleton Company. (www.newadvent.org/cathen)
Unno T. (1998). River of Fire, River of Water: An introduction to the pure land tradition of shin Buddhism. New York: Double Day.
Winterson, J. (1989). Sexing the Cherry. London: Bloomsbury, p. 87.
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Sue George is a second-year Graduate Diploma of Education student at McAuley, who wrote this essay in 2001.
