She Who Dwells in the Gardens

As the Song of Songs ends, the mysteries surrounding its origin, meanings and layers remain. And one of the biggest riddles is what’s missing from it - there is no explicit mention of God.

Scholars suggest that this has to do more with its origin and relation to other Semitic epics and poetic sagas than has previously been believed. But is the divine absent - or is she alluded to and invoked in powerful and subtle ways?

A fascinating thread in modern scholarship draws comparisons between the Song of Songs and ancient Near Eastern love poetry. We have several collections to reference: Babylonian and Assyrian poetry, Egyptian love songs, Ugaritic verse, ancient Greek poetry, and classical Arabic traditions. Across these cultures, striking parallels emerge. Ugaritic poetry, for example, brims with linguistic echoes of the Song of Songs. Mesopotamian and Egyptian poetry overflow with sensual descriptions of love and desire—though with a key difference: Mesopotamian texts often carry a religious undertone, while Egyptian love poetry is notably secular. In ancient Arabia, we find depictions of the beloved's body that closely mirror the Song's evocative imagery. Meanwhile, Greek poets dwelled on the emotional turbulence of love—what we might call the "sickness of desire."

Why is the Song of Songs missing: the name of God? This absence is not entirely unique—after all, even the Scroll of Esther (coming soon) , a text steeped in religious consequence, never mentions God explicitly either. But here, the silence feels especially loud. Is this, as many scholars argue, simply a collection of secular love songs? Or is there, hidden between the lines, a whisper of the Divine?

Perhaps the absence itself reveals something deeply Israelite in origin. In the mythologies of surrounding cultures, love—and especially sex—exists at the heart of the divine realm. Their gods and goddesses love and hate, seduce and violate, give birth, die, and rise again. But the Hebrew Bible draws a sharp boundary: God is the source of life, will, and creation—but not of death or sexuality. In this way, the Song of Songs makes a bold theological statement. Physical love, in all its beauty, is fully human—but love itself, the force that draws us toward one another, remains sacred.

This tension—between the holy and the human—is a tightrope that later traditions struggled to walk. Christianity, for instance, often rejected the physical in its pursuit of spiritual purity. On the other hand, messianic and mystical movements blurred these boundaries so radically that they sometimes broke through the guardrails of law and moral restraint altogether. But the Song of Songs? It holds both truths at once: human love is not divine, but it is still holy. And in that paradox lies its enduring, provocative power.

How is the divine to be deciphered in this text, hidden in plain sight?

Inside the garden - not as vision, but as voice.

In the song’s second to last and perhaps most mystical verses, beloved by kabbalists and poets, the dialogue between divine and human echoes every layer of the biblical story and the human heart:

הַיּוֹשֶׁבֶת בַּגַּנִּים חֲבֵרִים מַקְשִׁיבִים לְקוֹלֵךְ הַשְׁמִיעִנִי׃

You who dwells in the garden,

The friends are listening;

Let me hear your voice.

Song of Songs 8:13

The Hebrew is specific - it is she who sits in the gardens - and the friends are attentive, listening to her voice.

Many mystical readings imagine her as the Shekinah - the Feminine Divine Presence, dwelling in the garden as Mother Nature would. She is not seen - but it is the sound of her presence that can be heard by those who pay attention to the rustle of her being.

The Zohar, The Book of Illumination which is the core textbook of Kabbalah likely written in Spain in the 13th Century, flips it around - in one reading it is the humans who hear the divine call, yet in another reading it is the divine that pays attention to what humans are saying - especially when they are engaged in the study of Torah, during the quiet hours of the night. In the Zohar’s reading of Abraham’s story the following teaching is found:

“Happy the portion of the person who rises at the midnight hour to study with zest the Torah, for the Holy One, blessed be, and all the righteous souls, listen to this person’s voice; for so it is written, “You who dwell in the garden..”

It is fitting that this song ends not with a happy ending but with mystery and fleeting clues - will the lovers meet again, are they - are we united, or is it an eternal chase scene between presence and absence, what is and what is not?

A famous legends suggests that the Song of Songs is not just a relic of bygone times but also a promise for the future - the culminating gem in the crown of ten mythic songs:

“Ten songs were sung in the world, and the Song of Songs is superior to them all.

The first song was sung by Adam as the first Sabbath descended, on the day of human creation, and Adam opened his mouth and sang: a hymn for the Sabbath Day.

The second song was sung by Moses and the people of Israel when the Sea of Reeds parted.

The third song was sung by the People of Israel when the well of Miriam arose to quench their thirst.

The fourth song was sung by Moses when it was his time to depart and he reproached Israel with his farewell.

The fifth song was sung by Joshua at the battle of Givon.

The sixth song was sung by Deborah and Barak on the day they were victorious over SIsera and his army.

The seventh song was sung by Hanna upon the birth of her son Samuel.

The eighth song was sung by King David upon all the miracles that had happened to him.

The ninth song was sung by King Solomon, through the Holy Spirit, before the Holy One.

The tenth song will be sung by the exiles on the day they shall return to Zion. And that is the Song of Songs.”

This legend imagines the dialogue between the lovers as the elusive dance between history and myth, past and future, love and longing, what we know and what we yearn for, sometimes fleeting and far, sometimes near and real. She who sits in the gardens, we who long for love and peace are listening -- and as we sing along the ten songs that we’ve already lived through - we keep signing - even as we yearn for the future serenade that brings us back into the garden, safely united, embodied, fully at home. Farewell and thank you, Shulamit.

Onwards to the Second of Five Scrolls - the Story of Ruth.

Image: Anastasia-Minster, Song of Songs

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