The Three Oaths: Erotic Origins of Anti Zionism?

Song of Songs 2: 7

It is possible and highly likely that the original purpose of the song of songs was poetic seduction and erotic foreplay but what once was a pastoral poem about the power and perils of lovemaking became overtime, mostly because of pious male thinkers - a serious allegory of sacred stuff, much more soulful then sexy. It also became polemical political and polarizing. Today, 500 days after Israeli hostages were taken to Gaza and the current nightmare of a crisis for Israelis and Palestinians continues to sow so much sorrow - this political debate and its surprising origins echoes louder. Beyond the perils of hurtful history - can leaders and people remember to lean into love and not stay rooted in hate? Perhaps we do have more to learn from this poem - to inform our personal and public choices and politics. It’s how it’s always been done.

For centuries, Jewish and Christian readers read this text through metaphoric lenses - substituting each breast and kiss for another dimension of the divine-human dialogue - literally stripping the sensual verses of what may have been their original intent - erotica.

It’s not just spiritual behavior that was derived from these words but also political ideology. Some rabbinic viewpoints that go back to the Talmud and span from ‘diasporist’ to ‘anti-zionist’ have their surprising origin in this love song.

In an essay entitled “The Song of Songs: Between Literal and Alle­gorical Loves” Prof. Ilana Pardes, a noted biblical scholar and feminist thinker, wrote a lot about this text and its multiple meanings and evolutions. Here she helps us frame the ongoing tension between the reading of this poem as a text about love -- and the fact that for so many it only serves as a pretext for allegorical, hidden meaning - philosophical, religious and even political:

“To modern readers, any attempt to regard the Song as pertinent to sacred history or divine love seems astonishingly detached from its literal sense. But from the point of view of the rabbis of late antiquity, the possibility of interpreting the Song as anything but divine would have been unthinkable: why else was the Song included in Scripture if not to serve as a key to the mysteries of the human-divine bond?”

There are several keys alluded to in the song and according to some scholars, classical as well as contemporary at least one of those keys is meant to never be used - it is the key of premature love.

During the ongoing dialogue between the two lovers, Shulamit turns to her girlfriends in what can feel like a biblical ‘sex and the city’ episode -- the chorus of the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ will appear again and again through these chapters. She describes - or imagines - the embrace with her nameless lover, and she then makes her girlfriends take this oath - the first of three that will show up throughout these eight chapters:

הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם בִּצְבָאוֹת אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה אִם־תָּעִירוּ  וְאִם־תְּעוֹרְרוּ אֶת־הָאַהֲבָה עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּץ׃

Swear to me, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By gazelles or by hinds of the field:

Do not wake or rouse

Love until it please!

Song of Songs 2:7

The classical commentary, and sensible courtship strategy is that you can’t hurry love and you have to play the game to let it happen.

But if text is an allegory for the relationship between the community of Israel (she) and God (he) then what are these oaths all about? That’s where the politics of diaspora come in.

What on its surface is a young woman’s plea for love to unfold in its own time, has become, especially in the past century— a rallying cry for those who see Zionism as a violation of divine order. The call for an oath not to hurry love repeats three times, an incantation, a warning, a whisper through the song and through history. Known as "the Three Oaths," these verses were interpreted some 1,500 years ago by some sages in the Talmud as political ideology that grew into a theological-political battleground.

What are The Three Oaths?

First, that the dispersed nation of Israel should not return and ascend to the holy land en masse, forcefully - not hurry love until it’s time for the redemption. Second, that Israel must not rebel against the nations of the world. Third, that the nations must not oppress Israel "too much." Divine checks and balances, cautionary measures for a people longing for home throughout centuries of exile and careful living.

Maimonides, writing from Egypt in the 12th Century to the Jews of Yemen as they grappled with false messiahs and premature redemption wishes, invoked these oaths in his famous Epistle to Yemen:

"Solomon, of blessed memory, foresaw with divine inspiration, that the prolonged duration of the exile would incite some of our people to seek to terminate it before the proper time, and as a consequence they would perish or meet with disaster. Therefore, he warned them [to desist] from it and adjured them in metaphorical language."

Maimonides’s insistence that the biblical oaths are metaphor to be understood as the patient response of a people longing for autonomy and sovereignty was mostly the way things remained until the 19th century - when the early rumbles of Zionism started to shift and rock the Jewish world - and beyond.

While many rabbis and proponents of the return to Zion found ways to read around these oaths, others held onto them with vigor. Most famous among them is Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the legendary leader of the Satmar Hasidim. For him - metaphor became law. In his polemical book Vayo’el Moshe, he argued that these oaths are binding, that Zionism is heresy, that the modern State of Israel is a violation of divine will. These are views still held by many of his followers and some other Jews all around the world that have nothing to do with his religious ideology. Obviously, these past months of war and its moral implications have caused many to question Zionism’s ideology and implementation - even as for many others, its need has only become more pressing.

The debate over the three (or four, there is one more that is sometimes suggested) oaths continues strong today, even if the ideological viewpoints have long lost the original thread -- these love-lines from the mouth of a Jerusalem maiden longing for love and playing it safe.

So here we are. A love song turned legal code, a metaphor transformed into a manifesto of political ideologies, an allegory about love and patience turned on its head.

Political debates aside, what’s fascinating here is the evolution of thought and the continued use - or abuse of the original poem to justify multiple viewpoints and values. Even modern artists joined this debate - with some 20th century European Jewish artists creating luscious depictions of the Song of Songs that included exotic Middle-Eastern vibes and echoed the sentiments of return to the Biblical birthplace of the people.

Ephraim Moses Lilien, Polish-Jewish artist sometimes known as ‘the first Zionist artist’ not only took the famous photograph of Theodore Herzl on the balcony but also created luscious scenes that brought the biblical Song of Songs to life through an erotic and oriental lens.

Clearly, there are multiple ways to interpret these poetic words - and political aspiration is part of the equation.

Rabbi Yaakov Bieler helps us frame both sides of the allegorical debate:

“Relying on the Bible to provide a gloss on current events is both reassuring and disconcerting. The fact that the Bible is a text that contains truisms for all times reinforces the high esteem with which it has been held in Western history. Yet, recognizing that at least some of these derivations are drawn from statements extremely lacking in clarity, implies that virtually whatever one wishes to demonstrate, proof-texts can be cited from the Bible.”

And while Shulamit keeps her handsome lover waiting, in the next chapter it will be her turn to yearn and long for his embrace, taking us along, in her imagination, right into his regal king size bed. And you can interpret that in any way you want.

Image: Theodor Herzl, Balcony of the Three Kings Hotel, Basel Switzerland, circa 1896, photographed by E.M. Lilien

Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.

Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.

Become a Paid Subscriber? Thank you for your support!

#songofsongs #songofsolomon #shirhashirim #hebrewbible #כתובים #Ketuvim #Hebrewbible #Tanach #929 #שירהשירים #חכמה #labshul #belowthebiblebelt929 #songofSongs2

#zionism #antizionism #allegory #thethreeoaths #Satmar #maimonides #diasporism #politicaleros #EMLilien #TheodoreHerzl

#peace #prayforpeace #nomorewar #hope #peaceisposible #patience! #dontwakeuplove #canthurrylove #loveoftheland