In this monograph, Jonathan Kaplan explores the role of Song of Songs in the tannaitic layer of midrash (the earliest stratum of rabbinic interpretation, pre-200 CE). Kaplan begins by covering the history and contexts of the various sources of these midrashim (Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, Mekhilta Devarim, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Sifre Devarim) and cautions against reading the midrashim without accounting for their initial cultural milieu. He argues that these early midrashim should be considered something other than halakhic (legal in orientation) and asserts that that the rabbis “have a profound interest in exploring the shape of Israel's national narrative and in relating aggadic traditions” (3). While this argument is a bit overstated, Kaplan's decision to confine his study only to the tannaitic layer has historical and contextual value. In the book's introduction, he also describes the Song itself and touches on the various scholarly theories surrounding the inclusion of the Song in the canon. These points lead him to deliberate on aspects of love as presented in the Torah (i.e., love of God) and those presented in the Song (i.e., erotic love).
Chapter 1 addresses the question of genre, specifically, whether the tannaitic readings of the Song should be considered allegory, mashal (parable), or figuration. With the title of the book in mind, the reader will not be surprised to learn that Kaplan argues for a figural or typological reading of the midrashim—but not before an extremely detailed description of the rise of allegory as a method of ancient interpretation and its expressions in Christian literature. Kaplan also gives a useful assessment of the arguments of Daniel Boyarin and David Stern on the role of mashal.
In chapter 2, Kaplan turns to the interpretation of the Song in relation to Israel's national story and situation (past, present, and future). He covers several aspects of the “nation” theme: comparison of Israel to the nations, Israel as God's special or chosen people over and against the other nations, and Israel being surrounded or possessed by other nations (e.g., Egypt).
The third and fourth chapters concern metaphors the rabbis employ for the female and male lovers in Song of Songs. Kaplan begins by looking at three types of description of the female in the Song: a short self-description offered by the woman (1:5–6, 8:10), a short description by the man (usually heavily laden with metaphor as in 1:9, 1:15, and 4:1), and a long description by the man (4:1–7, 4:9–15, 6:4–10, and 7:2–10a). In his discussion of the long description, Kaplan includes comparisons to poetry known by its Arabic name as wasf (which describes another's body part-by-part, p. 98). In the chapter on the role of the male lover in the Song, Kaplan discusses how the rabbis align Israel, Moses, and the rabbis themselves with the male lover through imitatio Dei, as rabbinic interpretation usually assigns God to the role of the male lover.
“Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder,” is slightly inapt as a title for chapter 5, as most of the discussion centers on divine intimacy and immanence even when Israel is in exile. Once again, Kaplan covers a variety of topics while discussing verses from the Song—predominantly those from chapters three and five of the Song, in which the female searches for her male companion. Kaplan focuses on how the rabbis employ verses from these parts of the Song to refocus the poem on God's attending to Israel during the enslavement in Egypt, Israel's exodus, and the wilderness journey. Kaplan stresses that the Shekhinah's (i.e., God's) presence with Israel in exile constitutes a significant revision of a biblical theological concept from Deuteronomy (i.e., that God is not present when Israel is in exile). Kaplan underscores that this shift appears in the commentary that deals directly with Deuteronomic verses. It is unclear why he finds such a shift surprising, particularly as he himself suggests that the rabbis draw on the perspective of the prophets (particularly Ezekiel) in viewing God as Israel's consoler while in exile (173). Further, Kaplan argues that the tannaitic midrash understands exile as a place of renewal in the relationship between the Divine and Israel. Of note, the male character in the Song serves as the metaphor for the presence of the Shekhinah.
Kaplan occasionally employs terminology in idiosyncratic ways. For example, his use of the phrase “ideal type” seems to correspond to his notion of “typological historicization”—a mouthful of a term with little new information to recommend it. Similarly, the heading “contemporizing historicization” simply means that the rabbis map their own experience onto the Song and important events in Israel's history (the giving of the Ten Commandments, entering the land, etc.). Likewise, the choice of the word “affective” in chapter 3, “Female Beauty and the Affective Nature of Rabbinic Piety” is strange. One expects an engagement with affect theory in relation to literary criticism but none appears. It would seem then that the word “affectionate” or “effective” is what Kaplan means—and his focus is on the former throughout the chapter. His point in the chapter is to demonstrate how the poems in the Song work as “figurations of model Israel's unique beauty and ideal rabbinic piety” (98).
At times, Kaplan argues against strawmen, as many recent scholars have already proven or assumed his positions. Some instances include “hermeneutical appropriateness,” the different approaches of Boyarin and Stern on mashal, and the identification of Israel as the female in the Songs except in a few circumstances.
Although a few problems arise with the interpretations, Kaplan is at his best when translating and explicating the texts. His analyses are smart and clear, and he offers particularly cogent and astute observations concerning a midrash that includes Song 1:3, “Therefore the maidens love you” and Psalm 44:23, “We are slain for you all day.” Almost every instance of this reading from the amoraic period (ca. 200–400 CE) is about martyrdom; however, as Kaplan explains, in the tannaitic midrash the nations are speaking to Israel in order to establish a relationship with her—to mingle with her (141). The author provides an excellent discussion of the relationship between Israel and God, Israel and the other nations, and the nations and God.
In sum, Kaplan provides his readers with a thorough study on the use of Song of Songs in tannaitic midrash. His return throughout the book to the biblical text along with his translations and explications of the rabbinic texts is comprehensive, understandable, and enlightening. Clarity of this type is no easy task for a scholar writing in English, particularly when one considers how much midrash relies on Hebrew puns, layers of metaphors, and assumptions and connections left unarticulated in the “proofs” (i.e., biblical quotations) that the ancient rabbis engaged to generate and disseminate their ideas.
