Shir Hashirim Inspired letter to husband.

Chana Miriam S

Thu, Feb 10 2011, 2:16 pm

My husband is so amazing and he has been having such a hard time lately between some work challenges and my health issues (which, thankfully seem to be over now.)

I want to show him how much I appreciate him and I was mulling over how to do it this morning when I called an artist friend. She has a picture based on Shir Hashirim and it is a numbered print, and I also have two others from the series. I am buying it from her and writing him a 'letter' based on Shir Hashirim. I might make this into a blog entry at some point but I would love this to be a work in progress and welcome any feedback you can give me.

So far, I am basing this on the following pasukim:

1: 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for thy love is better than wine.
1: 15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thine eyes are as doves.
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for thy love is better than wine. 2:3 As an apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. Under its shadow I delighted to sit, and its fruit was sweet to my taste.
5:15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold; his aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
5:16 His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
6:3 I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,
8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it;

I will follow up when I have something written! right now I have to cook some stuff for Shabbat but wanted to write my ideas down somewhere he would not see them!

Chana Miriam S

Thu, Feb 10 2011, 3:11 pm

You know amother, I did not so much consider whether he would appreciate it- although I think he would. We also show each other we love each other by what we do for each other. He has been absolutely stalwart through this past couple of months and that alone means everything to me...but that having been said, while he does not need me to do this, its is coming from a place of WANTING to do it. Adding the Shir Hashirim aspect ties in nicely with the picture and the fact that his atara on his tallit says 'ani le doi ve dodi li' and was used as our chuppah. He started me thinking the other day because he was commenting on a letter I wrote to someone else. He finds my writing style extremely engaging and thinks I should use it for business, but it started ME thinking about wanting to do something nice for him that would show him exactly why I appreciate him in a way he would enjoy. This is going to be a stretch for me because I usually write stream of consciousness and I am giving myself a framework from shir hashirim.

PinkFridge

Sun, Feb 13 2011, 1:40 pm

I hate to throw a monkey wrench into this but it is very important to remember that there are literal meanings to Shir Hashirim. The fact that it resonates so much, as your original post shows, indicates just how powerful a moshol this is. But the way I've been taught, when one learns p'shat in Shir Hashirim you learn it not in the literal way but in the nimshol way, because doing anything less is treating this as a love letter, and that's exactly what we're not supposed to do with this sefer that's termed Kodesh Kedoshim.

I'm not sure if I'm clear. I would recommend starting with Artscroll's overview, and consider this very, very carefully.

And it is so nice to come across a thread about people experiencing such shalom bayis - we need true, strong batei ne'eman b'Yisrael! Ad 120 for the two of you!