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Term: The Song of Songs

DEFINITION:
Also called “The Song of Solomon” in Christian tradition, it ia a book of the Bible. The Sages of the First Century debated whether this series of passionate love poems that never mention God should actually be part of the Biblical canon. The Song of Songs was accepted, however, on the strength of the argument that it is actually an allegory for the love between God and Israel. Since then the text have been a fertile ground for mystical speculation. Rabbi Akiba and his contemporaries evidently had a whole body of mystical traditions concerning this text, starting with the claim that it was given, along with the Torah, at Mount Sinai.