With this Shabbat, we begin something new on Friday evenings at Shelter Rock, something I hope will impact positively on our services on Erev Shabbat and appeal to those of you who participate in our worship services. As many of you know, the Song of Songs--the Bible's deeply erotic comparison of the love of God for Israel with the love of men and women--is traditionally read, either partially or in full, as part of our effort to bring in Shabbat in a spiritually rich and purposeful manner. We haven't done that at Shelter Rock, mostly because the text was absent from our prayer books, but that is no longer the case. Siddur Tzur Yisrael contains the full text of the Song of Songs in Hebrew, plus a translation undertaken by myself in the manner of an ancient targum. Let me explain what I mean.

In late antiquity, the spoken language of the Jews was no longer Hebrew. Instead, most Jews spoke Aramaic, a different Semitic language related to Hebrew in roughly the same way Italian is related to Spanish. Since the average Jewish person could no longer be presumed capable of understanding the Hebrew of Biblical texts easily, the custom grew up of creating translations into Aramaic that would introduce our sacred texts to a broader audience. But these translations, called targumim (that's the Aramaic word that means "translations"), were more than just literal renditions of the text into a different language. Instead, they were part translation, part commentary, and part appreciation: the surviving targumim are more presentations of the text with all the necessary extra information added to make them fully intelligible. I have tried to do the same with the four biblical books translated in full in our new siddur: the Song of Songs, Eichah (Lamentations), Kohelet and Ruth. But nowhere have I allowed myself more freedom to add background material, stage directions and commentary than in my own targum to the Song of Songs. It is that material that I wish to begin to present in synagogue this evening.

For good measure, Siddur Tzur Yisrael also contains a full translation into English of the real targum to the Song of Songs, set into English by Jay Treat of the University of Pennsylvania. So interested readers can compare the versions. They're very different...but they both have the same idea at heart: taking an ancient text and turning it into the kind of material anyone can find moving to read, satisfying to ponder and spiritually uplifting to contemplate. That, at any rate, was the plan!

I look forward to trying this out tonight and seeing what you all think. I've even refreshed my recollection of the traditional trope so that I can sing part of the text to you using the traditional melody. (The cantor was great. I felt just like a bar-mitzvah boy--he made me a CD and xeroxed the notes and told me I could come to see him if I needed extra help!)

Come to shul and tell me what you think. Not of my singing, but of the whole concept!

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Martin S. Cohen