Talmud Class: Broken Love Stories
On the Shabbat of Chol Hamoed Pesach (April 4), we encounter a curious reading: Shir Hashirim, Song of Songs. If you have never really studied it, you might think, “Oh, that is the Bible’s famous love story. On the festival of Passover, a springtime of renewal, we read about love. How lovely.” You would think that only if you haven't read the book.
If you read Shira Hashirim, it is not a happily ever after love story. To the contrary, it is a story of lovers who seek but do not find, who knock on the door only to find an empty bedroom, who yearn but whose yearning is not fulfilled. It is taken by rabbinic Judaism to be an allegory for the love relationship of God and Israel—anything but a simple love story. Yearning unfulfilled. And we chant it during the holiday when we celebrate God taking us out of Egypt through miraculous signs and wonders. Complexity.
In Talmud we are going to examine two broken love stories: Shir Hashirim, and a story in Allegra Goodman’s brilliant book This Is Not About Us entitled Deal Breaker. Both are stories of broken love.
What do broken love stories teach us about love? What do broken love stories teach us about us?
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