![Gustav Klimt: Il bacio [The Kiss] (detail)](Images/Gustav_Klimt--Il_bacio.jpg)
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Gustav Klimt: Il bacio [The Kiss] (detail)
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Another interpretation: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth [SoS 1:2]. What did King Solomon mean by introducing words of love
between the upper world and the lower world, and by beginning the praise of love,
which he has introduced between them, with let him kiss
me? They have already given an explanation for this, and it is that inseparable
love of spirit for spirit can be [expressed] only by a kiss, and a kiss is with the mouth,
for that is the source and outlet of the spirit. And when they kiss one another, the
spirits cling to each other, and they are one, and then love is one.
In the Book of the Ancient Rav Hamnuna Sava, he says on this verse: The kiss
of love extends into the four spirits and the four spirits cling together and they are
within the mystery of faith, and they ascend by four letters, and these are the letters
upon which the Holy Name depends and upon which the upper and the lower
depend, and upon which the praise in the Song of Songs depends. And which are
they?
Alef, he, bet, he. They are the supernal chariot, and they are the
companionship, unison and wholeness of all. These letters are four spirits; they are
the spirits of love and delight, for all the limbs of the body are without any pain at all.
There are four spirits in the kiss and each one of them is comprised within its
companion. And since one spirit is comprised within another, and this other is
comprised within the former the two spirits become one, and then the four are wholly
joined together in one single unison, flowing into one another and being contained
within one another. And when they spread abroad a single fruit is made from these
four spirits, one spirit comprised of four spirits, and this ascends and splits firmament
until it ascends and dwells by a palace called “the palace of love,” a palace upon
which all love depends, and this is similarly called “Love.” And when this spirit
ascends, it stimulates the palace to unite with that which is above.
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, 3 Volumes (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization). (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989), pp. 364–69.
