The Standards of Israel as Banners of God's Love

(Numbers 2:2:) EACH WITH HIS STANDARD, UNDER THE SIGNS OF THEIR FATHERS' HOUSES, etc. This is what Scripture says (Psalms 20:6): LET US SHOUT FOR JOY IN YOUR SALVATION, AND IN THE NAME OF OUR GOD LET US SET UP OUR STANDARDS, etc. Israel said: O Lord God, we shout for joy in Your salvation, in what You did for us in Your name. LET US SHOUT FOR JOY IN YOUR SALVATION, as it is said (Exodus 14:30): AND THE LORD SAVED ISRAEL ON THAT DAY. It is written wayyosha (which can be read "and He was saved"), as it were: Israel is redeemed, and it is as if God is redeemed. AND IN THE NAME OF OUR GOD LET US SET UP OUR STANDARDS — for God placed His name within our names and made us into standards, as it is said: EACH WITH HIS STANDARD UNDER THE SIGNS. With great love the Holy One, blessed be He, loved Israel, for He made them into standards like the ministering angels, so that they would be recognizable — the sons of Reuben by themselves and the sons of Simeon by themselves. And from where do we know that He loved them? As it is said (Song of Songs 2:4): HE BROUGHT ME TO THE HOUSE OF WINE, AND HIS STANDARD OVER ME IS LOVE. To what is the matter comparable? To a rich man who had a storehouse full of wine. He went in to inspect it and found that it had turned to vinegar. As he came to leave the storehouse, he found there one cask of [good] wine. He said: This cask is worth as much to me as the whole storehouse. So too the Holy One, blessed be He, created seventy nations, and out of them all He found pleasure in none but Israel, as it is said: HE BROUGHT ME TO THE HOUSE OF WINE (yayin) — yod, yod is twenty, nun is fifty: thus seventy; and out of them all He loved none but Israel, as it is said: AND HIS STANDARD OVER ME IS LOVE. And it says (Song of Songs 6:8-9): THERE ARE SIXTY QUEENS, etc.; ONE IS MY DOVE, MY PERFECT ONE.