“Behold, you are fair, my love, behold, you are fair; your eyes are doves behind your braid; your hair is like a flock of goats that streams down from Mount Gilad. Your teeth are like a flock of ordered ewes that have come up from bathing, that are all paired, and there is none missing among them” (Song of Songs 4:1–2). “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold, you are fair” – behold you are fair in mitzvot, behold you are fair in performing acts of kindness.
Behold you are fair in positive mitzvot, behold you are fair in negative mitzvot. Behold you are fair in the mitzvot of the house: in ḥalla, teruma, and tithes; behold you are fair in the mitzvot of the field: gleanings, forgotten sheaves, the corner,1The mitzva to leave produce in a corner of the field for the poor. This and the other mitzvot of the field mentioned here are found in Leviticus 19:9 and 23:22. tithe of the poor, and ownerless property.2The requirement to declare ownerless the produce that grows in one’s field during the Sabbatical Year.
Behold you are fair in diverse kinds, behold you are fair in a cloak with ritual fringes. Behold you are fair in planting, behold you are fair in orla,3It is forbidden to eat and derive benefit from fruit that grows during the first three years after a tree is planted. behold you are fair in the fruit of a fourth-year sapling. Behold you are fair in circumcision, behold you are fair in uncovering.4After the foreskin is severed, the membrane underneath is pulled back, exposing the corona.
Behold you are fair in the Amida prayer, behold you are fair in the recitation of Shema. Behold you are fair in mezuza, behold you are fair in phylacteries. Behold you are fair in sukka, behold you are fair in the palm branch and the citron. Behold you are fair in repentance, behold you are fair in good deeds. Behold you are fair in this world, behold you are fair in the World to Come.