“Behold, you are fair, my beloved, pleasant too; indeed our bed is fresh” (Song of Songs 1:16). “Behold, you are fair, my beloved, pleasant too.” Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Ḥanina, Rabbi Abahu said: He lauded her with a compound expression, and she lauded him with a simple expression. He lauded her with a compound expression: “Behold, you are fair, my love; behold, you are fair” (Song of Songs 1:15), for if He sought to adopt another nation, He could.303The verse repeats the laudatory phrase to say that even though He could, he chooses not to do so.
She lauded him with a simple expression: “Behold, you are fair, my beloved, pleasant too.”304“Behold” is not repeated, and “fair” is not repeated either. Rabbi Ḥanina said to him: She, too, lauded him with a compound expression, as it is stated: “Behold, you are fair, my beloved, pleasant too [af].” She said to Him: ‘Master of the universe, the anger [af] with which You treat me is pleasant. Why?
Because You return me and cause me to be better.305The people of Israel recognize that their suffering is meant to cause them to repent.