“I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had slipped away and gone. My soul departed when he spoke. I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me” (Song of Songs 5:6). “I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had slipped away and gone [avar]” – He was appeased, and then He became filled with wrath [evra] toward me.27The midrash interprets the phrase “I opened for my beloved” as an expression of Israel’s attempt to begin the process of repentance.
God initially was appeased with this opening and responded by orchestrating Cyrus’s first decree allowing the building of the Temple. Then, God became angry over the lack of further progress in Israel’s repentance, and the result was Cyrus’s second decree. “My soul departed when he spoke” – upon the speech of Cyrus who decreed: Whoever has not crossed the Euphrates shall not cross. “I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.”28After that second decree, I sought God and called to Him, but the seventy years of the Babylonian exile had not yet been completed, and He did not answer me.
Another matter: “I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had slipped away and gone” – He was appeased, and then He became filled with wrath [evra] toward me like a pregnant [uberet] woman.29The midrash is interpreting this verse as pertaining to the years the Israelites spent in the wilderness. At first God was appeased by them and communicated directly with them at Sinai. After the sin of the Golden Calf, He was filled with anger toward them.
My soul departed when he spoke” – with His speech, from the sound of His first commandment, when He said: “I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:2). “I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.”30During the thirty-eight years following the sin of the scouts, God refused to allow the Israelites into the Land of Israel and did not communicate with them.