Drawn After the King Into His Inner Chambers

Tanna Debei Eliyahu Rabbah 6:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"Draw me after you, let us run; the King has brought me into his chambers" (Song of Songs 1:4). This is the assembly of Israel, which was drawn after the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "From afar the LORD appeared to me, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 31:3). It does not say "with great love I have loved you" but "with everlasting love I have loved you." Lest you say the love of the Holy One, blessed be He, lasted three years, or ten years, or a hundred years, therefore it is said "with everlasting love I have loved you." Therefore it is said, "Draw me after you, let us run; the King has brought me into his chambers." A parable: to a king who was sitting on his throne with his servants standing before him, and he set his eyes on the one he loved, seized him by the hand, and brought him into his innermost chambers. So the Holy One, blessed be He, brought Israel into the innermost chambers, what He did not bring any other nation or tongue. Therefore it is said, "The King has brought me into his chambers." Another interpretation of "the King has brought me into his chambers": just as the Holy One, blessed be He, has innermost chambers in His Torah, so the disciples of the wise have, each and every one, innermost chambers in his Torah. And if you see that sufferings come upon you and press in, run to the chambers of the words of Torah, and at once the sufferings flee from you, as it is said, "Come, my people, enter your chambers" (Isaiah 26:20). Therefore it is said, "The King has brought me into his chambers." "We will rejoice and be glad in you" - in that You magnified us and engaged us and exalted us and bound for us a great bond in the words of Torah from one end of the world to the other, until You left aside four hundred and ninety-six thousand myriads of ministering angels and came and cleaved to them, to Israel, forever. And because it is said of You, "Before Me no god was formed, and after Me there shall be none" (Isaiah 43:10), You called us sons, brothers, and servants; and because it is said of You, "I am the LORD and there is none else, besides Me there is no God" (Isaiah 45:5), You called us gods; and because it is said of You, "A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides Me" (Isaiah 45:21), You caused Your great name to rest upon the name of Israel, and the name of Israel You joined to Your great name. Concerning that hour it says, "I sleep but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one" (Song of Songs 5:2). "We will recall your love more than wine" (Song of Songs 1:4): just as the Holy One, blessed be He - may His great name be blessed forever and ever - recalls and praises the deeds of the righteous and the upright and claps His two hands one upon the other and says, Why was not the whole world filled with people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and like Moses and David? - so let a person recall and praise the Holy One, blessed be He, in prayer and in the words of Torah and in the words of the sages in every place; and in the end let his way be set before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "Who is wise that he may understand these things... for the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them" (Hosea 14:10). And when does the Holy One, blessed be He, recall and praise the deeds of the righteous and clap His two hands and say, Why was not the world filled with people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and like Moses and David? When Israel was in the wilderness and corrupted their deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: How many miracles and how many mighty acts I did for them, and they have still not entered under the wings of the Divine Presence. But for Jacob I never did miracles, and all his days he was upright before Me, as it is said, "And Jacob was a wholehearted man" (Genesis 25:27) - wholehearted from robbery, wholehearted from transgression, wholehearted from any unseemly word. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, recalls him, He claps His two hands one upon the other over him, as it is said, "And Israel dwelt in safety, alone, the fountain of Jacob" (Deuteronomy 33:28). And when Amos the prophet stood and asked mercy for Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He, he said before Him: Master of the universe, if there is none in the world like Jacob, let the whole world be destroyed; our Father in heaven, may Your great name be blessed forever and ever, may You have contentment from Israel Your servants in all the places of their dwellings - for You did not leave Your servant Amos the prophet until You answered him, as it is said, "Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, He was forming locusts at the beginning of the late growth... and when they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray; how can Jacob stand, for he is small? The LORD relented concerning this: It shall not be, said the LORD" (Amos 7:1-3). This is the first vision; and in the second vision what does he say? "Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was summoning a contention by fire... and I said, O Lord GOD, cease, I pray; how can Jacob stand" (Amos 7:4-5).

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