"Go forth and gaze, daughters of Zion, upon King Solomon" (Song of Songs 3:11). The sages of Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 1:3 read that word tziyyon as m'tzuyanim — the distinguished ones, the children marked for God by circumcision, by the laws of haircutting, and by tzitzit. And the King, again, is not Solomon. It is the King to whom shalom belongs, the One who reconciles His creatures.

The Peacemaker Between Fire and Flesh

Look at how many quarrels God has refereed. He made peace between fire and Abraham when Nimrod threw him into the furnace. He made peace between the sword and Isaac on the wood of the altar. He made peace between the wrestling angel and Jacob at the Jabbok ford (Genesis 32:25). Every element in creation is capable of destroying a human being, and the King of Peace keeps calling them off.

Rabbi Yochanan expands the picture. "Dominion and dread are with Him" (Job 25:2) — a line that flows into the daily Kaddish. Rabbi Yaakov of Kfar Chanan unpacks the code. "Dominion" is Michael. "Dread" is Gabriel. One is fire, the other water, and they stand in the court of Heaven without burning or drowning each other. In all the days of the world, the sun has never gashed the moon. The constellations of the zodiac have never jumped the line.

The Miracle Inside a Miracle

Rabbi Avin goes deeper still. Every single angel is half fire and half water, and God holds those two halves together without either one winning. The plague of hail in Egypt proved the same principle. "There was hail, and fire igniting itself within the hail" (Exodus 9:24). Rabbi Yehuda imagined it as bowls of hail filled with fire like the chambers of a split pomegranate. Rabbi Nechemiah imagined it as fire and hail mixed like oil and water in a lamp, burning together.

Rabbi Acha offers a parable. A king had two elite legions who despised each other — until war came. The moment the enemy rose against their king, they forgot their feud and fought side by side. So, too, fire and hail are natural enemies. But when God went to war for Israel against Pharaoh, they made peace inside a single cloud. A miracle within a miracle.

Daughter, Sister, Mother

Then the midrash turns to "the crown with which his mother adorned him on the day of his wedding." Rabbi Yitzchak searched all of Scripture and found no verse where Bathsheba crowned her son Solomon. So what crown is this? It is the Tent of Meeting, crowned in blue, purple, and scarlet.

Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai asked Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yosei what he had heard from his father on this verse, and the answer astonished him. A king had an only daughter and loved her so much he could not stop calling her by closer and closer names. First "my daughter," then "my sister," finally "my mother." So God called Israel "daughter" — "Listen, daughter, and see" (Psalms 45:11). Then "sister" — "My sister, my darling" (Song of Songs 5:2). Then "mother," reading u'l'umi ("my nation") as u'l'ami ("my mother") in Isaiah 51:4. When Rabbi Shimon heard this, he stood up and kissed the younger rabbi on the head.

Four Fires on the Mountain

Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin, in the name of Rabbi Levi, closes with an unforgettable scene. When God told Moses, "Make for Me a dwelling place," He first showed him four fires up on high — red, green, black, and white. Moses panicked. "Master of the Universe, where am I supposed to find red fire, green fire, black fire, white fire?" God answered, "Build it from the pattern you are shown on the mountain" (Exodus 25:40). Use earthly dyes that match the colors of the heavenly flames. "You with your dyes," God said, "and I with My glory."

If you build below what I have above, God told him, I will contract (m'tzamtzem) My infinite Presence and come dwell among you. Seraphs stand above; acacia boards stand below. Stars pin the firmament above; golden hooks pin the fabric below. The Tabernacle was the heavens, translated into thread and wood. It was the wedding canopy at Sinai, and it was a rehearsal for the Temple yet to come.