Knesset Yisrael is asleep, but her heart is awake.
In Zohar, Ha'Azinu 1, Rabbi Judah reads Song of Songs as Israel speaking from the edge of loss. "I was asleep, but my heart was awake" (Song of Songs 5:2). The Community of Israel says: I slept through the commandments in the wilderness, but my heart was awake to enter the land where they could be fulfilled.
The beloved knocking at the door is Moses. He rebukes, calls, warns, and opens gates. In his days, Israel needs no angel or messenger to guide them. Moses hears the supernal King without trembling.
Afterward, the beloved withdraws. In Joshua's time, an angel appears as captain of the Lord's host (Joshua 5:14). The Zohar feels the difference. Direct nearness has become mediated nearness. The door was opened, but the beloved has moved.
The passage also turns answering "Amen" into a gate for the soul. One who opens blessings below has gates opened above. The sleeping community, the knocking Moses, and the ascending soul all teach the same law: what Israel opens here will open there. A word spoken at the right moment can become a door.
<small>GIVE EAR, YE HEAVENS, AND I WILL SPEAK, ETC</small>. R. Judah cited here the verse: “I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone”, etc. (S.S. 5, 6). ‘And just before this it is written, “I was asleep but my heart waked” (<i>Ibid.</i> 2). Said the Community of Israel: I was asleep to the precepts of the Law when I went in the wilderness, but my heart was awake to enter the land so as to perform them, since they all are meant for the land. “It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh”: this is Moses, who administered many reproofs answer Amen departs from this world, his soul ascends and they proclaim before him: Open the gates before him<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">v. T. B. Shabbath, 119b.</i> as he opened gates every day by being careful to answer Amen. But if one hears a blessing from the reader and is not careful to answer Amen, what is his punishment? As he did not open blessings below, so they do not open for him above, and when he leaves this world they proclaim before him: Close the gates in the face of So-and-so that he enter not, and do not receive him woe to him and to his soul!
Yet withal he spoke only in love for Israel, as it says, “Ye are a holy people”, etc. (<i>Ibid.</i> 7, 6).
Said the Israelites: When we were about to enter into the land and to receive precepts of the Law, then “my beloved withdrew himself and was gone”, for “Moses the servant of the Lord died there”. “I sought him but I could not find him”, as it is written, “There arose not a prophet like Moses”. “I called him but he gave me no answer”, for there was no generation like that of Moses, one to whose voice God hearkened and for whom He did such wonders and miracles.
R. Isaac said: “I rose to open to my beloved”: this was in the days of Moses, during the whole of which there was no need of angel or messenger to guide Israel. “My beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone”: this was in the days of Joshua, as it is written, “Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come” (Joshua 5, 16).
Moses heard the voice of the holy supernal King without trembling; “I came in the days of Moses thy master but he would not accept me”. Then did the children of Israel realize the greatness of Moses; they sought the Holy One, blessed be He, but He was no longer at hand for them as in the days of Moses.’
