This impulsiveness, the inability to differentiate between the time of affection and the necessary preparation towards that end, forms the central axis of the Megilla throughout its depiction of the Re’aya’s attempts to find her Dod and his reaction, until he finally arrives and knocks at her door. While she bursts forth with no restraint, her Dod tries to cool the flames of passion so as to deepen their love gradually.
He expresses his intention in two ways. Firstly, he explicitly indicates the motivation behind his peculiar conduct: “I adjure you, maidens of Jerusalem, by gazelles or by hinds of the field: Do not wake or rouse love until it pleases!” (2:7). One verse earlier, the Re’aya had cried that she is “faint with love,” and she expressed her desire to have “his left hand under my head, and his right arm embracing me.” Therefore, her Dod warns that her yearning has blossomed too quickly and insists that it must not “be aroused until it pleases.” He later articulates this warning for a second time, under similar circumstances, and, immediately thereafter, we learn that Shlomo’s bed is guarded by sixty armed guards (3:7). The Dod thus ensures that his Re’aya will not burst into his residence in her pursuit of passion.
However, beyond the explicit illustration of the different attitudes of the Dod and his Re’aya, the Megilla employs more subtle literary techniques to draw our attention to their conflicting approaches. Among other means, the Megilla enlists the concept of time as well as rich imagery to express the emotions of both characters in the drama.
At the outset of her pursuit, the Re’aya turns to her lover and asks (1:7), “Tell me, you whom I love so well; where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them AT NOON?” Her poor timing, the fact that she wishes to unite with her lover before the appropriate moment, is strengthened by the emphasis on the time of her yearning. She wants to see him immediately, in the middle of the day, the time allocated for work, not pleasure. At this early stage in their relationship, she should not neglect all her responsibilities and run after her lover. She pays no heed to this societal convention; her impulsive character drives her after her beloved even during the daytime hours.
Understandably, his response is soon in coming (1:8): “Go follow the tracks of the sheep, and graze your kids by the tents of the shepherds.” In other words, relax, calm down, get back to work. When the appropriate time arrives, our rendezvous even in the midday hours can be justified; but not now. As the relationship is still in its formative stages, the labor of love must be performed only by night, not by day. The Dod will come – only in the dark of night, not in broad daylight.
Whereas the element of timing is employed in a subtle – albeit powerful – way, the supple imagery used by the two main characters pulsates throughout the entire drama. A clear difference exists between the imagery employed by the Re’aya and that employed by her lover. The Re’aya draws all her images from the natural world, from the roaming beasts of the field and the wild vegetation of virgin lands. Her world is an unrestrained, untamed wonderland, with no restrictions or societal taboos. Vegetation grows unabated, just as the general tendency of living creatures is to act on impulse. The organic world continually expands and spreads, and from this world of unrestrained activity does the Re’aya borrow her images to depict her feelings towards her Dod.
