Rabbinical authority for over 2000 years has almost unanimously insisted that the sensual imagery and sexual situations in the Song of Songs are entirely allegorical: they tell the story of Israel's love for God and their covenental relationship. Take this verse:
Thy lips, O my bride, drop honey --
(4:11)
Honey and milk are under thy tongue;
And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
Rashi says it is about "discoursing on the Torah," and Divrei Yedidah comments "This refers to the 'revealed' portion of the Torah which one is obligated to read publicly -- hence the use of 'lips' implying public speech."
(In Artscroll Tanach Shir ha Shirim)
A long tradition of exegesis insists on this meaning even though the Torah is never explicitly mentioned and the symbolism of the poem never goes near it.
I remember being repelled by when I first read these interpretations. I don't dispute that a true love song can be song from the soul to god, but just as the blessing over wine does not dismiss the wine as an empty vehicle for praise, but savors its redness, taste and intoxicating effects, its origins in the grape and the growth of the vine , so the lovers in the poem sense and enjoy each other fully in the present, and are thankful for the reality of their love, with all its perils of loss. The Song of Songs makes a number of references to wine:
How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is thy love than wine!
And the smell of thine ointments than all manner of spices!
Thy lips, O my bride, drop honey --
Honey and milk are under thy tongue...
The likeness of love to wine, not just by intoxication, but by the full penetration of its substance to the core of nature, through its roots, sunshine and water is wonderfully expressed.
'Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards;
(2:15-16)
For our vineyards are in blossom.'
My beloved is mine and I am his...
The lovers do not dismiss the sexual union; that would be to discount the wine in the cup when we are blessing the fruit of the vine. We are meant to drink it! But the taste and smell of love are even better!
How beautiful are thy steps in sandals,
(7:2-4)
O, prince's daughter!
The roundings of thy thighs are like the links of a chain,
The work of the hands of a skilled workman.
Thy navel is like a round goblet
Wherein no mingled wine is wanting;
They belly is like a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
Thy two breasts are like two fawns
That are twins of a gazelle.
Or as Cole Porter would have it:
I love the looks of you,
The lure of you,
The sweet of you,
the pure of you.
The eyes, the arms, the mouth of you,
The east, west, north and the south of you.
The mystical Zohar celebrates the physical union more forthrightly and frankly than the rabbinical tradition: "There is twofold reason for this duty of cohabitation. First, the pleasure is a religious one, giving joy also to the Divine Presence, and it is an instrument for peace in the world...Secondly, if his wife should conceive, the heavenly partner confers upon the child a holy soul... Hence, a man should be as zealous to enjoy this joy as to enjoy the joy of the Sabbath... According to the secret doctrine, the supernal Mother is together with the male only when the house is in readiness and at that time the male and female are conjoined."
(Zohar. I.49b)
Understood deeply enough, the song in the Song of Songs is a window into the nature of life and the mysteries of creation. But the old rabbis couldn't or (more likely) wouldn't speak of it that way, at least in public.
The Bahir, an even earlier text in Jewish mystical tradition -- and of uncertain authorship -- hinted at other, deeper secrets in the Song -- mysteries of polarity and change -- connections between the energies of the male and female, the need for the female's transformational presence. "This relates to the female. Because of her the female was taken from Adam. This is because it is impossible for the lower world to endure without the female. And why is the female called Nekevah? Because her orifices (Nekev) are wide. Also because she has more orifices than the male. What are they? They are the orifices of the breasts, the womb and the receptacle."
(Bahir 173. Aryeh Kaplan edition)
The mystical sexual allusions here bear some resemblance, in my reading, to Taoist metaphysics; the teachings in the Song of Song may contain advice close to Lao Tzu's when he writes:
To know the male
(Tao Te Ching. 28)
But to abide by the female,
Is to be the valley of the world.
Being the valley of the world,
And departing not from the everlasting power
One again returns to the infant.
The Zohar says in this spirit: "Also because she is found at the deepest place is she designated lily of the valleys. At first, she is a rose, with yellowish petals, and the a lily of two colors, white and red, a lily of six petals changing from one hue to another. She is named "rose" when she is about to join with the King, and after she has come together with him in her kisses, she is named "lily."
(Zohar. III. 107a)
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