The Night School with the Author of Song of Songs

DESCRIPTION: TNS 18, 1 (Tuesday, 20 January 2026) - the Author (s) of the Song of Songs (late 4th to early 2nd centuries BCE) - Love as Eros (Erotic)

I am aware of no biblical book that has received the attention of so many of the greatest minds and mystics, Jewish and Christian, in history than this biblical book. “If all the [biblical] writings are holy,” Rabbi Akiva proclaimed in a discussion of the Song’s canonicity, “the Song of Songs is holy of holies.” And the magnificent Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) is clearly a nod to this great biblical text. Robert Alter (born 1935), a Professor of Hebrew at the University of California at Berkeley and a renowned translator of the whole Old Testament puts it this way:

"But even against that background, the Song of Songs stands out in its striking distinctiveness—a distinctiveness that deserves to be called wondrous. The delicate yet frank sensuality of this celebration of young love, without reference to God or covenant or Torah, has lost nothing of its immediate freshness over the centuries: these are among the most beautiful love poems that have come down to us from the whole ancient world."

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