O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you— if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love. How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? How is your beloved better than others, that you charge us so? (Song of Songs 5:8-9)

The Beloved is not alone. The friends - daughters of Jerusalem - are charged and respond.

The daughters of Jerusalem remind me of a Greek chorus always present, always watching, but only occasionally involved and given voice.

Our modern bias - perhaps an especially American bias - is to view the Lover and Beloved as two individuals. Even if we approach the Song as spiritual metaphor, we focus on the dynamic dyad of Beloved and Lover.

But whatever the purpose of the author, there is also a social dynamic. There are brothers (1:6), watchmen, the Lover's companions (1:7), and friends.

We influence and are influenced by our relationships. Often our relationships are what determine our understanding of reality.

Ariel and Chana Bloch point out that the friends' response is characteristic of the (later) Talmudic interrogatory, "mah...min..." How is your lover better (different) than others? How is this different from that? This is an essential application of reason.