The Sacred Marriage and the Messianic Consummation
This essay traces the hermeneutic transformation of the Song of Songs from ancient erotic poetry to the theological foundation of Chabad-Lubavitch messianism. Beginning with the canonical tensions between peshat and derash that have animated Jewish interpretation since antiquity, we follow the trajectory through which erotic imagery became the privileged vehicle for expressing the most intimate dimensions of divine-human encounter. The midrashic identification of the Temple as marital chamber, elaborated through Kabbalistic theosophy into a cosmic drama of sefirotic union, provides the conceptual architecture upon which Hasidic and ultimately Lubavitcher thought constructs its eschatological vision. Central to this analysis is the development of Shekhinah consciousness—the evolution of divine presence from biblical dwelling motifs through Kabbalistic systematization to its contemporary manifestation in therapeutic and healing encounters. Drawing upon the work of Moshe Idel, Elliot R. Wolfson, Shaul Magid, Andrea Weiss, Eli Rubin, and my own research on the therapeutic space as locus of divine indwelling, this study argues that the messianic theology of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe represents not merely a continuation but a radical rupture within this trajectory—a hermeneutic move that transforms anticipation into proclamation, futurity into presence, and the bridal chamber of exile into the consummated union of redemption.