emphasis in the Song of Songs. In the Song not only
is the sexual appreciated, it is joyously celebrated. t
It celebrates playfully and lyrically the beauty of the
human relationships between two people caught up
in erotic and passionate love for each other. Rabbi
Akiba, who lived in the first or second century after ,
Christ, considered the lyrical celebration of erotic
love as the holiest of all writings in sacred scripture.
He is said to have exclaimed ecstatically about the
Song: "The entire Universe is not as worthy as the .
day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, )
for all the writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is
the Holy of Holies" (in Goergen, 1976, p. 27).