Song of Songs Rabbah 2:17

¹“Until the day is great and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a fawn on the cleft mountains” (Song of Songs 2:17). “Until the day is great [ sheyafuaḥ ],” Rabbi Yudan and Rabbi Berekhya, Rabbi Yudan said: Until I introduce a breeze [ piḥa ] into the night of the kingdoms. Did I not introduce a breeze into the night of Egypt, as it was four hundred years and I made them two hundred and ten? “And the shadows flee,” did I not remove from them two difficult shadows of mortar and bricks? Rabbi Ḥelbo said: “The nation” “and also the nation” (Genesis 15:14), Egypt and the four kingdoms. Rabbi Yudan said: Being a stranger, subjugation, and affliction in a land that is not theirs, even in cities prepared for them. “Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle,” ultimately I will turn for you from the attribute of justice to the attribute of mercy, and accelerate your redemption like the blood of the gazelle and the blood of a hart. “Or a fawn,” Rabbi Yosei ben Rabbi Ḥanina said: Like the offspring of a hind. “On the cleft [ bater ] mountains,” owing to the conditions that I stipulated with Abraham your patriarch between the pieces [ betarim ], as it is stated: “On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying” (Genesis 15:18). Rabbi Berekhya said: Until I heat the day, just as it says: “With the fire of My fury I will blow [ afiaḥ ] upon you” (Ezekiel 21:36), “to blow fire upon it” (Ezekiel 22:20). What is “and the shadows flee”? These are the shadows of sorrow and sighing. “Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle,” ultimately I will turn for you from the attribute of justice to the attribute of mercy and accelerate your redemption like the blood of the gazelle and the blood of a hart. “Or a fawn,” like the offspring of a hind. “On the cleft [ bater ] mountains,” Rabbi Yudan said: So that the kingdoms will be in abeyance until after [ batar ] their treasures. Rabbi Levi bar Ḥaita said: After the kingdom will experience its greatness. Rabbi Berekhya said: The Holy One blessed be He said: Even if I have against them only what they did in Beitar, My judgement will be extended over them. What did they do in Beitar? Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Emperor Hadrian killed four million people in Beitar.