ABSTRACT
Extended practice in the art of flirting inevitably develops the imaginative faculties needed to decipher the hidden- mystic verbal or body language of the other. While the interpretation of the Song of Songs as a metaphoric allegory reflecting the relationship between God and Israel is carefully preserved among traditional commentators, it is the mystic language that allows the trained reader to penetrate into its internal meaning in order to discover the hidden implications that pertain also to prescribed human behavior. Selective interpretations of the Song of Songs will be used to illuminate how the possibility of expanding romantic-poetic appreciation of beauty, love, and nature is accomplished by contracting the physical desire. The “mystic closet,” which may be penetrated by males and females alike, contains the hidden powers for enhancing romantic imagination.
