The author of Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah, he is now writing a translation of and commentary on the Zohar’s treatment of the Song of Songs for the Pritzker Edition of the Zohar. This essay is adapted from Hecker’s chapter in a 2011 book published in honor of Rabbi Arthur Green, Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life: Classical Texts, Contemporary Reflections, edited by Lawrence Fine, Eitan Fishbane, and Or N. Rose.