Song of Songs (Shir haShirim), attributed to King Solomon. The Rabbis taught that Song of Songs is a metaphor for the loving relationship between G-d and Israel. Reading from Shir HaShirim (the book called Song of Songs) is done before the reading from the Torah. Much of the content of Shir HaShirim does not, on the surface, appear to have very much to do with the Passover story. However, Chazal teaches that Shir HaShirim embodies the entire Torah, the story of the exile in Egypt and the redemption of Israel from there. We do find many sources which understand the love story which is Shir HaShirim to be an allegory of the love between God and Israel.

Shir HaShirim is probably one of the more difficult books of the bible to understand and that is because of the controversies over the intentions of the author, who all agree is King Solomon.  

The most allegorical view of the book is taken by the famous Jewish commentator of the eleventh century, Rashi. He allegorizes the Book saying, "Solomon saw with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) that Israel was destined to be exiled. They will remember their previous Glory and their earlier love."

He concluded by saying, "one verse can be interpreted in many ways, but the ultimate fact is that the verses do not have a simple meaning, as an allegory one must reconcile one verse based on its sequence as the verses come arranged one after the other."

Therefore he attributes the entire Megillah to Solomon prophesying about Israel in a love song between a nation and her G-d.

Another view of Shir HaShirim and conclusions about Shir HaShirim may differ from those of Rashi and much of the church, being that Solomon, scripturally that is a man with a passion for women.  After all, he had 700 wives and well over 1000 concubines.

The book, I believe needs to be interpreted literally. It is a collection of erotic songs, not necessarily in sequential order, composed from one of Solomon's real life experiences. The purpose of the Book and it's place in the Bible, is to show ideal human love as well as G-d's sexual view of love in marriage. After all the Bible does speak to us about every area of human relationship, so it's reasonable to expect that it would also speak to us about the most human intimate marital relationship, SEX.

The main moral of the Book is that love, besides being the strongest human emotion, can also be the holiest. In fact the famous Rabbi Akiva in describing the Book said, and I quote. "No day in the whole history of the world is so much worthy as that in which Shir HaShirim was given. For all the Ketuvim (Prophetic writings), are holy, but Shir HaShirim is the holy of holies."

In English there is only one word for love, however there are three types of love in both the Greek and the Hebrew languages and they carry different meanings. All three are found in the the Book Shir HaShirim.

First there is the word for love "Ahavah." This is a love of the will where one can chose to love even the unlovable. It is the type of love G-d wants us to have for each other.

The second word for love is "Raeyah." This is a love of the emotions in response to attraction, it's a love of friendship.

The third type of love in the Hebrew language is "Dod." Dod deals with sexual love. All three types of love are dealt with in Shir HaShirim.

The Book in essence teaches us that G-d gave us the gift of human love to sweeten our lives of toil and trouble. Another great Biblical example of that teaching, is found in the story of Yaacov (Jacob) and Rachel. However the Book also expresses in its erotic format that no form of sexual behaviour between husband and wife is wrong as long as it's agreeable and acceptable to both parties.

Rav. Shaul (Paul), teaches us much the same lesson when he tells us in: 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (NIV).

What significance does all this have for us? Well it dispels the myth that as believers love and sex are taboo subjects. It emphasizes that both love in its three distinctions are G-d given human emotions and that "Dod" love, in the Greek "Eros" is an intricate part of a marriage relationship.(Rabbi Jack (Ya'acov) Farber  http://www.cmy.on.ca/toraportions2000/modeim/shirhashirim.htm)