Like a Brother Who Nursed With Me

On the verse "If only you would be like my brother, who nursed together with me from my mother's breast" (Shir HaShirim 8:1), Rav Avraham explains that Klal Yisroel has sought one closeness to Hashem after another. First Hashem compared His bond with us to that of husband and wife, but we sinned and it ended in divorce. Then it became like master and slave, but we rebelled and were sent away from Yerushalayim with a bill of release. Then we tried to be like children, but we sinned again and were cast out of our Father's home, Eretz Yisroel. Finally K'nesses Yisroel turns back in yearning and asks Hashem to consider us a brother, since that bond cannot be cut so easily. Brothers from one father can quarrel over his inheritance, so we ask for the bond of brothers nursed by the same mother. Such a bond is eternal, for a brother cannot be divorced like a wife, freed like a slave, or cast out like a child.