There's more....
The contemporary non-orthodox Jewish approach poses even more difficult questions: [1] Insofar as it is silent, the non-orthodox approach indicates that something is being covered up. Silence is either reverent or protective. The fact that the name of God is absent from an explicitly sexual document should be enough to alert modern readers that something is amiss. The fact that the name of God is absent from a document dealing with the physical love between man and woman, a topic long taboo in modern society, should be enough to warn us that contemporary analysis is hiding something. [2] With no prior ideological commitment to concealing the sexually explicit meaning, why would many non-orthodox scholars be unaware of the fact that the name of God does not appear in Song of Songs even though they are aware that it does not appear in the Book of Esther? With no prior religious commitment to the allegorical reading, what interpretive stance accounts for blindness to a simple lexical fact? Gordis' suggestion seems lame and inadequate; invoking the Third Commandment and traditional reticence only reinforces the sense that something is being hidden.
The reference to Palti ben Layish is to I Sam. 25:44, taken together with II Sam. 3:15. The story, briefly, is that Saul had given his daughter, Michal, to David as a wife. Saul, subsequently, took her from David and gave her to Palti ben Layish. When David became king, he reclaimed Michal from Palti, whose name had been changed to Paltiel, i.e., the name of God ['El] had been added to it. The rabbis understood that Palti, although living with Michal and even sleeping in the same bed with her, did not touch her because she was the wife of David and, for this reason, Palti merited having the name of God ['El] added to his own name.
The rabbis taught: Three men swore their sexual appetites [to abstinence] and were saved from sexual sin: Joseph, as it is written, "And he refused [the advances of the wife of Potiphar]" (Gen. 39:8); Boaz, as it is written, "By the life of the Lord, sleep until the morning" (Ruth 3:13) -- this teaches that he took his sexual organ and put it at the edge of the grave [sic] and swore his sexual appetite not to do anything; and Palti ben Layish ... and when he saw [that he had a desire for Michal] he swore his appetite not to touch her and put a sword on the bed between him and her to break his appetite.
Rabbi Shim`on ben Gamliel said: Three persons fled from sin and the Holy One, blessed be He, added His Name to theirs: Joseph, Palti, and Ya`el.... And in the end, his name is Paltiel... 'El [God] testified about him that he did not touch her.... [And] the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "My Name testifies about Ya`el that Sisra did not touch her."
What we have here is the definition of the sexual hero in rabbinic Judaism. Joseph, Boaz, and Paltiel resisted their sexual impulses, even using an oath to do so. For Joseph to have spent several hours, for Boaz to have spent a whole night, and for Palti to have spent several years in situations of great sexual temptation and to have resisted is highly praiseworthy.
This, in turn, leads to the valorization of resistance to all one's appetites -- in nonsexual, as well as in sexual, contexts:
This motif of sexual heroism needs to be examined more carefully, for mastery over sexual appetite through abstinence is a form of heroism only in a thoroughly patriarchal universe. Retention of seed is an expression of individuation and personal strength only in an unremittingly masculine worldview. Furthermore, an integral part of this mastery-heroism is denial -- denial of the power of sexuality, refusal of the overwhelming desire for woman. To deny woman is to master appetite; or more properly: to reject the need for woman and to retain seed is to be one's masterly, masculine self.
From whence do we learn [that God added God's name to Ya`el because she resisted sexual temptation]? When Sisra fled to Ya`el, the wife of Hever the Kenite, she said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside" [Ju. 4:18]. He, then, said to her, "Give me a little water" and she opened a skin of milk and gave him to drink. His appetite burned within him, blazing for sexual activity. What did she do? She came to him on the sly and struck the tent-peg into his temple [so that he died] and "she covered him with a blanket" [ibid., Heb., bi-semikha ]. What does "with a blanket" mean? ... Resh Lakish said, "We have searched all of Scriptures and we have not found a device [connected with killing] called `blanket.' What, then, is semikha? It is written with a sin [the Hebrew letter for "s" which looks like the Hebrew letter for "sh"]. Hence, [the word semikha ] should be read shemi + ko, `My Name is here,' for My Name testifies about Ya`el that Sisra did not touch her."
The context speaks about men who fled from sin and had the divine appellative added to their names, easily demonstrated by Joseph (called "Jehoseph" is Ps. 81:6) and Palti (called "Paltiel"). Ya`el is a problem on two counts: First, the appellative is not added to her name but derived from the "device" connected with the killing of Sisra, the "blanket" (Hebrew, semikha, read as shemi + ko ). Second, Ya`el is a woman. She is not fleeing sexual temptation; she is avoiding rape. The murder she commits, in this midrashic version of the story, is as much an act of self-defense as it is a political-military act. The sexual roles have been reversed.
Rabbi Nahman bar Yitshak said: "A sin committed for the sake [of heaven] is greater than a mitsva performed not for the sake [of heaven], as it says, `May Ya`el, the wife of Hever the Kenite, be more blessed than women; may she be blessed more than women in the tent' [Ju. 5:24]." Who are the `women in the tent'? Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.... Rabbi Yohanan said, "That wicked man [Sisra] had intercourse [with Ya`el] seven times at that time, as it says, `He prostrated himself between her legs, he fell, he lay down; between her legs he prostrated himself and fell; where he prostrated himself there he fell stricken' [Ju. 5:27]."[48] But did she not feel pleasure at this sin? Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shim`on bar Yohai, "Even the good deeds of the wicked are evil for the righteous."