Pope, in his commentary to the Song of Songs, surmises that this Kabbalistic custom of receiving the Sabbath in the open followed
"an ancient custom of devoting the evening of Friday (Fri[g]day. Frig being the old Teutonic love goddess corresponding to Venus) to veneral activity...The emphasis on the open country and the fields outside the town suggests alfresco amour under the benign glow of the Venus star (which helps one to understand the French expression for "out-of-doors," a la belle etoile, the beautiful star being Venus). The Bride and Queen greeted at dusk in the open country around Safed, we may plausibly surmise, was the epiphany of the Evening Star, Ishtar-Venus, Queen of Heaven. The question of the Canticle (8:5a): "Who is this ascending from the steppe?" is thus answered. The vesper sortie into the field recalls the invitation of the Canticle (7:12-13): "Come, my love, let us hie to the field...there will I give you my love."