The New Jew: A Field Guide

Pages

pp. 370-371

Kabbalat Shabbat

kabalat Shabat

קבלת שבת

Israeli: ' marks a reduced vowel that Israeli speech drops (b'rachah); when the vowel is pronounced it is written e (lefanecha). - separates syllables that would otherwise run together.

How to read the transliterations

קבלת שבת

Kabbalat Shabbat

Mourners during the week of Shiva leave the synagogue at this point, returning after "Come, my Beloved" on page 382.

Ps. 95

Hebrew

לְכוּ נְרַנְּנָה לַיהוָה, נָרִיעָה לְצוּר יִשְׁעֵנוּ: נְקַדְּמָה פָנָיו בְּתוֹדָה,
בִּזְמִרוֹת נָרִיעַ לוֹ: כִּי אֵל גָּדוֹל יְהוָה, וּמֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל עַל־כָּל־אֱלֹהִים:
אֲשֶׁר בְּיָדוֹ מֶחְקְרֵי־אָרֶץ, וְתוֹעֲפוֹת הָרִים לוֹ: אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ הַיָּם
וְהוּא עָשָׂהוּ, וְיַבֶּשֶׁת יָדָיו יָצָרוּ: בֹּאוּ נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה וְנִכְרָעָה, נִבְרְכָה
לִפְנֵי־יְהוָה עֹשֵׂנוּ: כִּי הוּא אֱלֹהֵינוּ, וַאֲנַחְנוּ עַם מַרְעִיתוֹ וְצֹאן
יָדוֹ, הַיּוֹם אִם־בְּקֹלוֹ תִשְׁמָעוּ: אַל־תַּקְשׁוּ לְבַבְכֶם כִּמְרִיבָה, כְּיוֹם

Israeli

lechu neranenah ladonai, nari-ah letzur yishenu: nekadmah fanav b'todah,
bizmirot naria lo: ki El gadol Adonai, umelech gadol al-kol-elohim:
asher b'yado mechkerei-aretz, veto-afot harim lo: asher-lo hayam
vehu asahu, veyabeshet yadav yatzaru: bou nishtachaveh venichra-ah, nivrechah
lifnei-adonai osenu: ki hu Eloheinu, va-anachnu am marito vetzon
yado, hayom im-b'kolo tishmau: al-takshu levavchem kimrivah, k'yom

Commentary

… non-statutory character of Kabbalat Shabbat, the custom in some synagogues is for the Leader to recite it from the bima rather than the amud (lectern) at the front of the synagogue.

The six psalms said before Lekha Dodi represent the six days of the week. The first five appear sequentially in the book of Psalms (95-99). They speak of the song creation sings to its Creator. These are followed by Psalm 29, understood by some as a description of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Lekha Dodi looks forward to future redemption, and Psalms 92 and 93 envision the end of days. Thus the entire sequence is structured around the movement from creation to revelation to redemption.

לְכוּ נְרַנְּנָה Psalm 95. Come, let us sing for joy: The Psalmist calls on the people to serve God with joy, redeeming the sin of their ancestors who, though they had been rescued by God from slavery, were ungrateful and argumentative. Massah and Meribah (literally, "testing and quarreling"), were the names given to the place where, after crossing the Reed Sea, the Israelites complained of their lack of water (Ex. 17:1-7). אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה For forty years (next page): A reference to the episode of the spies (Num. chapters 13-14), when the people, demoralized by their report, rebelled. Their fate was to spend forty years in the desert. The Psalmist urges the people to do the opposite: to sing to God with joy.

KABBALAT SHABBAT / WELCOMING SHABBAT Already in Talmudic times Shabbat was seen as a bride, and the day itself as a wedding. "Rabbi Hanina robed himself and stood on the eve of Shabbat at sunset and said, 'Come, let us go and welcome Shabbat the queen.' Rabbi Yannai donned his robes and said, 'Come O bride, come O bride'" (Shabbat 119a).

In the late sixteenth century, this idea was developed with fresh intensity by a remarkable group of Jewish mystics in Safed. They included Rabbi Moses Cordovero who developed the custom of saying special psalms to greet the incoming Shabbat; his brother-in-law Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, composer of the song Lekha Dodi ("Come, my Beloved"); Rabbi Elazar Azikri, author of Yedid Nefesh ("Beloved of the Soul"); and Rabbi Isaac Luria (known as the "Ari" or "Arizal"), greatest of the Safed mystics, whose thought brought new depth to our understanding of prayer and observance of Shabbat as acts that help heal the spiritual fractures of the world.

By the twelfth century, the custom existed to say Psalm 92 as a song of welcome to Shabbat. The Safed kabbalists did more. Dressed in white, they would go out into the fields as the sun set, singing psalms and songs to the Shabbat bride. That is the origin of the custom (first mentioned by Rabbi Moshe ben Yehuda Makhir, Seder HaYom) to recite the six extra psalms (95-99, 29) prior to Lekha Dodi. A further reminder of the original custom is our practice of turning round to face west at the last verse of the song, facing, as they did, the setting sun, to welcome the incoming bride. To emphasize the …