Hymn to the Sabbath

Abraham Farissol

Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz

16th Century

This Sabbath hymn, Lekhah dodi (“Come, my beloved”), is now a prominent part of the Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming the Sabbath) evening service, first instituted in the sixteenth century. It has been printed in prayer books since 1584.

Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
 we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Observe and remember in a single utterance
 the singular Lord instructed us;
 the Lord is One, and One is His Name,
  for glory, for praise and renown.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Come, we’ll go toward the Sabbath now,
 for she is the source of all blessing;
 pouring forth from the fountain of time,
  creation’s end, though first in conception.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Royal city, shrine of our King,
 arise and depart from your ruin;
 you’ve dwelled in the valley of weeping too long:
  but He will show you compassion.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Shake yourself from the dust and arise,
 put on, my people, the robes of your splendor,
 through Jesse’s son, of Bethlehem:
  “Draw near to my soul and redeem her.”
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Awake, arise, your light has come,
 Rise up now, awake and shine:
 awake, arise, and utter a song,
  through you has His glory been seen.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
You will not be abashed or shamed,
 why, then, be abject and mourn?
 Through you our afflicted will find protection,
  and the city be built on its ruins.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Those who sought your ruin will be ruined
 and they who’d destroy you be driven away,
 in you the Lord will find delight,
  as a bridegroom delights in his bride.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Right and left, you’ll spread abroad—
 in awe and worship, revering the Lord;
 through Judah’s son, the line of Peretz,
  we will exult in joy.
   Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
    we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.
Come in peace—O crown to her husband—
 in joyfulness come, in gladness, and song;
 among the faithful of this treasured people,
  come, my bride, my bride, come:
   My bride, my Sabbath Queen.
    Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,
     we’ll greet the Sabbath’s arrival.

Translated by
Peter
Cole
.

Other works by Alkabetz: Shoresh Yishay (1561).

Manuscript page with Hebrew text and illustration of person with hands clasped in left margin, and people eating at a table in bottom margin.
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This Haggadah was created by Abraham Farissol in Ferrara, Italy, for his friend Joseph ben Mordecai Judah Norsa. It has twelve illustrations in ink, accented with watercolor. Pictured here (bottom) is a youngster approaching the seder table with the afikomen, which, according to custom, is hidden at the beginning of the seder meal. Children are sent to search for it, and whoever finds it “holds it for ransom” in exchange for a gift.
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Credits

Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz, “Hymn to the Sabbath,” from The Poetry of Kabbalah, ed. and trans. Peter Cole, co-ed. Aminadav Dykman (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), pp. 133–35. Used with permission of Yale University Press.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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