You lovingly shone Your light

This poem is a yotser, written to be recited inside the blessing before the Shema‘ that begins “He who creates (yotser) light.” Meant for a Sabbath during a week of personal mourning, its theme is consolation. According to a midrash, having sinned with the forbidden fruit (and having been condemned to death) on Friday afternoon just before the onset of the Sabbath, Adam would have spent the Sabbath in mourning. Yet because the Sabbath is a joyous day, God kept the light of creation shining for the entire twenty-four hours of the Sabbath, to keep Adam from beginning his mourning. From this, the rabbis derived that we as individuals need not mourn on the Sabbath. Phineas ha-Kohen here depicts a redemption for the Jewish people that is like the Sabbath. Their past anguish has been appeased, and the Jewish people–like Adam–do not even need to be consoled. Psalm 92, now recited on the Sabbath, was, according to rabbinic legend, recited by Adam at the onset of the first Sabbath. The poem’s last line is a reference to Isaiah 56:2, which talks of a reward for those who observe the Sabbath.