A Poetic Prayer Memorializing the Sabbath Sacrifice

Tikanta Shabbat (You Instituted the Sabbath)

4th–6th Century

About This Entry

This poem still appears in the Sabbath Amidah of the additional (Musaf) service. In Hebrew, this is a reverse alphabetical acrostic, with a letter of the acrostic at the beginning of each word.

You instituted the Sabbath, You favored its offerings,

You commanded its specific laws

along with the order of its libations.

Those who delight in it inherit eternal glory,

those who relish it merit life,

and those who love its teachings have chosen greatness.

Even before Sinai they were commanded about it.

[Then you, Lord our God, commanded us to offer on it

the additional offering of the Sabbath in the proper way.]

Translated by Sir Jonathan Sacks.

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Notes

Words in brackets do not appear in all manuscripts.

Credits

Tikanta Shabbat (You Instituted the Sabbath), from The Koren Siddur: Nusaḥ Ashkenaz, trans. Sir Jonathan Sacks (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers, 2009), p. 542. Used with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.