The Sabbath Amidah consists of the first three and last three blessings of the daily prayer, with a middle blessing that thanks God for the institution of the Sabbath. Hence the middle blessings of the Amidah, the blessings of supplication, are comitted. On a day of joy, a day that reaffirms the covenant between God and the Jewish people, the rabbis thought it rude to ask for special favors. Moreover, the Sabbath version of the Amidah is considerably shorter than the daily version. Just prior to the recitation of the Amidah, however, worshippers recite an injunction to keep the Sabbath, known as V’shamru. (PikiWiki Israel) Changes to the AmidahĪfter Kabbalat Shabbat, the basic shape of the Sabbath evening service closely resembles that of its weekday counterpart, up to the recitation of the Amidah, with the Barekhu, the Sh’ma, and the blessings that precede and follow it. Safed, in northern Israel, was a hub for early Jewish mysticism’s thinkers. Listen to Lecha Dodi (courtesy of Mechon Hadar) (Incidentally, the initial letter of each of the first eight verses of Lecha Dodi form an an acrostic spelling of Alkabets’ name, one example of the linguistic cleverness or a poem that is full of biblical allusions, puns, and wordplay.) In many congregations, when the final verse is sung and the words “Enter, O Bride,” are said, the worshippers will turn to the entrance of the sanctuary and bow in honor of the Sabbath Queen. Today, with more than two thousand musical settings of Alkabets’s Hebrew text, it is recited or sung in virtually every synagogue in the world as the Sabbath is ushered in. The poem quickly became an eagerly awaited part of the Friday night service, adapted by German Ashkenazim within less than a hundred years. Around 1540, Alkabets, a poet, composed a beautiful ode to the Sabbath Bride, Lecha Dodi, urging Jews to greet the Sabbath and extolling her virtues. On Friday nights, Alkabets and his colleagues would dress in white like bridegrooms and joyously dance and march through the fields outside town to greet the Sabbath, which is depicted in both Talmud and in mystical texts as a bride and queen. Solomon ben Moses Halevi Alkabets was one of the many mystics who lived and studied there. In the 16th century, the small town of Safed, located in the mountains of Galilee in northern Israel, was a center of Jewish mysticism. ![]() Shabbat is a time of joy, and the six Psalms that make up the bulk of the Kabbalat Shabbat are celebratory, corresponding to the six days of creation but it is Lecha Dodi that many feel is the true centerpiece of this portion of the Shabbat evening service. ![]() In Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist services, the Talmud passages and the two versions of Kaddish may be omitted, often re placed by a half-Kaddish that separates the Kabbalat Shabbat from the Ma’ariv service proper. In Orthodox congregations, Kabbalat Shabbat consists of Psalms 95 through 99, Psalm 29, the hymn Lecha Dodi (Come My Beloved), Psalms 92 and 93, a lengthy reading from the Talmud passages governing the Sabbath, placed here to separate Kabbalat Shabbat from Ma’ariv, and both the Mourner’s Kaddish and Kaddish de-Rabbanan, a Kaddish said after learning in a group, in honor of our teachers. ![]() And in synagogues, the Friday Ma’ariv (evening) service begins with a series of hymns, Psalms, and blessings collectively known as Kabbalat Shabbat/ Welcoming the Sabbath. So when the sky is streaked with the fading Friday sunlight, in Jewish homes around the world, candles are lit, blessings are said and Shabbat is welcomed. In the first verses of Bereshit ( Genesis), God creates light and “there was evening and morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:5) The rabbis reasoned that if the Torah, the product of divine revelation, said that the first day began with evening, that must have been God’s intention, for “days” to begin at sunset. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate
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