An Introduction to Kabbalat Shabbat
Detail from a manuscript from the Gross Family Collection.

An Introduction to Kabbalat Shabbat

Uri Kroizer

The Kabbalat Shabbat service in its familiar form is relatively new, and exceptional in the Jewish liturgical context. Its current form was largely fixed in the Kabbalist circles of 16th century Safed, but its roots are ancient. The inspiration for the fixed Kabbalat Shabbat  ritual drew on the personal practice of two Talmudic sages: Rabbi Hanina, who is described as wrapping himself in his cloak with the onset of the Sabbath, and proclaiming “Come, let us go forth toward the Sabbath Queen!” and Rabbi Yannai, who is described as donning his Sabbath garb and proclaiming, “Come, O bride; Come, O bride.” (B. Shabbat. 119a. This introduction sketches the roots of the Kabbalat Shabbat service and its development over the ages, looking at its content and its position in the Jewish world today.

Kabbalat Shabbat - lyrics and recordings

The Sabbath is one of the greatest gifts that Judaism has bestowed upon the entire world. In the biblical creation story, the seventh day, arriving in the wake of six days of creation, is designated for a pause from labor, offering rest for the body and rejuvenation for the soul.

When does the Sabbath begin – or, in its Hebrew form, when does the Sabbath enter? The answer seems obvious. The calendar listings state the time for candle-lighting. But candle-lighting doesn’t actually mark a visible difference in the day’s progression. It is only after candle-lighting that twilight starts to gradually set in. The day passes, the sun begins to set and night-time colors start to blend into darkness. The transition from day to night happens every day, but on the eve of the Sabbath, it holds a different significance. The Sabbath’s onset, its entry, marks the entry into a different temporal sphere, distinct from the days of the week. Time that contains an additional soul in Kabbalistic lore, sacredness and pause from labor.

The Kabbalistic leaders of 16th century Safed, who, from their perch on a mountaintop, saw the sun setting in the west in its full beauty, and all the beauty of creation laid out before them, felt the need for a new prayer to accompany this special time, and composed Kabbalat Shabbat.

The term Kabbalat Shabbat has several meanings. In the first sense, it means taking on – kabbalah – the mitzvah of the Sabbath. In the second sense, greeting the Sabbath – which is likened to a queen and to a bride. Queens and brides are traditionally greeted on royal visits or under the chuppah, and hence the Sabbath is greeted as well. A further meaning lies in the reference to the acceptance – kabbalah  – of the divine gift of the Sabbath that God has bestowed upon the world.

The Kabbalat Shabbat prayer was widely embraced and spread rapidly throughout the Jewish world. It made its way into the Jewish liturgy, gaining additions over the years owing to its popularity. Even though it has no mention in the Shulchan Aruch (the basic Code of Jewish Law), Kabbalat Shabbat appears in every Jewish geographic location, and is recited at the onset of every Sabbath, in Jewish communities everywhere.

Even during the Talmudic era, there is evidence of Talmudic sages taking on unique practices at the onset of the Sabbath. The Gemara recounts a tale of an amora, Rabbi Hanina, who would wrap himself in his cloak with the onset of the Sabbath, proclaiming “Come, let us go forth toward the Sabbath Queen!” and Rabbi Yannai, who is described as donning his Sabbath garb and proclaiming, “Come, O bride; Come, O bride.” (B. Shab. 119a). When Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz wished to introduce his poem, Lecha Dodi into Kabbalat Shabbat, he drew on the descriptions of these sages for inspiration and echoed their words in his poem.

Initially, during the early days, after Friday night candle-lighting, worshipers would convene at synagogues for the night-time Ma’ariv prayer, which was not very different from the weekday Ma’ariv liturgy. There weren’t any other prayers or special hymns sung before it, designated as Kabbalat Shabbat.

In the 9th century, the practice of reciting ba’meh madlikin, the second chapter of the Mishna’s Tractate Sabbath, was introduced. This chapter discusses the types of oils and wicks suitable and acceptable for Sabbath candle-lighting, as well as domestic preparation for the Sabbath as dusk falls. In the 12th and 13th centuries, there began a practice of reciting hymns from the Book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 92, a Hymn for the Sabbath Day, and Psalm 93, The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty, before the Ma’ariv liturgy on Friday night. In fact, to this day, these hymns are considered part of the Sabbath Ma’ariv liturgy amongst the Yemenite Jews. 

Another ancient tradition is greeting the Sabbath joyfully and in song: “When it enters, we greet it with song and music, as it states: A hymn of song for the Sabbath day” (Midrash Tehillim 92, 3). In the 15th century, Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura writes in a letter from Jerusalem addressed to his father: “The practice in all of the Ishmaelite Jewish communities, on the eve of the Sabbath, they all come to the synagogue […] and open with song and praise.”

Only in the 16th century, did Kabbalat Shabbat coalesce as a practice of reciting hymns and liturgical poems, piyutim. On the Sabbath Eve, Ha’ARI (Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, 1534-1572) and his disciples would don white clothing and say to each other: “Let us go out toward the bride!” before going out to the fields to greet the Sabbath, as was already the practice in Safed. Ha’ARI and his disciples would accompany these moments with ecstatic hymns, song and repetition of the Hebrew-Aramaic exclamation: “Come, O bride, Come O bride, Sabbath Queen!”

Alongside HaARI’s practice, The Ramak, Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522-1570) had a practice of greeting the Sabbath by reciting five psalms (95-99) followed by psalm 29, Ascribe to the Lord, O Heavenly Beings. The Ramak, in contrast to Ha’ARI, was of the opinion that the Sabbath should be greeted in the synagogue.

The heart of Kabbalat Shabbat is the Lecha Dodi poem, composed around the same time in Safed by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz (the Ramak’s rabbinical teacher and brother-in-law, 1505-1584, approximately). The rabbis chose to build the prayer around this song, and to ritually transition from everyday mundanity to the sacredness of the Sabbath during its recitation. Thus, when beginning to sing L’chah Dodi, it is still a weekday, while at the final paragraph, which begins with the words ‘Come in peace,’ the congregation turns toward the door to greet the Sabbath and recites the final words of the poem, ‘Come, O bride, Sabbath Queen!’ “L’chah Dodi  was  widely embraced and its recitation rapidly spread as a practice to Jewish communities everywhere.

From Safed, the practice of singing during Kabbalat Shabbat spread, to the point where instruments began to be used in synagogues, up until the onset of the Sabbath. The practice was well-known and widespread in Europe at the end of the 17th century: “[…] And, hence, Kabbalat Shabbat is with great joy and pleasant songs, and in some communities, they welcome the Sabbath in synagogue with instruments, with the musicians and poets together, and sorrow is prohibited for us on the Sabbath.” And at the end of the 18th century, some communities still had the practice of welcoming the Sabbath with instruments, as Rabbi Hertz Scheuer of Mainz testifies: “In the holy community of Prague…there are nine synagogues and in the largest of them they would sing and welcome the Sabbath with instruments, only up until ‘Come in Peace’…In earlier times, the practice in our communities…[was to] welcome the Sabbath in synagogues…with instruments (Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, “Ha-neginah ha-ḥasidit,” Sefer Hashanah: The American Hebrew Yearbook 1 (1931), 74–87)

Given the late formation of Kabbalat Shabbat , there is a great deal of variety of form in varying traditions. Roughly, the basic core of Kabbalat Shabbat consists of a compilation of hymns from Psalms, the L’chah Dodi piyut, the Mishnaic passage of Ba’meh Madlikin, and the psalm A hymn of song for the Sabbath day, while different traditions added different components before, during, and after: recitation of Song of Songs, piyutim like Yedid Nefesh and Ana B’ko’ach, the recitation of the Kabbalistic passage from the Zohar, K’gavna, and other additions.

Hymns from Psalms – Some recite all six of the mizmor hymns, each relating to one day of the week, which offers a gradual process of farewell from the passing week. Sephardic traditions add the subsequent mizmor psalm, mizmor le’todah, a psalm of thanksgiving (Psalms, 100), to the given six, reaching seven to match the days of the week. There are traditions that begin Kabbalat Shabbat with Psalm 29, which reflect seven voices ascribed to King David, reflecting the seven days of the week.

Ba’meh Madlikin – There are differences in its positioning within the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy – some place it prior to the Mincha service, some at the end of Kabbalat Shabbat, some before L’chah Dodi, and some following it. The Ashkenazi Hassidic tradition replaced its recitation with the Kabbalistic section from the Zohar, K’gavna.

Song of Songs – Many traditions prefaced Kabbalat Shabbat with the recitation of Song of Songs. Twilight of the Sabbath Eve is a time of profound pining and longing for the Sabbath bride, which is preparing to arrive and unite with the groom, symbolized by the Jewish people and by God. The Sabbath is a time of love and union between lovers. Song of Songs is the everlasting love song between lovers and reciting it at the onset of the Sabbath stirs and evokes love as union beckons.

Yedid Nefesh – This piyut was composed by Rabbi Elazar Azkari in 16th century Safed, the same space in which Kabbalat Shabbat emerged. In the manuscript, the author had added a headline above the poem: “A supplication for union and the desire of love.” The piyut abounds in love for God, who is referred to in a string of terms of endearment by the lover, whose ‘soul is faint with love.’ In the 1950s, the umbrella organization of Orthodox Zionist kibbutzim in Israel began singing it in its most well-known melody prior to Kabbalat Shabbat. Within a few years, Ashkenzai communities throughout Israel had adopted the practice as well, and rendered it an inseparable part of Kabbalat Shabbat service within their communities, and even beyond them.

Ana B’ko’ach – This piyut is recited following the hymns from Psalms. It is an ancient prayer, attributed to Rabbi Nehunia ben HaKanah, a first century Mishnaic sage. The text consists of seven verses, six words each, forty-two words in total, which form an acrostic whose letters spell out a secret divine name. The name is considered to be a sort of secret code capable of unlocking the source of divine abundance that nourishes the Jewish people and the entire world. Because of its meaning, the piyut has found its way into prayers and occasions with mystical significance.

A hymn of song for the Sabbath day – Psalm 92 is recited following L’cha Dodi, which ends in an invitation to the bride: Come O bride, Sabbath Queen! In some traditions, before the psalm is recited, the beadle calls out: “Blessed is He who offers rest to his people, Israel, on the Holy Sabbath day.” Regardless, as soon as we welcome the Sabbath, we recite and sing this hymn in honor of the Sabbath that has arrived.

In Ashkenazic traditions, the degree to which the ceremony is innovative is indicated by the fact that the cantor leads the prayer from the bimah, normally reserved for Torah reading, rather than from the typical position of the prayer leader, and by the fact that small children are allowed to lead the prayer.

In recent decades, a “Carlebach style” has emerged in many Ashkenazic synagogues, drawing inspiration from the Hassidic world, and introducing spirited song and dance throughout recitation of the psalms and L’chah Dodi, sung to the melodies of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

In recent years, communities affiliated with different streams and across the spectrum of Jewish Renewal in Israel have integrated Hebrew poetry into the traditional Kabbalat Shabbat poetry. Songs like Hayim Nahman Bialik’s “Sabbath Queen,” Fania Bergstein’s “Nigunim,” Yehoshua Rabinov’s “Sabbath has descended,” and Leah Goldberg’s “Teach me, my God” become have become part of the Kabbalat Shabbat hymns. The L’chah Dodi piyut has been adapted to different Israeli melodies, and the leaders of the “Israeli Beth T’filoh” minyan in Tel Aviv even commissioned Israeli composer Shlomo Gronich to write new melodies specifically for L’cha Dodi. During the summer months, they hold Kabbalat Shabbat gatherings at the Tel Aviv port, which draw a large crowd not generally accustomed to attending services. Thus, the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer created by the kabbalists of Safed takes on new and different facets. Perhaps specifically owing to the fact that it is not a mandatory prayer, but an expression of genuine human emotion and longing, it is growing progressively into a tradition with widespread appeal.

On the Piyut&Tefilla website, any tradition selected for Kabbalat Shabbat in the search engine will yield the full version of Kabbalat Shabbat as practiced in that tradition.