HMI in Tzfat - Some Jewish Mysticism
Save
Copy
Add to Collection
Export to Google Docs
ShareZohar
"You shall call Shabbat a delight" (Isaiah 58:13) -
what does "call" mean? It means that one should invite her...as one invites a guest to one's home.
"A delight" - one should invite her, as a guest, to a home that is ready with a prepared table with food and drink, more than on other days.
"You shall call Shabbat a delight" (Isaiah 58:13) -
what does "call" mean? It means that one should invite her...as one invites a guest to one's home.
"A delight" - one should invite her, as a guest, to a home that is ready with a prepared table with food and drink, more than on other days.
Shekhinah is the Sabbath Queen entering the palace of time every Friday evening at sunset. As the seventh sefirah below Binah, Shekhinah is the seventh primordial day. Friday evening is the time of her union with her masculine counterpart, the sefirah of Tif'eret. The Sabbath is God's wedding celebration.
Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, p. 189
Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, p. 189
The often quoted suggestion that it is a ‘double mitzvah’ for a married couple to have intimate relations on the Sabbath is directly related to the idea of the unification of God’s male and female dimensions on the Sabbath. It is a mitzvah for the couple to experience intimate pleasure on the Sabbath with one another, but their relationship also echoes the divine unity above. The term Dodi, my beloved, in the hymn’s refrain is not the Sabbath bride but the Kadosh Baruch Hu, the Holy One of Blessing, or the male aspect of the divine – the husband.
Israel is a member of the bridal party celebrating this spiritual marriage within the divine. All week long, the Shekhinah is in exile, just as the Jewish people live in a state of exile. As the Sabbath begins, the Shekhinah comes home and is reunited with her beloved husband. Similarly, Israel spends the week in exile and then tastes a bit of the world to come with the arrival of the Sabbath. These images may seem strange to us – think of them as a kind of living poetry with which the people of Israel described its spiritual state of being as it is reflected in the divine.
Israel is a member of the bridal party celebrating this spiritual marriage within the divine. All week long, the Shekhinah is in exile, just as the Jewish people live in a state of exile. As the Sabbath begins, the Shekhinah comes home and is reunited with her beloved husband. Similarly, Israel spends the week in exile and then tastes a bit of the world to come with the arrival of the Sabbath. These images may seem strange to us – think of them as a kind of living poetry with which the people of Israel described its spiritual state of being as it is reflected in the divine.
- What do you think the connection is between the Sabbath and the divine? Is it easier to encounter God on the Sabbath than on other days?
- Is marriage an appropriate metaphor for speaking about our relationship to God today? Why or why not?
- In what ways is marriage a covenant? In what ways is our faith covenantal?
(יח) לְכָה דוֹדִי לִקְרַאת כַּלָּה, פְּנֵי שַׁבָּת נְקַבְּלָה:
(18) Come, my Beloved Friend, to welcome the bride; let us greet Shabbat as she arrives.
Historical Background of L’cha Dodi
רַבִּי חֲנִינָא מִיעֲטֵף וְקָאֵי אַפַּנְיָא דְמַעֲלֵי שַׁבְּתָא, אָמַר: ״בּוֹאוּ וְנֵצֵא לִקְרַאת שַׁבָּת הַמַּלְכָּה״. רַבִּי יַנַּאי לָבֵישׁ מָאנֵי מְעַלּוּ (שַׁבָּת) [וּמִיכַּסֵּי], וְאָמַר: ״בּוֹאִי כַלָּה, בּוֹאִי כַלָּה״.
Rabbi Ḥanina would wrap himself in his garment and stand at nightfall on Shabbat eve, and say: Come and we will go out to greet Shabbat the queen. Rabbi Yannai put on his garment on Shabbat eve and said: Enter, O bride. Enter, O bride.
Between 1492 and 1529, Jews were kicked out of Spain, Portugal, Nuremberg, Bavaria, the Papal States, Milan, and Naples. Then in 1520, Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire conquered the Egypt and the Land of Israel from the Mamelukes. This led to a population explosion in Tzfat / Safed as Jews from all over came to this city in the Galilee near Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s grave in Meron. Among those who gathered there was the Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as “the Ari”. Around him gathered other Kabbalists, such as Rabbis Joseph Karo (author of the Shulchan Aruch), Elazar Azikri (author of “Yedid Nefesh”), Moshe Cordevero (the leading Kabbalist before Luria), and his brother-in-law Shlomo Alkabetz. They would all go out into the fields at dusk on Friday, singing psalms and songs to welcome Shabbat; this custom spread to other communities but they did it inside the synagogue just before Ma’ariv / Arvit. Inspired by the text in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 119a:2), Alkabetz wrote “L’cha Dodi” as the centerpiece for this new service, “Kabbalat Shabbat” (“Receiving the Sabbath”). He wrote it as an acrostic using his name for the first 8 stances (Shlomo haLevi). Kabbalat Shabbat became the last universally accepted addition to Jewish liturgy.
L’cha Dodi “on one foot”:
L’cha Dodi is a prayer in the first part of the Friday evening service (the “Kabbalat Shabbat” part). It follows 6 psalms, representing the 6 days of Creation. It was written in 1529* by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz in Tzfat. It is about greeting Shabbat, applying the metaphor of Shabbat as a bride. Many communities sit until the last verse, but some stand throughout it.
*According to Jewish Worship, written by Abraham Millgram in 1971.
L’cha Dodi is a prayer in the first part of the Friday evening service (the “Kabbalat Shabbat” part). It follows 6 psalms, representing the 6 days of Creation. It was written in 1529* by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz in Tzfat. It is about greeting Shabbat, applying the metaphor of Shabbat as a bride. Many communities sit until the last verse, but some stand throughout it.
*According to Jewish Worship, written by Abraham Millgram in 1971.
Context: This is the refrain of “L’cha Dodi”, happening at the beginning and then again after each of the 9 verses. The phrase “L’cha dodi” comes from Song of Songs 7:12. The rest of the refrain is based on phrases from Shabbat 119a:2. The idea of the Jewish people being wedded to Shabbat comes from Genesis Rabba 11:8; in this Midrash Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish (a.k.a. Reish Lakish) imagines Shabbat as complaining to G-d that the other 6 days of the week have a partner (1 with 2, or 1 with 4, 3 with 4, or 3 with 6, etc.), but Shabbat has no partner, so G-d promises that the Jewish people will be the partner of Shabbat.
Additionally, the Fourth Commandment says to “Remember Shabbat and keep it holy”, but the word for “keep it holy” (l’kadsho) is similar to the word for the marriage ceremony (Kiddushin), thus reinforcing the idea of Shabbat as the bride of the Jewish people.
The first half of the refrain has 15 letters, while the second half has 11 letters. This is equal to the numeric value of the four letters in G-d’s name: yud, then hey, then vav, and then another hey.
What would it look like if we considered each person at Friday evening services to be a “Beloved Friend”?
Additionally, the Fourth Commandment says to “Remember Shabbat and keep it holy”, but the word for “keep it holy” (l’kadsho) is similar to the word for the marriage ceremony (Kiddushin), thus reinforcing the idea of Shabbat as the bride of the Jewish people.
The first half of the refrain has 15 letters, while the second half has 11 letters. This is equal to the numeric value of the four letters in G-d’s name: yud, then hey, then vav, and then another hey.
What would it look like if we considered each person at Friday evening services to be a “Beloved Friend”?
Kabbalistic Creation Story, as summarized by Howard Schwartz
At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring the world into being, to make room for creation, God contracted Godself (tzimtzum) by drawing in God's breath, forming a dark mass. Then God said, Let there be light (Gen. 1:3) and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light.
God sent forth the ten vessels like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. But the seven lower vessels—too fragile to contain such powerful Divine light—broke open, scattering the holy sparks everywhere.
Had these vessels arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. Instead, God created people to seek out and gather the hidden sparks, wherever we can find them. Once this task is completed, the broken vessels will be restored and the world will be repaired.
At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring the world into being, to make room for creation, God contracted Godself (tzimtzum) by drawing in God's breath, forming a dark mass. Then God said, Let there be light (Gen. 1:3) and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light.
God sent forth the ten vessels like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. But the seven lower vessels—too fragile to contain such powerful Divine light—broke open, scattering the holy sparks everywhere.
Had these vessels arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. Instead, God created people to seek out and gather the hidden sparks, wherever we can find them. Once this task is completed, the broken vessels will be restored and the world will be repaired.
