Lekha Dodi

Lekha Dodi (Hebrew: לכה דודי) is a Hebrew-language Jewish liturgical song recited Friday at dusk, usually at sundown, in synagogue to welcome the Sabbath prior to the evening services. It is part of Kabbalat Shabbat. The refrain of Lekha Dodi means "Let us go, my beloved, to greet the bride/the Sabbath presence, let us welcome" and is a request of Israel's "beloved" (God) to join together in welcoming a "bride" (the sabbath). The phrase "Let us go, my beloved" is taken from Song of Songs 7:12, which Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama ('Rava') interpreted as the people of Israel talking to God in Tractate Eruvin 21b. During the singing of the last verse, the entire congregation rises and turns to the west, or to the door; some have the custom to exit the sanctuary of the synagogue. Traditional congregations face Jerusalem for the rest of the services. The congregation bows at "Come, O bride!" and turns back toward the front of the synagogue; some bow only forward, and others to the sides and then forward. It was composed in the 16th century by Solomon Alkabetz, who was born in the Ottoman city of Thessaloniki, and later became a leading Kabbalist of Safed. As was common at the time, the song is also an acrostic, with the first letter of the first eight stanzas spelling the author's name. The author draws from the rabbinic interpretation of the Song of Songs, suggested as linguistically originating in the 3rd century BCE, in which the maiden is seen as a metaphor for the ancient Jewish population residing within Land of Israel, and the lover is a metaphor for God, and from the Nevi'im, which uses the same metaphor. The poem shows the people of Israel asking God to bring upon that great Shabbat of...