Lecha Dodi
Lecha Dodi / לכה דודי ( Hebrew, come, my friend ) are the opening words of a hymn to greet the Sabbath . The text comes from Schlomo Alkabez , a 16th century Kabbalist from Thessalonica . The song has found its way into the liturgy of Friday evening services in Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities around the world.
The first line, also used as the refrain , is: Come to meet the bride, my friend, let us greet the Sabbath . The song consists of nine stanzas; the first letters of the first eight stanzas form the acrostic "Schlomo ha-Levi" - the name of the author. In the last stanza, it is customary to turn to the door of the synagogue and bow to greet the Sabbath. Inspired by Talmudic stories ( treatise Shabbat 119a), the Kabbalists from Safed went to the fields in front of the city on Friday afternoons to greet the “Princess Sabbath” meditating and singing. The song Lecha Dodi reflects this practice as well as the Kabbalistic identification of the Sabbath with the Shechina , the presence of God. The text contains numerous messianic motifs based on the Talmudic idea that keeping the Sabbath will lead to salvation.
There are countless settings for Lecha Dodi , which vary from place to place. Abraham Zvi Idelsohn estimated their number at over 2000. In some reform communities , Lecha Dodi is shortened to four stanzas. The text has been translated into most European languages, with well-known German translations by Herder and Heine . In his poem Princess Sabbath from the Romanzero , Heine mistakenly believes Yehuda ha-Levi to be the author of the hymn.
Single receipts
- ↑ Karl Erich Grözinger: Jewish thinking / theology, philosophy, mysticism, Volume I, From the God of Abraham to the God of Aristotle, Campus Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt a. M., 2004, p. 302
