In honor of the First Day of Spring and of course in honor of the Holy Shabbos I present to you a brand new melody I composed for the Lecha Dodi titled “Lo Sevoshi“.
As we leave the cold and dark winter behind, let us all begin the Spring season with a warm and happy melody. May it bring us a lot of light, warmth and happiness from above for the whole week, when we sing this song and we dance to it on Friday Night welcoming The Holy Shabbos.
In Talmudic times, Shabbat was perceived as a bride, and the day itself was thought of as a wedding ceremony. An example of this can be seen in the Talmud from Shabbat 119a:
“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.’”
The idea of Shabbat being considered a bride was further elaborated by the Kabbalists of Tzfat towards the end of the sixteenth century, who incorporated the tradition of reciting special psalms before the start of Shabbat on Friday nights. By the twelfth century, a custom was established to recite Psalm 92 as a way of welcoming the incoming Shabbat. The group of Jewish mystics in Tzfat, however, took this practice a step further.
They were known to dress in all white clothing and gather in the fields as the sun started to set on Friday evening. They would commence their Shabbat wedding ceremony by singing six additional psalms, each one representing a different day of the week. After that, they would welcome the coming of Shabbat the bride with the song, “Lecha Dodi” which was written in the 16th century by Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz – Rabbi, kabbalist and poet (1500 – 1580).
Credits:
Composed and Performed by Yaakov W.
Featuring Noah Solomon and C Lanzbom from Soulfarm
Recorded and Mixed by C Lanzbom
At www.SherwoodRidgeStudio.com
C Lanzbom: Acoustic Guitar
Noah Solomon: Banjo, Mandolin, Djembe, Vocals
Clarence Ferrari: Violin
Larry Cook: Upright Bass
Art Cover and Animation by Shmueli Bell
www.shmuelibell.com