Reflections on
Prayer #10:
Expressing Love for God on Shabbat
R. Yaakov Bieler
According to Siddurim and Birkonim, the Zemirot
(songs) that are sung in Jewish homes over the course of Shabbat are specifically
associated at least by custom either with Friday night or Saturday day.[1]
Therefore, typically, once a Zemer has been sung during the course of Shabbat,
it is likely not to be repeated until the following Shabbat. And
although in our printed texts, the liturgical poem Yedid Nefesh is
printed exclusively in the section dedicated to the Third Meal on Shabbat
afternoon,[2]
the practice in many Minyanim is to sing this Piyut not only
during the period when Shabbat is ending, but also at the beginning of
the holy day, prior to the prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat. What factors might contribute to this song
becoming such an apparent keystone of the Shabbat experience?
Yedid Nefesh (Beloved of the
soul)[3]
was written by the Tzfat Kabbalist R. Elazar ben Moshe Azikri around the
year 1584. According to R. Jonathan Sacks,[4]
“it is one of the boldest expressions of love in Jewish literature, reminiscent
in mood of the Song of Songs.” In each of the four stanzas of the Piyut,
at least one phrase clearly articulates the love relationship that the poet
feels vis-à-vis God:[5]
Stanza 1
ידיד נפש . Beloved
of the soul
יערב
לו ידידותיך
מנפת צוף וכל
טעםTo Him (Your servant) Your love is sweeter than honey
from the comb,
than any taste.
Stanza 2 נפשי
חולת אהבתך My
soul is sick with love for you.
Stanza 3 וחוסה
נא על בן אהובך.
Have pity on Your beloved child.
Stanza 4 חביבי My Beloved.
In contrast to many other Zemirot and Piyutim
where the authors’ names are incorporated as an acrostic made up by the first
letter of each stanza,[6]
in the case of Yedid Nefesh, it is the Tetragrammaton that is spelled
out in this manner.[7]
Furthermore, R. Sacks’ association of Yedid Nefesh with Shir HaShirim[8]
draws attention to the custom to similarly read Shlomo HaMelech’s love
poem on Friday evening, prior to Kabbalat Shabbat.[9]
R. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook[10]
suggests a basis for Shir HaShirim’s connection to Shabbat, which
in turn sheds light on the connotations and timing of the recitations of Yedid
Nefesh as well:
The individual awakens from the life that he leads during
the workweek on a regular basis, i.e., every Shabbat. “When Shabbat
arrives, Menucha (rest) arrives.”[11] The
soul begins to free itself from its heavy shackles. (Yeshayahu 14:3)
“And it will come to pass on the day that HaShem will Give you rest from
your sorrow and from your fear and from the hard bondage in which you were made
to serve.” And it (the soul) seeks out
higher paths, spiritual desires, in accordance with the nature of its source.[12]
(Tehillim 92:2-4) “It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to
sing praise to Your Name Oh Most High. To relate Your steadfast Love in the
morning, and Your Faithfulness every night. Upon an instrument of ten strings,
and upon the harp; to the melody of the lyre.”[13]
(Shemot 31:17) “Between Me and the Children of Israel it (Shabbat)
is an eternal sign.” The holy day,
wherein is revealed the nation’s inclination—the inclination towards the type
of Godly lives they are leading—in its uniqueness, it is a sign to the nation,
that there is in the special quality of its soul a need and the ability to
rejoice over HaShem, and a Divine Pleasantness, that enters through the
spiritual portal of the Neshama Yeteira (the additional soul)[14]
that resides in the hearts of each one of its children.
Although one who is deeply in love should both think
about and express his admiration for his beloved at all times,[15]
there are naturally going to be moments when he is in a position to feel his
love without distraction and with greatest intensity. Among such occasions are
the times when he is first reunited with the beloved after a period of
separation, in this case, Erev Shabbat Bein HaShemashot (the twilight
period during which is mixed the final moments of Friday and the first
stirrings of Shabbat Kodesh), and when such a meeting is inevitably
drawing to a close, when the prospect of renewed separation immanently looms, Shabbat
afternoon. A literal, tangible, sensory expression of the sense of spiritual
loss at the conclusion of Shabbat, according to RaShBaM,[16]
is the practice to include Besamim (spices) as part of the Havdala
ritual, since it serves as a means of reviving the individual following his
loss of the Neshama Yeteira that he possessed (or that possessed him?)
during the course of Shabbat. Yedid Nefesh during Seuda
Shlishit then becomes a passionate Auf Wiedersehn, expressing both
our love as well as our hopeful anticipation to have yet another opportunity to
be together with the object of our spiritual love the following week. Seven
days is relatively close, but for the lover separated from his beloved, it can
seem an eternity. How emotionally we sing this song, how excited we are when we
sing it on Friday afternoon, and how melancholy we are when we repeat it as the
sky darkens on Saturday, provides a potential litmus test of our appreciation
of the spiritual dimensions of our love for God and the weekly cycle that it
usually undergoes.
R.
Azikri enunciated a powerful religious emotion in the words of the Piyut
for which he is remembered over the course of hundreds of years. We would all
do well to attempt to recreate what he and his fellow Kabbalists felt each and
every Shabbat.
[1]E.g., in The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, the heading on p. 363 reads, “Zemiros for the Sabbath Eve,” while on p. 495 is headed by “Zemiros for the Sabbath Day.”
[2] Ibid., p. 590.
[3] The Birkon “Ein Sof” produced by the Hillel of New York University attributes to R. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi the intriguing translation of Yedid Nefesh as, “soul mate”.
[4] The
Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the
Commonwealth, Fourth Edition, Collins,
[5] While this Piyut appears to be
directed at God, the terminology “Yedid Nefesh” appears in Yirmiyahu
12:7 referring to the Jewish people:
עזבתי
את ביתי נטשתי
את נחלתי נתתי
את ידדות
נפשי בכף
איביה:
(I have Foresaken My House, I have Left My Heritage, I
have Given the Dearly Beloved of My Soul into the hand of her enemies.)
Consequently, just as the roles of lover and beloved constantly reverse in Shir
HaShirim, the terminology in Yedid Nefesh might have a dual quality
as well, i.e., even as this is the Jewish people speaking about HaShem,
it could be vice versa, as it were.
[6] See for example Lecha Dodi (The Complete ArtScroll Siddur,) pp. 316-8; Kah Ribon Olam, pp.364-6; Baruch HaShem Yom Yom, pp. 494-6.
[7] The first stanza begins with a “Yud”; the second, a “Heh”; the third a “Vav” and the fourth a “Heh.”
[8] While
forms of ידיד
and חביב are not to be found in Shir HaShirim,
forms of אהב appear 18 times: 1:3,4,7; 2:4,5,7; 3:1-5, 10; 5:8; 7:7; 8:4,
6-7.
[9] See The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, pp. 298 ff.
[10] Introduction to Shabbat HaAretz, cited in Olat HaRei’ya, Vol. 2, Mosad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem, 5723, p. 2.
[11] RaShI on Beraishit 2:2 based upon Beraishit Rabba 10:9.
[12] Classical Jewish sources posit that the soul in every human being is of Divine Origin.
[13] Although R. Kook does not reference the introductory verse of this Tehilla, the fact that it is stated there that the entire Tehilla is for Shabbat (92:1—“A Mizmor for the day of Shabbat”) places the succeeding verses in a context that is specifically relevant to R. Kook’s exposition.
[14] Jewish tradition maintains that on Shabbat, the special sensitivity to spiritual matters experienced by observant Jews is due to an additional soul that is temporarily granted from above.
[15] RaMBaM in Mishneh Tora, Hilchot Teshuva
10:3 delineates the nature of true love of God:
And what is the appropriate
love (of God) like? One should love God
with a great, excessive, powerful, extreme love to the point where his soul is
joined by means of love of God. This results in his thinking about Him
constantly as if he is love sick, whereby his mind is never free of that love…(slight
paraphrase) and he reflects upon his beloved unceasingly whether he is
sitting, standing, or eating and drinking…This is what Shlomo said by
means of analogy, (Shir HaShirim 2:5) “Because I am lovesick.” All of Shir
HaShirim is an analogy regarding this matter.
[16] Pesachim 102b, op. cit. Rav Amar YaKNaH.