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כִּי אֶשְׁמְרָה שַׁבָּת
Ki Eshm’rah Shabbat
“If I keep the Sabbath” — Abraham Ibn Ezra
Text & translation
כִּי אֶשְׁמְרָה שַׁבָּת אֵל יִשְׁמְרֵנִי, אוֹת הִיא לְעוֹלְמֵי עַד בֵּינוֹ וּבֵינִי.
Ki eshm’rah Shabbat El yishm’reni, ot hi l’ol’mei ad beino uveini.
If I keep the Sabbath, God keeps me; it is a sign for ever between God and me. (refrain)
אָסוּר מְצֹא חֵפֶץ עֲשׂוֹת דְּרָכִים, גַּם מִלְּדַבֵּר בּוֹ דִּבְרֵי צְרָכִים, דִּבְרֵי סְחוֹרָה אַף דִּבְרֵי מְלָכִים, אֶהְגֶּה בְּתוֹרַת אֵל וּתְחַכְּמֵנִי.
Asur m’tzo ḥefetz ʿasot d’rakhim, gam mil’dabber bo divrei tz’rakhim; divrei s’ḥorah af divrei m’lakhim, ehgeh b’torat El ut’ḥak’meni.
On it one may not pursue business or travel, nor even speak of needful things — matters of trade or affairs of state; I will meditate on God’s Torah, and it will make me wise.
The refrain returns after each stanza.
About this piece
A table-hymn by Abraham Ibn Ezra (twelfth century), on keeping the Sabbath as both a sign and a delight.
It is among the most widely sung of the Spanish and Portuguese table-songs.
Recordings — Daniel Halfon
Amsterdam
In the living tradition
This music is the prayer of a living rite. It is sung today at Kehillah Kedoshah Zikhron Zvi, the egalitarian Western Sephardi congregation of the Hudson Valley — the community at the endpoint of the Program’s Sephardi Liturgy project.