← Western Sephardic Liturgical Classics
לְכָה דוֹדִי
Lekha Dodi
“Come, my Beloved” — welcoming the Sabbath bride
Text & translation
לְכָה דוֹדִי לִקְרַאת כַּלָּה, פְּנֵי שַׁבָּת נְקַבְּלָה.
Lekha dodi likrat kallah, p’nei Shabbat n’kab’lah.
Come, my Beloved, to greet the bride; let us welcome the presence of the Sabbath. (refrain)
שָׁמוֹר וְזָכוֹר בְּדִבּוּר אֶחָד, הִשְׁמִיעָנוּ אֵל הַמְיֻחָד, יְיָ אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד, לְשֵׁם וּלְתִפְאֶרֶת וְלִתְהִלָּה.
Shamor v’zakhor b’dibbur eḥad, hishmiʿanu El ham’yuḥad; Adonai eḥad ush’mo eḥad, l’shem ul’tif’eret v’lit’hillah.
“Keep” and “Remember” in a single utterance the one God made us hear: God is One and God’s Name is One — for renown, for splendour, and for praise.
בּוֹאִי בְשָׁלוֹם עֲטֶרֶת בַּעְלָהּ, גַּם בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְצָהֳלָה, תּוֹךְ אֱמוּנֵי עַם סְגֻלָּה, בּוֹאִי כַלָּה, בּוֹאִי כַלָּה.
Bo’i v’shalom ateret baʿlah, gam b’simḥah uv’tzaholah, tokh emunei am s’gullah; bo’i khallah, bo’i khallah.
Come in peace, O crown of your partner, in joy and in gladness, among the faithful of the treasured people — come, O bride; come, O bride.
The refrain returns after each stanza; the full hymn has nine, spelling the acrostic Shelomoh ha-Levi.
About this piece
The hymn that welcomes the Sabbath as a bride, composed by the kabbalist Solomon Alkabetz in sixteenth-century Safed; its stanzas spell his name in acrostic.
The Western Sephardim sing it to a wealth of community melodies — heard here from Casablanca, Gibraltar, and London.
Recordings — Daniel Halfon
Casablanca
London
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.