← Western Sephardic Liturgical Classics
וַיְכֻלּוּ
Vaykhulu
“And the heavens were completed” — Genesis 2
Text & translation
וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ וְכׇל־צְבָאָם
Vaykhulu hashamayim v’ha’aretz v’khol tz’va’am.
The heavens and the earth were completed, and all their array.
וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה
Vaykhal Elohim bayom hash’viʿi m’lakhto asher ʿasah, vayyishbot bayom hash’viʿi mikkol m’lakhto asher ʿasah.
On the seventh day God finished the work that had been done, and ceased on the seventh day from all that work.
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת
Vay’varekh Elohim et yom hash’viʿi vay’kaddesh oto, ki vo shavat mikkol m’lakhto asher bara Elohim laʿasot.
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, for on it God ceased from all the work of creation that had been made.
About this piece
The verses of Genesis with which the heavens and earth are completed and the seventh day is blessed — recited and sung as the Sabbath is sanctified on Friday evening.
Recordings — Daniel Halfon
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.