Origins of Kabbalat Shabbat

The Gemara now returns to the issue of delight in and deference to Shabbat. 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 Gemara relates: Rabba bar Rav Huna happened to come to the house of Rabba bar Rav Naḥman. They brought before him three se’a of oiled biscuits. He said to them: Did you know I was coming and prepared all of this in my honor? They said to him: Are you more important to us than Shabbat? The biscuits were prepared in deference to Shabbat.

(1) Come, let us sing joyously to the LORD, raise a shout for our rock and deliverer; (2) let us come into His presence with praise; let us raise a shout for Him in song! (3) For the LORD is a great God, the great king of all divine beings. (4) In His hand are the depths of the earth; the peaks of the mountains are His. (5) His is the sea, He made it; and the land, which His hands fashioned. (6) Come, let us bow down and kneel, bend the knee before the LORD our maker, (7) for He is our God, and we are the people He tends, the flock in His care. O, if you would but heed His charge this day: (8) Do not be stubborn as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah, in the wilderness, (9) when your fathers put Me to the test, tried Me, though they had seen My deeds. (10) Forty years I was provoked by that generation; I thought, “They are a senseless people; they would not know My ways.” (11) Concerning them I swore in anger, “They shall never come to My resting-place!”

(1) Sing to the LORD a new song, sing to the LORD, all the earth. (2) Sing to the LORD, bless His name, proclaim His victory day after day. (3) Tell of His glory among the nations, His wondrous deeds, among all peoples. (4) For the LORD is great and much acclaimed, He is held in awe by all divine beings. (5) All the gods of the peoples are mere idols, but the LORD made the heavens. (6) Glory and majesty are before Him; strength and splendor are in His temple. (7) Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. (8) Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name, bring tribute and enter His courts. (9) Bow down to the LORD majestic in holiness; tremble in His presence, all the earth! (10) Declare among the nations, “The LORD is king!” the world stands firm; it cannot be shaken; He judges the peoples with equity. (11) Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult; let the sea and all within it thunder, (12) the fields and everything in them exult; then shall all the trees of the forest shout for joy (13) at the presence of the LORD, for He is coming, for He is coming to rule the earth; He will rule the world justly, and its peoples in faithfulness.

(1) The LORD is king! Let the earth exult, the many islands rejoice! (2) Dense clouds are around Him, righteousness and justice are the base of His throne. (3) Fire is His vanguard, burning His foes on every side. (4) His lightnings light up the world; the earth is convulsed at the sight; (5) mountains melt like wax at the LORD’s presence, at the presence of the Lord of all the earth. (6) The heavens proclaim His righteousness and all peoples see His glory. (7) All who worship images, who vaunt their idols, are dismayed; all divine beings bow down to Him. (8) Zion, hearing it, rejoices, the towns of Judah exult, because of Your judgments, O LORD. (9) For You, LORD, are supreme over all the earth; You are exalted high above all divine beings. (10) O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He guards the lives of His loyal ones, saving them from the hand of the wicked. (11) Light is sown for the righteous, radiance for the upright. (12) O you righteous, rejoice in the LORD and acclaim His holy name!

(1) A psalm. Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has worked wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won Him victory. (2) The LORD has manifested His victory, has displayed His triumph in the sight of the nations. (3) He was mindful of His steadfast love and faithfulness toward the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth beheld the victory of our God. (4) Raise a shout to the LORD, all the earth, break into joyous songs of praise! (5) Sing praise to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and melodious song. (6) With trumpets and the blast of the horn raise a shout before the LORD, the King. (7) Let the sea and all within it thunder, the world and its inhabitants; (8) let the rivers clap their hands, the mountains sing joyously together (9) at the presence of the LORD, for He is coming to rule the earth; He will rule the world justly, and its peoples with equity.

(1) The LORD, enthroned on cherubim, is king, peoples tremble, the earth quakes. (2) The LORD is great in Zion, and exalted above all peoples. (3) They praise Your name as great and awesome; He is holy! (4) Mighty king who loves justice, it was You who established equity, You who worked righteous judgment in Jacob. (5) Exalt the LORD our God and bow down to His footstool; He is holy! (6) Moses and Aaron among His priests, Samuel, among those who call on His name— when they called to the LORD, He answered them. (7) He spoke to them in a pillar of cloud; they obeyed His decrees, the law He gave them. (8) O LORD our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God for them, but You exacted retribution for their misdeeds. (9) Exalt the LORD our God, and bow toward His holy hill, for the LORD our God is holy.

(1) A psalm for praise. Raise a shout for the LORD, all the earth; (2) worship the LORD in gladness; come into His presence with shouts of joy. (3) Acknowledge that the LORD is God; He made us and we are His, His people, the flock He tends. (4) Enter His gates with praise, His courts with acclamation. Praise Him! Bless His name! (5) For the LORD is good; His steadfast love is eternal; His faithfulness is for all generations.

(1) A psalm of David. Ascribe to the LORD, O divine beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. (2) Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name; bow down to the LORD, majestic in holiness. (3) The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over the mighty waters. (4) The voice of the LORD is power; the voice of the LORD is majesty; (5) the voice of the LORD breaks cedars; the LORD shatters the cedars of Lebanon. (6) He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion, like a young wild ox. (7) The voice of the LORD kindles flames of fire; (8) the voice of the LORD convulses the wilderness; the LORD convulses the wilderness of Kadesh; (9) the voice of the LORD causes hinds to calve, and strips forests bare; while in His temple all say “Glory!” (10) The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood; the LORD sits enthroned, king forever. (11) May the LORD grant strength to His people; may the LORD bestow on His people wellbeing.

(1) A psalm. A song; for the sabbath day. (2) It is good to praise the LORD, to sing hymns to Your name, O Most High, (3) To proclaim Your steadfast love at daybreak, Your faithfulness each night (4) With a ten-stringed harp, with voice and lyre together. (5) You have gladdened me by Your deeds, O LORD; I shout for joy at Your handiwork. (6) How great are Your works, O LORD, how very subtle Your designs! (7) A brutish man cannot know, a fool cannot understand this: (8) though the wicked sprout like grass, though all evildoers blossom, it is only that they may be destroyed forever. (9) But You are exalted, O LORD, for all time. (10) Surely, Your enemies, O LORD, surely, Your enemies perish; all evildoers are scattered. (11) You raise my horn high like that of a wild ox; I am soaked in freshening oil. (12) I shall see the defeat of my watchful foes, hear of the downfall of the wicked who beset me. (13) The righteous bloom like a date-palm; they thrive like a cedar in Lebanon; (14) planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the courts of our God. (15) In old age they still produce fruit; they are full of sap and freshness, (16) attesting that the LORD is upright, my rock, in whom there is no wrong.

(1) The LORD is king, He is robed in grandeur; the LORD is robed, He is girded with strength. The world stands firm; it cannot be shaken. (2) Your throne stands firm from of old; from eternity You have existed. (3) The ocean sounds, O LORD, the ocean sounds its thunder, the ocean sounds its pounding. (4) Above the thunder of the mighty waters, more majestic than the breakers of the sea is the LORD, majestic on high. (5) Your decrees are indeed enduring; holiness befits Your house, O LORD, for all times.

(1) With what [wicks] may one light [Shabbat lamps], and with what [wicks] may one not light? One may not light with moss [that grows in] cedars, nor with uncombed flax, nor with raw silk, nor with willow bast, nor with desert fiber, nor with weeds [growing] on water. Nor [may one light] with pitch, nor with wax, nor with castor oil, nor oil set for burning [consecrated oil that has become impure], nor with [the fat from] sheeps' tails, nor with forbidden fat. Nachum HaMadi says: One may light with boiled forbidden fat; but the Sages say: One may not light with forbidden fat whether it's boiled or not boiled.

(2) One may not light with oil set for burning on festivals. Rabbi Yishmael says: Out of respect for Shabbat, one may not light with tar, but the Sages permit all [of the following] oils: Sesame oil, nut oil, radish [seed] oil, fish oil, gourd [seed] oil, tar, and naphtha. Rabbi Tarfon says: One may only light olive oil.

(3) Of tree products, one may light only with flax. Of tree products, only flax [fashioned into a] shelter can contract impurity [if it surrounds a corpse]. [If] a slip of cloth has been folded but not singed, Rabbi Eliezer says it is subject to impurity and one may not light with it. Rabbi Akiva says:It is not subject to impurity [literally: it is pure], and one may light with it.

(4) One may not perforate an eggshell, and fill it with oil, and place it over the lamp, so that it [oil] drips [therein], even if it is [made] of earthenware, but Rabbi Yehudah permits it. But if the potter had originally joined it, it is permissible because it is one utensil. One may not fill a bowl [with] oil and place it beside the lamp, and put the end of the wick into it, so that it draws [the oil], but Rabbi Yehudah permits it.

(5) [If] one extinguishes the lamp because he is afraid of non-Jews, of bandits, of an evil spirit, or that the sick may sleep, he is exempt; but [if his intention is] to preserve the lamp, to preserve the oil, or to preserve the wick, he is liable. Rabbi Yose exempts in all [these cases] except the [act preserving the wick], because he thereby creates a coal.

(6) Women die in childbirth for three transgressions: If they are not careful with [the laws] of menstruation; and if they are not careful [to separate some] dough [when baking to give to the priest]; and if they are not careful with the lighting of the [Shabbat] lamp.

(7) At dusk on the eve of shabbat, a man must make three statements: Have you separated the tithe? Have you prepared the Eruv [the halachic merging of separate domains by means of setting aside an amount of food in a designated place]? Light the lamps! If it is uncertain whether it is night [dark] or not, one may not tithe [produce that is] certainly untithed; and one may not immerse vessels [in a Mikveh]; and one may not light the lamps. One may [however] tithe Demai [produce from which it is uncertain whether tithes were already taken]; and one may prepare the Eruv, and one may cover [pots] of hot food [to retain their heat.]