Kabbalat Shabbat: Psalms 95-99, 29

The People's Siddur, KIMELMAN (Kabbalah)
The ceremony for welcoming Shabbat developed in Safed, where kabbalists promoted Shabbat as a two-stage event: the day of royal nuptials and of coronation. The Zohar had understood this as a one-stage event. In Safed, however, Solomon Alkabetz (the author of L'khah Dodi) and his disciple and brother-in-law, Moses Cordovero, understood it as a two-stage affair: first, the marriage ceremony, and second, the confirming conjugal act. This unification takes place both humanly and sefirotically.
There were actually two separate customs regarding Kabbalat Shabbat that of Isaac Luria and that of Alkabetz and Cordovero. Of the six introductory psalms, Luria said only Psalm 29. Alkabetz and Cordovero may have added Psalms 95-99. Luria himself did not say L'khah Dodi; Alkabetz and Cordovero probably did. Luria went out to the field to welcome Shabbat; Alkabetz and Cordovero did not. No single group went out into the fields singing L'khah Dodi.
In any event, Kabbalat Shabbat, as we now know it, comprises a unit of six psalms (95-99, and 29), L'khah Dodi, and two more psalms (92-93). Units of six psalms characterize also the morning Psukei D'zimrah (Psalms 145-150) and the holiday Hallel (Psalms 113-118). (See Volume 3, P'sukei D'zimrah- Morning Psalms, pp. 107-146.) Still, Kabbalat Shabbat is unique: elsewhere, the psalms (as biblical material) are bracketed by blessings. Similarly, the reading of the Torah, Haftarah, and recitation of the Sh’ma are all bracketed with blessings. In contrast, the bracketing of L'khah Dodi, with psalms no less, underscores its role as the centerpiece of the service.
Psalm 95 In kabbalistic thought, the opening six psalms (95-99, 29) correspond to the six days of the week, each representing a day of creation. While reciting the psalms, one contemplates the corresponding day of the week, reflecting on ways to improve it. In so repairing each day, one's fragmented soul is made whole, a process known as tikkun hanefesh (pronounced tee-KOON hah-NEH-fehsh). Once whole, it can serve as a receptacle for an additional Shabbat soul, the n'shamah y'teirah (pronounced n'- shah-MAH y'-tay-RAH). (On this extra soul, see Volume 7, Shabbat at Home, pp. 167-178.) Appropriately, the numerical value of the initial letters of the six psalms is 430, the same as the numerical value of nefesh, and the total number of words is 702, the numerical value of Shabbat.

Friday Night Service Structure:

Prayer Name/First Word	Details/English translation (if helpful)	Explanation (if helpful)
Yedid Nefesh	Introductory Piyut
Psalms	95-99, 29
Lecha Dodi
Psalms	92-3
Mourner’s kaddish
BaMeh Madlikim	Rabbinic Text
Kaddish derabanan
Baruchu	Call to Prayer
Blessing before Shema 1. 2.
Shema 1. 2. 3.
Blessings after Shema 1. 2.
Amidah
“Repetition” 1. 2. 3.
Kaddish Shalem
Aleynu	concluding prayer
Mourner’s Kaddish
Yigdal	final piyut

99	97
יְהֹוָ֣ה מָ֭לָךְ יִרְגְּז֣וּ עַמִּ֑ים יֹשֵׁ֥ב כְּ֝רוּבִ֗ים תָּנ֥וּט הָאָֽרֶץ׃	יְהֹוָ֣ה מָ֭לָךְ תָּגֵ֣ל הָאָ֑רֶץ יִ֝שְׂמְח֗וּ אִיִּ֥ים רַבִּֽים׃
	Mystery of clouds, Tzedek umiphat
	Mountains melt
׃	Idol worshippers humiliated
	Zion rejoices in mighty Gd
	Hate evil
	Rejoice tzadikim
kruvim

Art Green, Well of Living Insight, p. 264
two pairs of psalms that alternate between opening with “Sing to Y- H- W- H a new song!” and “Y- H- W- H has ruled [forever]!”
We are flipping back and forth between the absolute newness of the moment and antiquity beyond all reach. “New song!” “Ruled forever!” “New Song!” “Ruled forever!”
Those two sides of our religious mind are calling back and forth to one another in antiphonal response. The rest is commentary.

Kimelman, p. 50, 59
Halakhically speaking, Kabbalat Shabbat denotes the onset of Shabbat and our acceptance of its obligations. In Kabbalah, it connotes welcomes Shabbat. Halakhah treats Shabbat as a day of divine sovereignty; Kabbalah sees it as a moment of divine intimacy. In Halakhah, Shabbat is king; in Kabbalah, Shabbat is Bride. Since the coronation metaphor is matched by a marriage metaphor , welcoming Shabbat as bride parallels enthroning God as king.

Art Green, Well of Living Insight, p. 263-264
“rest” in this psalm refers to the Land of Israel,
Here’s the challenge: If I left that much anger behind, how about you letting go of your anger, all your grudges, all your tough places, so that you too might be able to enter this Shabbat— your “land” of rest in the realm of time, for the next twenty- five hours?
This psalm was chosen as a “liturgy of entrance” for the Temple in Time that Shabbat represents. It stands at the doorway and says: “To enter this rest” (in the biblical verse it refers to a place, but here it refers to a day) “you have to leave behind those bundles of hard- heartedness, including resentment, anger, jealousy, and lots more, whether toward God or toward your neighbor, or toward yourself. When you pick them up tomorrow night, hopefully they will be a little lighter.”

Art Green, Well of Living Insight, p. 266
Why all this exultation and excitement about divine judgment? Why should the psalms of kabbalat shabbat be those where the earth rejoices that God is judge? Perhaps this means that we can stop judging now that Shabbat is here. We spend so much of our lives judging people, situations, and ourselves. “Is this person enemy or friend? Can I trust what those people say? What should I do about this or that? What did I do wrong? How should I have done it better?” Shabbat is the time to let go of all of this judging. I give it all to God, who has come to judge the earth. “You are here to do the judging, O Y- H- W- H; I place myself in Your hands.” The exultation is our relief at a day when we can let go of so much judgment.

Heschel anan vearafel
melting mountains