Jewish and Israeli Music (main article)
Religious music:
Historical • Contemporary Piyyut • Nigun • Pizmonim Zemirot • Baqashot
Secular music:
Israeli • Israeli Folk Klezmer • Sephardic • Mizrahi
Not Jewish in Form: Classical • Mainstream and Jazz
Dance:
Israeli Folk Dancing • Ballet Horah • Hava Nagila • Yemenite dance
Music for Holidays
Chanukah • Passover • Shabbat
Israel
Hatikvah • Jerusalem of Gold
Piyyutim
Adon Olam • Geshem • Lekhah Dodi Ma'oz Tzur • Yedid Nefesh • Yigdal
Music of the Haggadah
Ma Nishtanah • Dayenu • Adir Hu Chad Gadya • Echad Mi Yodea

Lekhah Dodi (לכה דודי transliterated as Lecha Dodi, L'chah Dodi, Lekah Dodi or Lechah Dodi) is a Hebrew liturgical song recited Friday at dusk, usually at sundown, in synagogue to welcome Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) prior to the Maariv evening services. It is part of the Kabbalat Shabbat ("acceptance of the Jewish Sabbath"). It translates as "come my beloved", and is a request of a mysterious "beloved" that could mean either God or one's friend(s) to join together in welcoming the Sabbath that is referred to as the "bride": likrat kallah ("to greet the [Sabbath] bride"). During the singing of the last verse, the entire congregation rises and turns to the open door, to greet the "Sabbath Queen" as "she" arrives. Jewish music, the music of Jews, is quite diverse and dates back thousands of years. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Israel. ... Image File history File links Star_of_David. ... Jewish music, the music of Jews, is quite diverse and dates back thousands of years. ... Image File history File links Star_of_David. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Israel. ... This article is about the sacred and religious music of Judaism from Biblical to Modern times. ... This article is about the sacred and religious music of Judaism from Biblical to Modern times. ... This article is about contemporary Jewish religious music. ... A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... Nigun (pl. ... Pizmonim (Hebrew פזמונים, singular pizmon) are traditional Jewish songs and melodies that praise God. ... Negara Israel akan tetap ada, namun bangsa Jahudi harus bertobat dahulu, agar Mesias dapat memerintah di bumi, di Yerusalem. ... This article is about a type of Jewish religious music, Baqashot. ... See Secular Jewish culture for the main article on secular Jewish culture. ... Modern Israeli music is heavily influenced by its constituents, which include Jewish immigrants (see Jewish music) from more than 120 countries around the world, which have brought their own musical traditions, making Israel a global melting pot. ... Klezmer (from Yiddish כּלי־זמיר, etymologically from Hebrew kli zemer כלי זמר, musical instrument) is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. ... The Sephardic Jews are one of the three main ethnicities among Diaspora Jews, the others being the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi. ... :This article is about the music of the Mizrahi Jews. ... See Secular Jewish culture for the main article on secular Jewish culture. ... See Secular Jewish culture for the main article on secular Jewish culture. ... See Secular Jewish culture for the main article on secular Jewish culture. ... See Secular Jewish culture for the main article on secular Jewish culture. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... See Secular Jewish culture for the main article on secular Jewish culture. ... Hora is the name of a circle dance in a number of countries. ... Hava Nagila (הבא נגילה in hebrew) is a Hebrew folk song, the title meaning Let us rejoice. ... In Yemen, where Jews were banned from dancing publicly, forms of dance evolved that are based on stationary hopping and posturing, such as can be done in a confined space. ... Chanukah music contains several songs associated with the festival of Chanukah. ... It has been suggested that Dayenu and Had Gadia be merged into this article or section. ... Hatikvah or Hatikva (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה, “The Hope”), sometimes styled HaTikva(h), is the national anthem of the State of Israel. ... Jerusalem of Gold (Hebrew: ירושלים של זהב, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav) is a popular Israeli song written by Naomi Shemer in 1967. ... A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... Adon Olam, with transliterated lyrics and melody, from the Jewish Encyclopedia. ... Geshem (גשם) is one of the Hebrew words for rain, applied mostly to the heavy rains which occur in Israel in the fall and winter. ... Maoz Tzur (Hebrew: מעוז צור), widely known in English as Rock of Ages, is a Jewish liturgical poem or piyyut. ... Yedid Nefesh is a name of a piyyut. ... The hymn which in the various rituals shares with Adon Olam the place of honor at the opening of the morning and the close of the evening service. ... It has been suggested that Dayenu and Had Gadia be merged into this article or section. ... Main article: Passover songs Ma Nishtanah (Hebrew: מה נשתנה) are the four questions sung during the Passover seder. ... Main article: Passover songs Dayenu (Hebrew:) is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. ... Main article: Passover songs Adir Hu (English: Mighty is He, Hebrew אדיר הוּא) is a hymn sung by Jews worldwide at the Passover Seder. ... Main article: Passover songs Chad Gadya (Aramaic: חַד גַדְיָה) is a playful cumulative song, written in Aramaic with Hebrew words interspersed. ... Main article: Passover songs Echad Mi Yodea (Yiddish: Mandabar uma nsapar) (Hebrew: אחד מי יודע echad mi yodea) (Who Knows One?) is a traditional cumulative song sung on Passover and found in the haggadah. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... A liturgy is the customary public worship of a religious group, according to their particular traditions. ... A synagogue (from ancient Greek: , transliterated synagogÄ“, assembly; Hebrew: beit knesset, house of assembly; Yiddish: , shul; Ladino: , esnoga) is a Jewish house of worship. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Jewish services (Hebrew: tefillah/תפלה, plural tefilloth/תפלות) are the communal prayer recitations which form part of the observance of Judaism. ... Jewish services are the communal prayer recitations which form part of the observance of Judaism. ... At the bottom of the hands, the two letters on each hand combine to form יהוה (YHVH), the name of God. ...

It was composed in the 16th century by Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, a Kabbalist in Safed. As was common at the time, the song is also an acrostic, with the first letter of the first eight stanzas spelling the author's name. The author draws much of his phraseology from Isaiah's prophecy of Israel's restoration, and six of his verses are full of the thoughts to which his vision of Israel as the bride on the great Sabbath of Messianic deliverance gives rise. It is practically the latest of the Hebrew poems regularly accepted into the liturgy, both in the southern use, which the author followed, and in the more distant northern rite. Rabbi, in Judaism, means a religious ‘teacher’, or more literally, ‘great one’. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ or ‘distinguished (in knowledge)’. Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word ribbī; the modern Israeli pronunciation rabbī is derived from a... Shlomo (Solomon) Halevi Alkabetz (also transliterated as Alqabitz, Hebrew: שלמה אלקבץ) (c. ... This article is about traditional Jewish Kabbalah. ... Safed (Hebrew: צְפַת, Tiberian: , Israeli: Tsfat, Ashkenazi: Tzfas; Arabic: صفد ; KJV English: Zephath) is a city in the North District in Israel. ... An acrostic (from the late Greek akróstichon, from ákros, extreme, and stíchos, verse) is a poem or other writing in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. ... The Book of Isaiah (Hebrew: Sefer Yshayah ספר ישעיה) is one of the books of Judaisms Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, traditionally attributed to Isaiah. ... In Judaism and Jewish eschatology, the Messiah (Hebrew: משיח; Mashiah, Mashiach, or Moshiach, anointed [one]) is a term traditionally referring to a future Jewish king from the Davidic line who will be anointed (the meaning of the Hebrew word משיח) with holy anointing oil and inducted to rule the Jewish people during...

Ancient Moorish melody

Its importance in the esteem of Jewish worshipers has led every cantor and choir-director to seek to devote his sweetest strains to the Sabbath welcomesong. Settings of "Lekah Dodi," usually of great expressiveness and not infrequently of much tenderness and beauty, are accordingly to be found in every published compilation of synagogal melodies. Among the Sephardic congregations, however, the hymn is universally chanted to an ancient Moorish melody of great interest, which is known to be much older than the text of "Lekah Dodi" itself. This is clear not only from internal evidence, but also from the rubric in old prayer-books directing the hymn "to be sung to the melody of 'Shubi Nafshi li-Menuḥayeki,'" a composition of Judah ha-Levi, who died nearly five centuries before Alḳabiẓ. In this rendering, carried to Palestine by Spanish refugees before the days of Alḳabiẓ, the hymn is chanted congregationally, the refrain being employed as an introduction only. But in Ashkenazic synagogues the verses are ordinarily chanted at elaborate length by the ḥazzan, and the refrain is properly used as a congregational response. In the strictest sense, a Sephardi (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew Səfardi, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Səfardim, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardîm) is a Jew original to the...

Old German and Polish melodies

At certain periods of the year many northern congregations discard later compositions in favor of two simple older melodies singularly reminiscent of the folk-song of northern Europe in the century succeeding that in which the verses were written. The better known of these is an air, reserved for the 'Omer weeks between Passover and Pentecost, which has been variously described, because of certain of its phrases, as an adaptation of the famous political song "Lilliburlero" and of the cavatina in the beginning of Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro." But resemblances to German folk-song of the end of the seventeenth century may be found generally throughout the melody.

Less widely utilized in the present day is the special air traditional for the "Three Weeks" preceding Tisha b'Av, although this is characterized by much tender charm absent from the melody of Eli Tziyyon, which more often takes its place. But it was once very generally sung in the northern congregations of Europe; and a variant was chosen by Benedetto Marcello for his rendition of Psalm xix. in his "Estro Poetico-Armonico" or "Parafrasi Sopra li Salmi" (Venice, 1724), where it is quoted as an air of the German Jews. Cantor Eduard Birnbaum ("Der Jüdische Kantor", 1883, p. 349) has discovered the source of this melody in a Polish folk-song, "Wezm ja Kontusz, Wezm", given in Oskar Kolbe's "Piesni Ludu Polskiego" (Warsaw, 1857). An old melody, of similarly obvious folk-song origin, was favored in the London Jewry a century ago, and was sung in two slightly divergent forms in the old city synagogues. Both of these forms are given by Isaac Nathan in his setting of Byron's "Hebrew Melodies" (London, 1815), where they constitute the air selected for "She Walks in Beauty", the first verses in the series. But the melody, which has nothing Jewish about it, was scarcely worth preserving; and it has since fallen quite out of use in English congregations and apparently elsewhere as well. Tisha BAv (תשעה באב tish‘āh bÉ™-āḇ) is a major annual fast day in Judaism. ... Isaac Nathan is an Anglo-Jewish musician and self-publicist (c. ... Lord Byron, Anglo-Scottish poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22, 1788–April 19, 1824) was an Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. ...

Text

The full version of the song (note that many Reform congregations omit verses 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 in order to shorten it): Reform Judaism can refer to (1) the largest denomination of American Jews and its sibling movements in other countries, (2) a branch of Judaism in the United Kingdom, and (3) the historical predecessor of the American movement that originated in 19th-century Germany. ...

Hebrew uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel points. ...

See also

• Jewish services
• List of Jewish prayers and blessings
• Piyyut

Jewish services (Hebrew: tefillah/תפלה, plural tefilloth/תפלות) are the communal prayer recitations which form part of the observance of Judaism. ... Listed below are some Hebrew prayers and blessings that are part of Judaism that are recited by many Jews. ... A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ...

External links

• Audio file "Lekhah Dodi" MP3
• Audio file "Lekhah Dodi" MP3
• Lekhah Dodi with music from The Jewish Learning Group from the Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center

Bibliography

• English translation and discussion: in Kabbalat Shabbat: Welcoming Shabbat in the Synagogue, Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, ed. Jewish Lights Publishing. 2004. ISBN 1-58023-121-7.
• Traditional settings: A. Baer, Ba'al Tefillah, Nos. 326-329, 340-343, Gothenburg, 1877, Frankfort, 1883;
• Cohen and Davis, Voice of Prayer and Praise, Nos. 18, 19a, and 19b, London, 1899;
• F. Consolo, Libro dei Canti d'Israele, part. i, Florence, 1892;
• De Sola and Aguilar, Ancient Melodies, p. 16 and No. 7, London, 1857;
• Israel, London, i. 82; iii. 22, 204;
• Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i., No. 2, pp. 33, 37, London, 1900. Translations, etc.: Israel, iii. 22;
• H. Heine, Werke, iii. 234, Hamburg, 1884;
• J. G. von Herder, Werke, Stuttgart, 1854;
• A. Lucas, The Jewish Year, p. 167, London, 1898

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

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