Pipeline Torah Gem #913 2026-02-11: Greeting the Sabbath

[Vaughn Seward]

Greeting the Sabbath

"Come! Let us sing to Hashem, let us call out to the Rock of our salvation." (Psalm 95:1)

Come [lit., go]! The term "come," represents an enthusiastic appeal, urging someone to surrender his doubts or leave a course of action to which he has become attached. Forget your preoccupation with material concerns and heretical beliefs, the Psalmist urges, and join me in singing God's praises! (Meiri).

Every week, on the eve of the Sabbath, the Jew abandons his pursuit of and preoccupation with the material world and envelops himself in the spirit of the Sabbath. In Talmudic times, people would don their finest clothing and, with the approach of the Sabbath, say, "Let us go out to greet the Sabbath queen" (Shabbos 119a).

This custom was broadened by the Kabbalists of 16th-century Safed, who would literally walk out to the fields to greet the incoming Sabbath. The custom of reciting Psalms 95-99 at the Friday night service was instituted by Rav Moshe Cordovero (1522-1570), one of Safed's greatest mystics (Rav Yaakov Emden). From Safed, the new liturgy spread gradually until it was adopted in virtually all Jewish communities. The common theme of these six psalms is that God is King of the universe; that He created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Someone who recognizes God as Master during the six working days is prepared to welcome His intense spiritual presence on the holy Sabbath.

Adapted from Artscroll's "The Writings; Psalms" by Rabbi Nossom Scherman / Rabbi Gedaliah Zlotowitz, 2018, page 419.
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Yiddish Corner

Shoyn eynmol a metsie! What a bargain! Ale meyles in aynem, iz nito bay kaynem. No one possesses all the virtues. Dos veremel nart op, un nit der fisher oder di vendke. It’s the bait that lures and not the fisherman or the tackle. A lustiger dales geyt iber ales. Happy poverty overcomes everything.