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Yom Zeh L’Yisrael
I still have fond memories of my younger years joining in song around the Shabbat table. These Shabbat table songs, called zemirot, were mainly opportunities to join in song and to feel the warmth of the gathering of family or friends, as the hours of Shabbat passed by. We sang our hearts out, we pounded the table, and we repeated these songs, often with little awareness of their full content.
In our prayerbook and in most songbooks, you will find this song generally with five stanzas and the chorus of its opening line: “Yom zeh l’Yisrael orah v’simcha, Shabbat menucha.” This day for Israel (i.e. the Jewish people) is [a day of] light and joy, a Sabbath of rest. Each of the five stanzas concludes with the words once again, “Shabbat menucha.”
This poem emphasizes the joy and delight of the Sabbath day in contrast to the reality of everyday life in the diaspora of Medieval times. Shabbat is seen as a respite, a day of menucha, of rest, of refuge, from the suffering of the outside world.
As we enter Shabbat during these consistently challenging times, I pray that we experience the holy and sacred nature of the day and experience the light and rest of Shabbat Menucha!
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