This translation of the piyyut for Shabbat by Shlomo Al-Qabets can be found in HaAvodah SheBaLev – the Service of the Heart (Kehilat Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem, 2007). “Adonai” is used as a circumlocution for the Tetragrammaton in the English translation. I have replaced ‘Adonai’ with ‘YHVH,’ God with ‘El,’ and ‘our God’ with ‘our elo’ah.’ –Aharon Varady.

Source(s)

“לְכָה דוֹדִי | Lekhah Dodi, the piyyut for Ḳabbalat Shabbat by Shlomo haLevi Al-Qabets (translation by Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman & Shaul Vardi)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Shaul Vardi (translation)

Shaul Vardi is a freelance translator and editor living in Jerusalem and active in the Reform community Kol HaNeshama (KKH). Among other liturgical projects, Shaul devised the transliteration methods used in KKH’s bilingual Siddur and in the bilingual accompaniment to the new Israeli Reform Siddur Tefilat Ha-Adam. He also composed the first Hebrew-language “mi she-berakh” for LGBTQI+ Pride Shabbat.

Levi Weiman-Kelman (translation)

Levi Weiman-Kelman is the founding rabbi of Congregation Kol Haneshama, a Reform community in Jerusalem devoted to prayer, study and social action. He is a founding member of Rabbis for Human Rights and teaches at the Hebrew Union College.

Shlomo haLevi Al-Qabets

Shlomo haLevi Al-Qabets (Hebrew: שלמה אלקבץ, also, al-kabetz, Alqabitz, Alqabes; ca. 1500 – 1576) was a rabbi, kabbalist and poet perhaps best known for his composition of the song Lekha Dodi. Alkabetz studied Torah under Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak. In 1529, he married the daughter of Yitzhak Cohen, a wealthy householder living in Salonica. Alkabetz gave his father-in-law a copy of his newly completed work Manot ha-Levi. He settled in Adrianople where he wrote Beit Hashem, Avotot Ahava, Ayelet Ahavim and Brit HaLevi. This latter work he dedicated to his admirers in Adrianople. His students included Rabbi Shmuel Ozida, author of Midrash Shmuel on Avot, and Rabbi Avraham Galante, author of Yareach Yakar on Zohar. His circle included Moshe Alsheich and Yosef Karo, as well as his famous brother-in-law Moshe Cordovero. Following the Tiqūn Leil Shavuot, Rabbi Shlomo and Rabbi Joseph Karo stayed awake all that night learning and during the recitation of the required texts, Rabbi Karo had a mystical experience: The Shekhinah appeared as a maggid, praising the circle and telling them to move to the Land of Israel. When they stayed up again the second night of Shavuot, the Shekhinah was adamant about their moving to the land of Israel. The account was recorded by Al-Qabets. He settled in Safed in 1535. His works written in Adrianople center on the holiness of the people Israel, the Land of Israel, and the specialness of the mitsvot. Al-Qabets accepts the tradition that Esther was married to Mordekhai before being taken to the king's palace and becoming queen, and even continued her relationship with Mordekhai after taking up her royal post. The view of midrash articulated by Al-Qabets and other members of the school of Joseph Taitatsak represents an extension of the view of the authority of the oral law and halakhic midrash to aggadic midrash and thus leads to the sanctification and near canonization of aggadic expansions of biblical narrative.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17