Medieval Spanish Sabbath Song
In the oldest standing synagogue in Europe
Shalom!
I shared this video on YouTube on Friday in honor of the upcoming Sabbath but it seems that for reasons unknown YouTube stopped sharing my videos around that time such that literally the only 8 people who saw the video were people who clicked the “All Notifications 🔔” bell for my YouTube channel.
As you can see, half of them liked it enough to give us the genuinely much appreciated 👍🏻, but if we are to effect the world we’re going to need to start focusing on volume.
Which is where I need your help.
I can think of 500 different reasons why YouTube might have decided to withhold new videos from our over 800 Subscribers but this analytical skill of mine is useless here because if I were to take all of these possibilities into account I would just be uploading the same mini-truths everybody else is uploading.
On my side what I’ll try to do is make sure to share each video on Substack as well, so that if you're following us on both Substack and YouTube you’ll be sure to be notified of the latest we’re up to.
On your side, there are two things I would very very much appreciate.
First of all, and this one requires no special connections, wealth, or know-how, please share our Substack Letters and YouTube videos.
I can't tell you where or how would be most beneficial because I genuinely don't know. But I do know that I managed to give tours of Jerusalem to thousands of people over 7 years without a Tourguiding license, education, outreach or advertising.
I studied from books and a local tourguide I met and then, at the age of 18, I walked over to a family and offered to give them a 4 hour tour for $20.
The next day I did the same with a fellow in a wheelchair who was travelling with two aides.
Thereafter, through word of mouth alone I had the privilege of leading thousands of people around Jerusalem (and Massada) without engaging in any of the advertising, marketing or self promotion that so terribly baffles me that my attempts generally tend to backfire.
So person to person sharing is definitely effective. Even with no system at all.
However, if you should happen to know somebody who is a paid professional at turning people into “influencers”, which I guess is what we need to do here, that gives us a genuine shot at making a real difference in time for us all to enjoy it.
As for the video, it was taken my first day in Toledo, Spain.
It was a Friday and as the sun began to set I walked into the oldest standing synagogue in (at least Western) Europe and sang this Kabbalistic Song welcoming the Sabbath.
I said more about the video, the environs and the history here:
What I didn't mention however is what the song actually is being as at that time my assumed audience were my fellow Orthodox Rabbis who one would hope know something about the song.
God’s ways don't always appear logical to us but on this very subject, Rambam (Maimonides) references the Biblical verse regarding God: “My Thoughts are not the same as your thoughts, and my Means are not like your means.”
Rambam was shocked to have come to the conclusion that Jesus was part of God’s messianic plan (though certainly not as a deity), and that's how he expressed his sentiments about this conclusion he had come to.
What's astonishing about Rambam’s foresight is that it isn't remotely hard for us today to see how Non-Jews, and particularly Christians are likely to be part of the messianic solution, but in Rambam's day, with the Crusader massacres and conquests going on in his very life time (including the burning and enslavement of every last Jew in Jerusalem shortly before Rambam's own visit!) his ability to forsee the world of our own day is admirable beyond comprehension.
God’s ways being what they are, I’ll provide this brief note on the song for the majority of my fans and followers and friends who are not familiar with the liturgical details of the prayer book.
The brief note suffices because the essence of what I’m sharing with you are the sentiments I felt at that moment, and those sentiments come across far more through my own singing and dancing than they do through the words which relate to a paradigm (of the Sabbath as God’s bride) that is too kabbalistically foreign for most of our sentiments, mine included.
The song was composed in Safed, Israel in the 1500s among the community of Jews who had just recently fled the Iberian Peninsula, followings the mass forced conversions and expulsions of 1492-1497.
It's widely assumed that the entire custom of “Kabbalat Shabbat”, “Greeting The Sabbath” with special psalms and songs originated in Safed, Israel but I myself discovered evidence in Toledo Spain that the practice (if not these precise lyrics) was already enshrined in the custom of the Jews of Toledo, for at least 100 years prior to the expulsion.
So this was a super duper very meaningful and joyous moment for me.
To find out about the nun who appeared at the door (as I believe that the site is still owned by the Catholic Church to this day) see the video posted above. In short, her father was Jewish while her mother was Christian.
She chose to becomenthe bride of Christ (her words) while her brother underwent a Jewish Orthodox conversion and lives in the West Bank of Israel with a brood of 8 or 9 kippa-and-tzitzit wearing kids.
Following the video are the words and translation as made by “Sefaria”, an excellent app for everybody interested in sacred Jewish texts, many of which include translations into various languages, most often of course English.
A cool little tidbit for those of you who are most actively helping me through your $36 subscription…