Receive Shabbat by heralding the Bride towards her wedding canopy and simultaneously go out towards nature to welcome the Queen. When in history did Jews begin to sing and chant the “Kabbalat Shabbat” service? Believe it or not, it was only in Tzefat, in the mid 16th century, that Kabbalat Shabbat became the prayer service that we know today. In Talmudic and Medieval literature, the term “Kabbalat Shabbat” denoted the process of accepting Shabbat observances. While Aggadic literature added the welcoming of the Shabbat as a “bride”, it was the Spanish Kabbalists and later those in Tzefat who developed the feminized personification of Shabbat as revealing qualities of sefirat Malkhut coupled with unconditional Divine Love, Harmony and Serenity. The Kabbalistic meditation unifies the feminine and masculine forces of Nature, Divinity and Humanity, all flowing together in Kabbalat Shabbat.
