Focus question: Yedid Nefesh is a traditional opening of Kabbalat Shabbat. How does understanding global Jewish melodies shape our understanding of Kabbalat Shabbat? Does it serve a purpose in our community’s prayer services?

Materials Needed:

1. Yedid Nefesh in Hebrew & Translation — print one copy per two people
   • Open for translation from Open Siddur Project
2. Paper — one per person
3. Pens — one per person

Goals:

1. Provide a translation of Yedid Nefesh
2. Provide a brief history of Yedid Nefesh
3. Options:
   • Sing through and teach 3 or 4 diverse melodies that spread across global Jewish traditions
   • Listen to 3 or 4 diverse melodies that spread across global Jewish traditions

Objectives:

1. Learners will be able to articulate themes of Yedid Nefesh
2. Learners will be able to express an opinion on Yedid Nefesh’s purpose in liturgy
3. Learners will be able to sing along to two new melodies

Timeline (95 Minutes):

• 15 Minutes: Set Induction
• 45 Minutes: Themes of Yedid Nefesh
• 30 Minutes: Teaching Melodies
• 5 Minutes: Closing

Set Induction: Love Poem (15 minutes)

1. Welcome everyone to the session. Tell the learners we are going to open our learning today with a writing activity. Tell them to think about something or someone they have a deep love for. Once they have their subject, ask them to write a love poem or love letter to that person or thing.
2. When the group seems to be done, ask if there are any volunteers who would like to share their poem. If no one jumps to volunteer, have your own poem prepared to break the ice.
3. Make a comment or notice what different themes or subjects people chose to write their love poem about.
4. Once people have completed their sharing, tell them we’re going to move on to the text study portion of our learning.

Themes of Yedid Nefesh (45 minutes)

1. Without much of an intro, hand out the translations of Yedid Nefesh and ask everyone to read it once through. After they read it, ask them what kind of poem it is.
   • Potential answers: it’s a love poem, it’s very romantic, there is a lot of sexual language.
2. Ask the group who is already familiar with this piyyut, Yedid Nefesh. To those who were already familiar, ask if they’ve ever read an English translation before.
3. Ask the group who is the subject of the poem and who is the imagined author.
   • Potential answers: it’s human’s ode to God, it’s God’s ode to humanity, it’s human’s ode to another human.
4. Tell them to read through the translation one more time with a partner. and come up with 3-5 themes that are present in the text.
   • Potential answers: longing, love, lust, desire.
5. Ask the learners to share their themes and write them down on one of the pieces of paper as they are shared. If multiple pairs say the same themes, only add them to the list once. Write the big enough for participants to read them from their positions.
6. Ask the group if they agree with these themes and if there are any additional themes missing. Add any new ones to the list.
7. Tell them about the history ofYedid Nefesh.
   • Yedid Nefesh is a piyyut, or a liturgical poem, that was first published in 1588 by Rabbi Elazar Moshe Azikri in Venice. However, historians are unsure of the actual authorship. There are those who sing Yedid Nefesh every morning before P’sueki D’zimra (a section of praise in morning liturgy), those who sing it in transition from Friday mincha to Kabbalat Shabbat, those who sing it at the third festive meal of Shabbat and it is part of the Baqashot service (additional prayer service that takes place from Sukkot to Passover in the middle of the night of Shabbat) for some communities from the Middle East and North Africa.
   • If you look at the first words of each verse of the piyyut, you see that it spells out the ineffable name of God– yud, hay, vuv, hay– which is one of the main names used for God in the Torah. Because of this acrostic, Jewish tradition understands this poem as a love poem to God.
8. Ask them why they think Jews would sing this piyyut in these different settings
   • Potential answers: it’s tradition, because this is when they want to acknowledge their love of god most.
9. Ask them to consider how beginning Kabbalat Shabbat with this piyyut might impact their framing for the rest of the service. Ask if there’s anyone who would like to share.
   • Potential answers: it sets up the services with a sense of longing, it offers a foundation of love making prayer an act of love, since people don’t understand the meaning, I’m not sure it makes a difference.
10. After people offer some examples, tell them we’re going to transition to learning new melodies so we can bring this into Kabbalat Shabbat.

Different Melodies (30 minutes)

Tell the group we’re going to explore four different melodies. One Ashkenazi melody and one Moroccan melody that has a call and repeat element to it.

1. Melody #1 Persa (Ashkenazi)
   • Melody
   • The melody composer is unknown but it originated in the town of Persa, now in Poland, which was once in the Pale the Settlement. It is often followed by a niggun (wordless melody) called niggun ga,agua (niggun of longing). This niggun is actually a separate, Chabad niggun. The two flow so well into one another that it’s become part of the practice for singing this melody. This is a pretty standard melody you can expect to hear.
2. Melody #2 Moroccan
   • Melody
   • This melody follows a call-and-repeat format, which is very common for a lot of Sephardic music. Either call and repeat, or call and response.
   • This melody is from the Moroccan Baqashot service and is sung during Parshat B’shalach, or Shabbat Shirah. The Moroccan tradition of Baqashot changes from week to week and depends on the Parsha, meaning that there are dozens of melodies for the same piece of text.
3. Melody #3
   • Melody
   • This melody is a more modern take on a melody that comes from the B’nei Israeli community in Mumbai, India. According to their history, their ancestors fled Judea during the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes around 175 BC. The community learned the normative Jewish customs (like Halakha) from Jews from the Cochin community, in Southern India.
4. Melody #4
   • Melody
   • This is another Moroccan melody from the Baqashot service. In the Moroccan tradition, this particular melody is used only for the Shabbatot when we read the Torah portions of Vayechi and Shemot.
   • A note from Rising Song and Kedmah project about this melody: “It features call and response, with instrumental answers and a shifting rhythmic feel. In our rendition, we added an additional rhythmic shift that isn’t found in the source recordings we heard of this melody. This traditional Moroccan chaabi groove ends the song with celebration.”

Closing (5 minutes)

1. Tell them that we’ve just spent the last hour and a half exploring Yedid Nefesh, its themes and purpose. Ask them:
   • Which of these melodies they think communicate this text better and why?
   • Do they feel this is a piece they would like to incorporate into Friday night services?
   • If they are not people who attend services, where else might they incorporate this in their lives, either singing it themselves or listening?
2. Thank everyone for their time, attention, and participation.