The oldest song on this site: Dunash ben Labrat wrote it in tenth-century Spain, and he is the man who introduced Arabic quantitative metre into Hebrew poetry, which is why it scans the way it does. Six stanzas of four short lines, each stanza rhyming on one sound throughout, and the first letters spell the poet's name. It is sung at Shabbat lunch, quickly, and most tables get through three stanzas before the food arrives.
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♪ TuningE A D G B E
Key: Am · 3 chords used ·Am · Dm · E
100 BPM · 4/4 · sung at Shabbat lunch · six stanzas of four short lines, and every line in a stanza rhymes with the others · to reset the chord panel:
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He will proclaim freedom for son and for daughter,
וְיִנְצָרְכֶם
ve-yin-TZAR-chem
and He will guard you (2mp)
כְּמוֹ
kmo
like
בָבַת
va-VAT
the pupil of the eye
|Am|E|
and He will keep you as the pupil of the eye.
נְעִים
ne-IM
pleasant is
שִׁמְכֶם
SHIM-chem
your name (2mp)
וְלֹא
ve-LO
and not
יֻשְׁבַּת
yush-BAT
it will cease
|Dm|Am|
Pleasant is your name, and it will not cease.
שְׁבוּ
shvu
sit! (2mp)
נוּחוּ
nu-CHU
rest! (2mp)
בְּיוֹם
byom
on the day of
שַׁבָּת
sha-BAT
Sabbath
|E|Am|
Sit, rest, on the Sabbath day.
Four lines, one rhyme: בַּת (bat), בָבַת (va-vat), יֻשְׁבַּת (yush-bat), שַׁבָּת (sha-bat) all end in -at. That is the whole formal principle of the poem, and it is why it is so easy to learn — if a line does not rhyme, you have the wrong line. בָבַת (va-vat) is literally "like the pupil of the eye", the same image as in Deuteronomy 32.
שׂוֹרֵק (so-rek) is a choice vine, the word Isaiah uses in the song of the vineyard. It is worth naming because a modern reader is likely to have met the same consonants as the name of a desalination plant — the site's own verified glossary offers exactly that reading, which is right for a lesson on modern Israel and wrong by a thousand years here.
The winepress and Botzrah are Isaiah 63, where the image is judgement rather than harvest. שְׁמַע (shma) is the imperative of the verb in the Shema — the same word a learner meets on day one of the prayer book, here doing something quite different.
and to the one who warns and the one who is warned,
שְׁלוֹמִים
shlo-MIM
peace
תֵּן
ten
give!
כְּמֵי
kmei
like the waters of
נָהָר
na-HAR
a river
|E|Am|
give peace like the waters of a river.
The four trees are Isaiah 41, a list of what will grow where nothing grew. וְלַמַּזְהִיר (ve-la-maz-hir) and וְלַנִּזְהָר (ve-la-niz-har) are the same root in two voices — the one who warns and the one who is warned — and the poem asks for peace for both of them, which is more generous than it first sounds.
Crush those who rise against me, jealous living God,
בְּמוֹג
be-MOG
with the melting of
לֵבָב
le-VAV
heart
וּבִמְגִנָּה
u-vim-gi-NA
and with breaking
|Am|E|
with melting of heart and with breaking;
וְנַרְחִיב
ve-nar-CHIV
and we will widen
פֶּה
pe
a mouth
וּנְמַלֶּאנָּה
un-ma-le-NA
and we will fill it
|Dm|Am|
and we will open wide our mouth and fill it,
לְשׁוֹנֵנוּ
le-sho-ne-NU
our tongue
לְךָ
le-CHA
to You
רִנָּה
ri-NA
a song of joy
|E|Am|
our tongue is a song of joy to You.
וְנַרְחִיב (ve-nar-chiv) and וּנְמַלֶּאנָּה (un-ma-le-na) are a quotation of Psalm 81 — open your mouth wide and I will fill it — turned from a promise into a resolution. The poem takes a line God says and gives it to the singer.
The last stanza is the only one addressed to the singer rather than to God, and it is the only one that mentions the Sabbath again after the first. The poem opens with rest commanded and closes with rest kept.
♫ Singing notes
Sung at Shabbat lunch, briskly, and often not to the end. Three stanzas is a normal amount.
Each stanza has its own rhyme sound and it never varies within the stanza. If you are learning by ear, that rhyme is your handrail.
The lines are short — three or four words — so the melody turns around quickly. Do not stretch them.
There are several tunes in circulation, including one that borrows a well-known secular melody. Whichever the table starts, join it.
♦ About this song
Dunash ben Labrat
Tenth century, North Africa and then Córdoba, and the poet who brought Arabic quantitative metre into Hebrew verse. That importation is the reason Hebrew poetry sounds the way it does for the next five hundred years, and this table song is one of the few pieces of his that everyone still sings.
The acrostic
The first letters of the stanzas spell the poet's name. The sixth stanza is generally taken to be a later addition, since it falls outside that acrostic — the same situation as the last stanza of Maoz Tzur, and it is printed here for the same reason.
Almost every line is a quotation
Deuteronomy, Isaiah twice, Psalms. None of them is marked. A piyyut of this period assumes a listener who has the Tanakh by heart, and it builds a new poem out of half-lines the audience will recognise as they pass.
Text and licence
The Hebrew here is Daat Siddur Ashkenaz, public domain, via Sefaria and pinned in this repository. That edition marks four alternative readings and closes with an attribution to the poet; the scaffold removed all five rather than printing them as lines to be sung, and lists each one when it runs.
Hebrew: Siddur Ashkenaz, Shabbat, Daytime Meal, Zemirot for Second Meal, Dror Yikrah · Daat Siddur Ashkenaz · Public Domain, via Sefaria, pinned in this repo at content/songs/source/017.json.
English gloss lines authored for this site; the source translation is used as raw material only. Transliteration generated by this site's own engine (assets/translit.js).