Hymn for the Third Meal

Isaac Luria

ca. 1565

Prepare the feast
  of perfect faith,
the delight of the Holy King.
  Prepare the feast of the King.
This is the feast
  of the Lesser Presence;
the Ancient Eminence and Field of Apples
  assemble with Him for the feast.

*

Sons of the Palace—
  you who yearn
to behold the radiance
  of the Lesser Presence—
be seated here
  at this Sabbath table,
adorned and crowned
  with the Name of the King.
Exult in your being
  part of this gathering
among the guardian
  angels’ wings,
and rejoice now
  within this hour
of favor which knows
  not what anger brings.
Draw near me here—
  see my power,
without the judgments
  of judgment’s terror.
Those without
  may not enter,
for they are dogs
  of rancor and gall.
I hereby call
  to the Ancient of Days
to summon His will
  to drive them away—
for when His favor
  in this room is shown,
the husks are rendered
  null and void.
He drives them into
  holes in the ground,
conceals them deep
  in caverns of stone.
And so it is
  now and till twilight—
within the Impatient
  One’s delight.

*

Completed is the feast
  of perfect faith
of the seeds of the children of Israel.

Translated by
Peter
Cole
.

Credits

Isaac Luria, “Hymn for the Third Meal,” from The Poetry of Kabbalah, ed. and trans. Peter Cole, co-ed. Aminadav Dykman (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), pp. 157–59. Used with permission of Yale University Press.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Isaac Luria

1534–1572

Isaac Luria was one of the most significant figures in Jewish mysticism, famed for pioneering a new conception of theoretical kabbalah. Luria was born in Jerusalem and, following the death of his father, was raised by his maternal family in Egypt. There Luria studied rabbinic literature and halakhah, while working as a merchant. He embarked on esoteric studies and lived in seclusion on an island in the Nile (allegedly for seven years). In 1569/70, he settled in Safed, where he studied kabbalah with Moses Cordovero. Luria soon began to develop his own innovative kabbalistic system. However, aside from delivering a few homilies in synagogues, he did not often teach in public. Luria himself wrote very little; his teachings were recorded by the disciples that gathered around him. Famed for his saintly conduct, Luria was highly conservative in his interpretation of Jewish law. He was also a poet; his hymns for Sabbath meals, replete with kabbalistic symbolism, appear in prayer books.

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