“How beloved is your rest, Sabbath Queen, we run to greet you: Come, royal bride, dressed in fine robes. We light the light with blessing. All labors end [as is said] “You shall do no work.” To savor the delights of fowl, quail and fish.
In advance all kinds of tasty food have been prepared, fattened chicken made ready while it was still day. Varied dishes set out, and fragrant wines to drink, and special delicacies all three times. To savor the delights of fowl, quail and fish.
They shall inherit Jacob’s heritage, a heritage unbounded, rich and poor will honor [the Sabbath] and be worthy of redemption. If you keep the Sabbath day you will be My special treasure, six days shall you labor – and on the seventh let us rejoice. To savor the delights of fowl, quail and fish.
Your secular concerns are forbidden; so too are calculations. Reflections are permitted, and arranging matches for girls, and teaching a child a book, and singing songs of praise, and meditating on fine words at every place and gathering. To savor the delights of fowl, quail and fish.
Your walk shall be unhurried; you shall call the Sabbath a delight. Sleep too is praiseworthy, for it refreshes the spirit. Therefore my soul yearns for you, to rest in you in love, as if within a fence of roses: on it son and daughter rest. To savor the delights of fowl, quail and fish.
A foretaste of the World to Come is the day of Sabbath rest. All who take delight in it will be worthy of great joy. They will be delivered with relief from the birthpangs of the Messiah. May our redemption spring forth, and sadness and sighing flee away. To savor the delights of fowl, quail and fish.”
©Koren Siddur, Jerusalem 2012