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Lecha Dodi, the quintessential prayer welcoming the Shabbos Queen (the “Bride”), written by 16th-century Tzfas kabbalist Rav Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, is at the center of the Kabbalas Shabbos tefillah. In virtually every community, it’s recited in song — either a standard tune specific to that kehillah, or a weekly selection from a collection of familiar niggunim.

Singer/songwriter Aharon Razel

The Breslover Lecha Dodi — the famous “nai nana-nai nai nana-nai lecha dodi likrat kallah, nai nana-nai, nai nana-nai nai-nana-nai penei Shabbat nekabelah.” It’s a niggun of such feeling and love. I learned this Lecha Dodi 20 years ago at the Breslov shul in Tzfat. The sun going down over the mountains, and a few hundred chassidim singing with intensity — that’s pure Shabbat bliss.

 (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 714)