Sabbath

THE SABBATH is here, and the heavens are beaming,

The Shekinah within us is brooding and dreaming,

The soul found a form and a vestment of glory,

And lo, a new Eden and Genesis story.

Peace in an ecstasy came from the mountains,

And opened the heavens, and bliss flows in fountains;

The earth is a heaven, for man has ascended,

And the soul and Shekinah in rapture are blended.

The cherubim young-eyed around us are winging,

My soul is among them; to heaven ’tis clinging;

My soul is on wings now, a soul that is singing;

Holiness, poesy won their sceptre.

And man, man, himself, is a Biblical chapter.

Our souls, we discovered—to-day we have two,

The new life is old, and the old life is new;

O, see how the spirit is wooing God’s beauty,

Rapt lovers are we. Our love is a duty,

Songs of songs our souls are; the heart is a canticle,

In the sunshine of Sabbath, our joy is nigh frantical,

Our transport of peace, it is sweet without cloyance,

We are kings, we are queens, we are princes of joyance;

The swords are withdrawn and the goal is attained,

One is all mankind, the Eden regained,

The wine of the Kiddush pour forth to o’erflowing,

And sing hymeneals, sing “Zmiroth” all glowing,

For lo, it is Sabbath, the day of God’s dreaming,

The day of the perfect—a day without scheming—

Our soul is in heaven, the Star of the Seven,

Then sing like an angel at the gateway of heaven!