| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | Sabbath | | By Alter Abelson |
| | | 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, | 5 |
| 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; | 10 |
| 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; | 15 |
| 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, | 20 |
| 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| The swords are withdrawn and the goal is attained, | |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, | 25 |
| 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! | | | | |
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