Introduction to Sefer Tikkunei Shabbat

אשרי אנוש יעשה זאת ובן אדם יחזיק בה שמר שבת מחללו ושמר ידו מעשות כל רע “Fortunate is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds fast to it—who keeps Shabbat from profaning it and guards his hand from doing any evil.” —Isaiah 56:2

Come and see, friends.

It is written:

וקראת לשבת ענג לקדוש ה׳ מכבד “And you shall call Shabbat a delight, and the holy of Hashem honored.” —Isaiah 58:13

Rabbeinu Naftali Hertz Bacharach, of blessed memory begins his inquiry with the word וקראת—“and you shall call.” Shabbat enters at the hour appointed by Heaven. Her sanctity does not depend upon human permission, nor does the seventh day wait for Israel to establish it. Why, then, must she be called? Why does the prophet speak as though the Sabbath Queen were standing at a distance, awaiting the voice that will summon her near? This question opens the inner order of Tikkunei Shabbat. Holiness descends from above, yet Israel must prepare the vessel below. The body is washed, the garments of the weekday are exchanged, the table is arranged, the mouth calls to the Bride, and the heart turns from the labor and mixture of the six days toward the presence of the King.

Tikkunei Shabbat is an ordered exposition of the inner service of the seventh day. It reveals how the reception of Shabbat Malketa is bound to the ascent of the Shekhinah; how the preparations performed in a Jewish home correspond to movements in the upper worlds; how judgment is quieted before the holiness of the King; and how prayer, sacred speech, bodily purification, delight, and intention become instruments of rectification. The familiar acts of Friday and Shabbat are not treated as an outer shell surrounding a mystery concealed elsewhere. Rabbi Naftali discloses the mystery within the deed itself. The commandments and customs below provide vessels through which holiness is received, separation is accomplished, and what exile has divided begins to return toward unity.

For centuries, this holy work remained in manuscript, removed from the common house of study like the Red Jews guarded beyond the Sambatyon River: hidden from ordinary sight, yet preserved for an appointed hour. The comparison concerns its concealment, not the principal subject of the sefer, which remains the Sabbath Queen and the rectifications accomplished through her entrance. The surviving text suffered real injury. Readings became corrupt or uncertain, a manuscript leaf was erased, and Chapter Fourteen could no longer be recovered. Nevertheless, the greater part of the work endured and was brought into modern print in Jerusalem in 5763 / 2003 together with Emek HaMelekh. The present edition carries that transmission into a new form through editorial vowelization and close English interlinear translation.

This introduction is written from within the faith of Israel. It receives the holy Zohar, the teachings of the Ari, the sacred Names, the ascent of the Shekhinah, and the redemptive holiness of Shabbat as living Torah. That conviction requires neither vagueness nor the abandonment of scholarly care. On the contrary, reverence demands precision. The reader should know what may responsibly be said concerning Rabbi Naftali, where this sefer belongs within his larger undertaking, how the text survived, what the Jerusalem edition accomplished, and what the present edition contributes. Faith and textual accuracy do not stand against one another. A sacred work deserves both.

Rabbi Naftali Hertz Bacharach

The divine kabbalist Rabbi Naftali ben Yaakov Elchanan Hertz Bacharach is known chiefly as the author of Emek HaMelekh, first printed in Amsterdam in 5408 / 1648. The external evidence concerning his life is limited. His own writings and the approbations attached to Emek HaMelekh identify him as the son of Rabbi Yaakov Elchanan and as a native of Frankfurt am Main. They also indicate that he traveled widely and returned near the year 1648 to seek approbations for the book he intended to print in Amsterdam. The precise years of his birth and death remain unknown.

Rabbi Naftali testifies that he had been in the Land of Israel and that he brought Lurianic writings from there. He elsewhere speaks of his desire to return to the Land “a second time,” supporting the plain meaning of his testimony. His kabbalistic language belongs especially to the stream associated with Rabbi Yisrael Sarug, often received through the writings of Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano. The teachings of the supernal garment, primordial delight, the World of Tohu, the breaking of the vessels, and the restoration of the worlds take a central place in his thought. Yet he did not treat these as speculative constructions removed from the Torah of Israel. He understood them through the Zohar and directed them toward prayer, mitzvot, sacred time, and the repair of the Shekhinah.

The chronology of his life remains partly hidden, but the inward character of his writing is unmistakable. Rabbi Naftali speaks of preparing secrets “in my poverty,” through great toil and seclusion. Elsewhere he describes an attainment that came amid fear and awe in a vision of the night. His prose does not sound like the work of a detached collector arranging inherited opinions. It bears the voice of one who believed himself charged with a treasury of Torah and responsible for its transmission. Even when his discussion passes through letter combinations, numerical equivalences, Partzufim, angels, palaces, and divine Names, the purpose remains religious: to reveal the order of holiness, to subdue judgment, to raise the fallen, and to restore unity.

Rabbi Naftali’s Larger Literary Undertaking

In the introduction to Emek HaMelekh, Rabbi Naftali describes a literary project much broader than the few works now readily available. He names approximately ten compositions devoted to the Torah, Prophets, Writings, Mishnah, the aggadot of the Talmud, the commandments, repentance, prayer, the adornments of the Shekhinah, and the language of the Zohar. Most of that projected corpus has not reached us in a complete and identifiable form. Emek HaMelekh, Gan HaMelekh, and Tikkunei Shabbat nevertheless allow us to see the scale and unity of his intention.

Emek HaMelekh presents the architecture of emanation and restoration. It treats Ein Sof, Tzimtzum, the supernal garment, the lights and vessels, the World of Tohu, the breaking, and the ordering of Tikkun. Gan HaMelekh enters these same mysteries through selected discourses of the holy Zohar, following the language of the King, the rose, the first light, the firmament, and the earth that was tohu and bohu. Tikkunei Shabbat brings the same kabbalistic world into sacred time and the lived service of Israel. The ascent of the Shekhinah becomes the reception of the Sabbath Queen. The separation of holiness from the Klipot becomes the preparation of Friday. The joining of the Partzufim becomes prayer, Kiddush, sacred eating, immersion, song, and the delight of the three meals.

This relationship should not be understood as theory followed by a simplified handbook. Tikkunei Shabbat does not stand at the edge of Rabbi Naftali’s work. It belongs to its center. The structures unfolded in Emek HaMelekh enter here into the body, the home, the table, the voice, and the passing of sacred hours. The cosmos described in the larger work becomes the inner form of Jewish action. Rabbi Naftali shows that the mysteries of emanation are not encountered only in the beginning of creation; they are awakened anew when Israel prepares to receive Shabbat.

The Place of Tikkunei Shabbat

The word Tikkun carries several meanings within this work. It may signify arrangement, adornment, rectification, and restoration. All are present. The preparations of Shabbat are arranged according to their inner order; the Bride is adorned through the deeds of Israel; holiness is separated from the forces that cling to it; and what has descended during the six weekdays is raised toward its root.

The range of the sefer is correspondingly wide. Rabbi Naftali discusses the welcoming of Shabbat Malketa, the ascent of the Shekhinah, the song of angels and souls, the quieting of Gehinnom, the mysteries of Luz, those beyond the Sambatyon, immersion, Sabbath garments, Kiddush, myrtle, the three meals, divine Names, vowel points, Metatron, Nogah, and the Four Kingdoms. These subjects are not gathered randomly. Shabbat joins them. She is the weekly boundary between holiness and mixture, the ascent of the Shekhinah from exile, the stilling of judgment, the restoration of the soul, and the foretaste of final redemption.

At the heart of the work stands one governing claim: the acts of Israel below participate in the ordering of holiness above. Human beings do not create the sanctity of Shabbat; her holiness comes from the Creator. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, desired that an awakening below should call forth an awakening above. Israel prepares the vessel, and the light rests within it. The Bride is called by the mouth, the table is adorned by human hands, and the heart directs the deed toward its supernal root. The Jew is therefore not a spectator standing outside the palace. He is summoned to take part in its preparation.

Calling the Sabbath Queen

Our sages taught:

רבי חנינא מיעטף וקאי אפניא דמעלי שבתא אמר בואו ונצא לקראת שבת מלכתא רבי ינאי לביש מאניה מעלי שבת ואמר בואי כלה בואי כלה “Rabbi Chanina would wrap himself and stand at dusk on the eve of Shabbat, saying: ‘Come, let us go out to greet the Sabbath Queen.’ Rabbi Yannai would put on his garments on the eve of Shabbat and say: ‘Come, O Bride; come, O Bride.’” —Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 119a

Rabbi Naftali receives this passage in its full spiritual force. Rabbi Chanina wrapped himself and went forth. Rabbi Yannai put on garments of honor and called the Bride. Their deeds reveal the meaning of וקראת. Shabbat is not passively awaited. She is welcomed through preparation. The mouth expresses the inward desire of Israel and gives it standing in the world. Rabbi Naftali formulates the principle directly:

כל דבר שבקדושה צריך הזמנה בפה “Every matter of holiness requires verbal preparation.”

A thought remains concealed within the heart. Speech brings the intention forth. When Israel says, “Come, O Bride,” the invitation becomes part of the vessel through which Shabbat is received. The words do not create her holiness, but they disclose Israel’s desire for her presence and awaken the corresponding movement in the worlds above.

Rabbi Naftali describes the Shekhinah as rising from the depths to which she descended in exile. The worlds ascend with her. The souls in the Garden of Eden accompany her, and the angels join her in song. No created being rises before the King with an empty mouth; ascent proceeds through praise, fear, and awe. Human speech below thus enters a procession extending through the worlds. Prayer, Kiddush, blessing, Torah reading, and sacred song do not only describe holiness. They become means of approach.

The receiving of Shabbat contains a double movement. Israel calls the Queen to enter the home below, while the Shekhinah rises toward her place above. The Bride comes near, and at the same time she ascends. This is the distinctive language of Rabbi Naftali’s service: welcome and elevation, descent and return, are joined within one holy hour.

The Two Shabbatot

The sages taught:

אלמלי משמרין ישראל שתי שבתות כהלכתן מיד נגאלין “If Israel were to observe two Shabbatot according to their laws, they would immediately be redeemed.” —Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 118b

Rabbi Naftali reads the “two Shabbatot” as two aspects contained within the one holy day. The night of Shabbat belongs to Shamor:

שמור את יום השבת לקדשו “Guard the day of Shabbat to sanctify it.” —Deuteronomy 5:12

The day of Shabbat belongs to Zakhor:

זכור את יום השבת לקדשו “Remember the day of Shabbat to sanctify it.” —Exodus 20:8

Shamor is the mystery of Shabbat Malketa, the Bride who is guarded and received at the entrance of the day. Zakhor belongs to the Bridegroom and to the holiness revealed when the day shines. Night and day, feminine and masculine, reception and manifestation are the two Shabbatot. Their joining forms one sacred order.

This interpretation reaches into the root of redemption. Exile is division: the Shekhinah is separated from her place, the sparks are scattered, and the lower worlds remain exposed to mixture and judgment. Shabbat begins the work of gathering. The Bride rises, the Bridegroom receives her, and what was divided is drawn toward union. The promise that the observance of the two Shabbatot brings immediate redemption therefore concerns the complete sanctification of the night and day, Shamor and Zakhor, in their proper relation.

The physical acts of Shabbat acquire their gravity from this union. The garments, Kiddush, song, rest, the Sabbath table, and the three meals are the human vessels through which the two aspects of the day are honored. Rabbi Naftali speaks of the meals in supernal terms, joining them to the King, the Matronita, and Atika Kadisha. Delight is not a retreat from divine service. When received in holiness and according to the commandment, it becomes a mode of honoring Shabbat and a vessel of rectification.

The body is therefore not abandoned when the soul rises. It is purified, clothed, fed, and given rest. Shabbat gathers the whole person—mind and body, house and table, speech and intention—into one service.

Deed, Speech, and Will

The Holy Zohar speaks of service accomplished:

בעובדא ובמלולא וברעותא “Through deed, through speech, and through will.” —Zohar I, 99b

This threefold order provides a clear entrance into the practical teaching of Tikkunei Shabbat. Deed includes bathing or immersion, the garments of Shabbat, the preparation of the house, the table, and the meals. Speech includes Shnayim Mikra ve-Echad Targum, prayer, Kiddush, blessings, and song. Will is the inward intention through which the person binds the act to its root. Without the deed, the intention lacks a vessel; without inward direction, the deed remains enclosed within its outer form.

The practices described by Rabbi Naftali rest upon the revealed Torah and the rulings of the sages. Concerning the weekly portion, the Talmud teaches:

לעולם ישלים אדם פרשיותיו עם הצבור שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום “A person should always complete his portions with the congregation—twice Scripture and once Targum.” —Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 8a

Concerning the garments of the holy day:

שלא יהא מלבושך של שבת כמלבושך של חול “Let your garment of Shabbat not be like your garment of the weekday.” —Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 113a

Concerning the additional soul:

נשמה יתירה נותן הקב״ה באדם ערב שבת ולמוצאי שבת נוטלין אותה הימנו “The Holy One, blessed be He, gives a person an additional soul on the eve of Shabbat, and at the departure of Shabbat it is taken from him.” —Babylonian Talmud, Beitzah 16a

Rabbi Naftali does not replace the revealed obligation with its hidden explanation. He shows the inner architecture that the obligation already serves. The weekly portion prepares the Torah of the week. The garments announce that the person has entered another authority. The additional soul corresponds to an increase in holiness and capacity. The three meals, established in Shabbat 117b and codified in Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 291, become moments in which supernal delight is honored below.

Immersion receives particular emphasis. Rabbi Naftali calls it:

שער ומבוא גדול להכניס התפלה לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם, ובפרט ליכנס בסוד קדושת שבת “A great gate and entrance through which to bring prayer before Him Who spoke and the world came into being, and especially to enter the mystery of the holiness of Shabbat.”

The body enters the water so that it may be separated from the residue of the weekdays and prepared for the additional sanctity of the seventh day. The act is physical, yet its purpose reaches the soul and the worlds. This is the method of Tikkunei Shabbat: the revealed practice remains fully intact, while its hidden root is brought to light.

Rest, Judgment, and Mercy

During the six weekdays, the powers of judgment are active. The outer forces perform their appointed work, and the fires of severity burn according to the deeds of created beings. At the entrance of Shabbat, another order is revealed. The Zohar states:

כד עייל שבתא כרוזא נפיק ושכיך ההוא נהר דינור “When Shabbat enters, a proclamation goes forth, and that River of Fire is stilled.” —Zohar II, 203b

Rabbi Naftali gives this teaching unusual prominence. The River of Fire is quieted, the harsh flames withdraw, and the ministers of punishment lose their authority before the presence of the King. Even the souls judged in Gehinnom receive rest according to their portion. The stillness of Shabbat is not confined to the visible world; it penetrates the places of judgment and grants them cessation.

This does not mean that justice disappears. Rabbi Naftali repeatedly guards against such a conclusion. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not surrender the moral order of creation. Rather, Shabbat reveals that judgment is not the final ruler of the world. Judgment serves the King, and when the higher holiness of the seventh day is disclosed, the ministers of severity must fall silent. The weekly cessation of punishment therefore becomes a testimony placed within creation: exile, accusation, and suffering do not possess eternal dominion.

The sages taught:

כל המשמר שבת כהלכתו אפילו עובד עבודה זרה כדור אנוש מוחלין לו שנאמר אשרי אנוש יעשה זאת... שומר שבת מחללו אל תקרי מחללו אלא מחול לו “Whoever keeps Shabbat according to its laws—even if he served idolatry like the generation of Enosh—is forgiven, as it is said: ‘Fortunate is the man who does this … who keeps Shabbat from profaning it.’ Do not read mechallelo, ‘from profaning it,’ but machul lo, ‘he is forgiven.’” —Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 118b

Rabbi Naftali does not understand forgiveness as permission to remain in sin. Shabbat opens a gate through which repentance and mercy may ascend. One who honors the seventh day shows that a point of covenant remains alive within him. From that point, restoration may begin. The holiness of Shabbat therefore contains both warning and promise: her desecration touches the whole Torah, while her faithful observance awakens mercy from a place deeper than judgment.

The Course of the Sefer

The surviving Tikkunei Shabbat is arranged in seventeen numbered chapters. Chapter Fourteen is missing because the relevant manuscript leaf had been erased and could no longer be read. Other passages show signs of corruption, uncertain division, or textual injury. The outline that follows is therefore thematic rather than a diplomatic chapter-by-chapter reconstruction. Where the sequence is clear, it may be stated with confidence; where the transmission is damaged, the uncertainty must remain visible.

The work begins with the calling of Shabbat Malketa and the meaning of וקראת. It develops the ascent of the Shekhinah, the company of angels and souls, the necessity of sacred song, and the quieting of Gehinnom. Rabbi Naftali then turns to the twofold holiness of the day through Shamor and Zakhor, night and day, Bride and Bridegroom. These opening teachings establish the central movement of the sefer: preparation below awakens ascent, separation, and union above.

The discussion then enters the World to Come, the mystery of Luz, the resurrection of the body, and the sparks that remain after the breaking of the vessels. From there Rabbi Naftali turns to the tribes beyond the Sambatyon and the sons of Yonadav ben Rekhav beyond the Mountains of Darkness. The work subsequently returns to the practical preparations of Friday: completion of the weekly portion, bodily purification, immersion, garments, prayer, Kiddush, the table, the meals, myrtle, the sacred Names, and their vowel points.

The later chapters widen again toward Metatron, Nogah, the ascent of souls and prayers, the Klipot of the Four Kingdoms, and the forces that seek nourishment from holiness. Tikkunei Shabbat thus descends from the cosmological to the practical and rises again from the practical to the cosmological. A verse opens into a divine Name; the Name into an intention; the intention into a deed performed in the home; and the deed awakens a movement among the upper worlds. The entire span remains gathered within the seventh day.

Luz and the Red Jews Beyond the Sambatyon

The mystery of Luz provides one of the deepest keys to Rabbi Naftali’s teaching of redemption. The body returns to dust, yet one bone remains from which the Holy One, blessed be He, will rebuild it at the resurrection. A seed decays in the earth, but its hidden life has not been destroyed. The vessels shattered, yet sparks of holiness remained within them so that rectification could proceed. Destruction is never permitted to become complete. A point is guarded from which the whole may be restored.

Rabbi Naftali applies this principle to the body of Israel. Exile scattered the people and concealed much of the ancient knowledge of the sacred Names. Yet a portion of Israel was preserved beyond the ordinary dominion of the nations. He writes:

אבל יש לנו תקוה בעם בני ישראל, י׳ השבטים היושבים מעבר לנהר סמבטיון, ובני יונדב בן רכב היושבים מאחרי הרי חשך... והם מקובלים איש מפי איש, והם חסידים גדולים ואנשי מעשה, המה יאירו עינינו בעת רצון “But we have hope in the people of the children of Israel—the ten tribes who dwell beyond the Sambatyon River, and the sons of Yonadav ben Rekhav who dwell beyond the Mountains of Darkness … They are recipients of the tradition, each from the mouth of another; they are great pious ones and men of deed, and they shall illuminate our eyes at the time of favor.”

These are the brethren whom the faith of Israel remembers as the Red Jews beyond the Sambatyon River. Rabbi Naftali does not describe a vanished people. He speaks of a guarded remnant. Among them, he teaches, the ancient tradition has been received איש מפי איש, “each from the mouth of another,” and preserved for the hour of favor. Their separation is not the sign that they have been abandoned; it is the manner in which Heaven has guarded them.

Rabbi Naftali states their redemptive role directly:

הרי מבואר איך הגאולה היא על ידי עשרת השבטים העתידים לבוא מעבר לנהר סמבטיון “Behold, it is explained how the redemption comes through the ten tribes who are destined to come from beyond the Sambatyon River.”

He joins their coming to the restoration of sacred knowledge, to the wars of redemption, to Mashiach of Ephraim, and to the breaking of the dominion of evil. What was separated will not return empty-handed. The guarded remnant will bring with it a portion needed for the restoration of the whole. The Torah says:

ושלח לכם את אחיכם אחר ואת בנימין “And may He send you your other brother, and Benjamin.” —Genesis 43:14

The Midrash reads the absent brother as a sign of brethren separated yet destined to be restored to Israel (Bereishit Rabbah 92:3). In Rabbi Naftali’s teaching, this becomes a theology of the guarded brother: not visible, yet not gone; distant, yet preserved within the covenant.

This teaching does not displace Shabbat as the center of the sefer. It confirms the same pattern. Shabbat is a portion of the future preserved within each week. Luz is a point of life preserved within the mortal body. The Red Jews are a portion of Israel preserved beyond the river. Concealment, in each instance, guards the beginning of restoration.

The Manuscript and Its Condition

The decisive manuscript witness for the modern printing of Tikkunei Shabbat is Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. héb. 876/2, catalogued by the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts as F 14674. Yehuda Liebes explicitly identifies this Paris manuscript as the source from which the work was printed in the Jerusalem edition of 5763 / 2003.

A necessary distinction should be stated. The Oxford manuscript, Bodleian Library, Neubauer 1856 / Opp. 417, and the New York University manuscript 882/2K / IMHM 41509, discussed immediately afterward in the same scholarly note, are witnesses to Gan HaMelekh. They are not manuscript witnesses to Tikkunei Shabbat. Their proximity in the discussion has led to confusion, but the grammatical sequence of the note is clear: the Paris manuscript belongs to Tikkunei Shabbat; the Oxford and New York witnesses belong to Gan HaMelekh.

The surviving work is substantial but incomplete. Chapter Fourteen is absent because the relevant manuscript leaf had been erased and was no longer legible. Other passages contain difficult readings, damaged continuity, or uncertain divisions. These injuries should be acknowledged without embellishment. No amount of reverence permits an editor to present as whole what has reached us broken.

The sages taught:

לוחות ושברי לוחות מונחין בארון “The Tablets and the broken Tablets were placed in the Ark.” —Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b

The saying supplies a fitting principle for the transmission of this work. A fragment of Torah does not lose its holiness because the complete form has not survived. Yet the broken Tablets remain broken Tablets; their sanctity does not authorize the invention of missing words. The complete places and the injured places must therefore be received together, each according to its actual condition.

The Jerusalem Edition of 5763 / 2003

The decisive modern act of recovery came with the two-volume Jerusalem edition of Sefer Emek HaMelekh, published by Yarid HaSefarim in 5763 / 2003. The National Library of Israel catalogues it as Sefer Emek HaMelekh, newly arranged, proofread, and reprinted with references, Sefer Tikkunei Shabbat brought out from manuscript, and indices. The edition was prepared by Rabbi Nahman ben Rabbi Simhah HaKohen Rapoport. Rabbi Moshe Yechiel Tzuriel assisted by proofreading the work, arranging its indices, and adding material concerning the period, the book, and its author. It appeared in Jerusalem in two volumes.

A full bibliographic description is:

Rabbi Naftali Hertz ben Yaakov Elchanan Bacharach, Sefer Emek HaMelekh, newly arranged, proofread, and reprinted with references, Sefer Tikkunei Shabbat brought out from manuscript, and indices; prepared by Rabbi Nahman ben Rabbi Simhah HaKohen Rapoport, with proofreading, indices, and supplementary material concerning the period, the book, and its author by Rabbi Moshe Yechiel Tzuriel, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Yarid HaSefarim, 5763 / 2003).

That edition performed an indispensable labor. It removed Tikkunei Shabbat from the narrow custody of manuscript and placed it upon the Hebrew bookshelf. Readers could once again encounter the work beside Emek HaMelekh and perceive how Rabbi Naftali’s teachings concerning emanation, judgment, and restoration entered the weekly service of Shabbat.

The text, however, remained unvocalized. Its close mixture of biblical Hebrew, rabbinic Hebrew, Zoharic Aramaic, abbreviations, sacred Names, numerical interpretations, and technical Lurianic vocabulary continued to present a formidable barrier. The sefer had entered print, but it had not yet been prepared for readers who required guidance through its syntax, pronunciation, and compressed movement of thought.

The Present Edition

In preparing the present edition, I have sought to establish a new stage in the transmission of Tikkunei Shabbat. It is not presented as a new critical edition in the strict philological sense, nor as a mere reproduction of the 2003 printing. Its principal contributions are Hebrew vowelization and close English interlinear translation.

The nikud is openly editorial. It was not present in the manuscript or in the Jerusalem edition. Supplying vowels in a work of this kind requires interpretation. Biblical phrases, rabbinic constructions, Aramaic expressions, abbreviations, sacred Names, and technical kabbalistic terms may meet within a single sentence. The vocalization offered here is intended to guide the reader; it does not claim to reproduce a lost vocalized original.

The English has been kept close to the Hebrew and Aramaic because Rabbi Naftali’s explanations frequently depend upon the precise form of a word, the sequence of its letters, its numerical value, or the vowels attached to a divine Name. A freer translation might produce smoother English while concealing the movement of the interpretation. The interlinear arrangement allows the reader to follow the text phrase by phrase, compare each rendering with the original, and remain near the sacred language at the center of the page.

No missing leaf has been conjecturally restored. No erased passage has been silently supplied. Where the text is incomplete, the present edition remains incomplete with it. Where a reading is uncertain, that uncertainty should not be disguised as confidence. The purpose is faithful transmission and prepared reading, not the manufacture of a completeness that the surviving witness does not provide.

The purpose of the edition is also sacred. Rabbi Naftali wrote these teachings to be studied and enacted: to guide the purification of the body, the preparation of the home, the calling of the Bride, the sanctification of the table, the ascent of prayer, and the unification of the worlds. By opening the sefer to additional readers, this edition seeks to increase the honor of Shabbat, awaken a greater service below, hasten the redemption, and contribute to the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shekhinah.

Language itself has become one of the forms of exile among the scattered habitations of Israel. Many Jewish souls now approach the inner Torah first through English. To make that language a servant of the Hebrew text is not to remove the sefer from its source. It is to build a path back toward it. The English stands beneath the Hebrew so that the reader may enter, remain close, and, with time, depend upon it less.

May these words reach the near and the distant, the revealed and the concealed, even those beyond the Sambatyon River. May a work once hidden become an instrument through which hidden souls are awakened.

Entering Tikkunei Shabbat

The reader should proceed slowly. Rabbi Naftali may begin with a verse of Scripture, pass through a saying of the sages, unfold an image from the Zohar, connect it to a divine Name or numerical equivalence, and return through a practical instruction for Friday afternoon. Several stages of interpretation may be compressed into one passage because the connections already stand joined within the world of the author.

The beginning reader should first follow the dominant movement of the sefer: preparation, separation, ascent, and union. The body is washed, the garments are changed, the weekly portion is completed, the table is made ready, and the Bride is called. Above, the Shekhinah rises, judgment recedes, the outer forces are separated from holiness, and what was scattered begins to gather.

The advanced reader may then return to the finer structure: the sacred Names, their vowel patterns, the Sarugian-Lurianic teachings, the Partzufim, Metatron, Nogah, the Klipot, and the Zoharic passages upon which Rabbi Naftali builds. The practical direction and the cosmological explanation should be read together, for each clarifies the other. The deed shows where the mystery enters the world; the mystery reveals what the deed is serving.

Shabbat gathers what the weekdays scatter. She remembers the completion of creation and offers a taste of the world that is to come. She enters before history has been repaired and reveals the rest toward which history moves. Every faithful reception of the Bride therefore contains something of the final gathering. Each act that separates holiness from impurity anticipates the purification of the world. Every unification awakened below calls toward the complete unification above.

May the teachings of Rabbi Naftali ben Yaakov Elchanan Hertz Bacharach, of blessed memory, return through this edition to the house of study. May Israel receive the Sabbath Queen with purity, joy, and understanding. May the Shekhinah be raised from the dust of exile, may the scattered portions of Israel be gathered, and may the study of this holy work hasten redemption and strengthen the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shekhinah.

מזמור שיר לעתיד לבוא ליום שכולו שבת ומנוחה לחיי העולמים “A psalm, a song for the future that is to come—for the day that will be entirely Shabbat and rest for everlasting life.” —Mishnah Tamid 7:4