Passages for Meditation

Rabbi Eleazar Azikri

Beloved of the Soul

Beloved of the soul, source of compassion,
Shape your servant to your will.
Then your servant will run like a deer to bow before you.
Your love will be sweeter than a honeycomb.
Majestic, beautiful, light of the universe,
My soul is lovesick for you;
I implore you, God, heal her
By revealing to her your pleasant radiance;
Then she will be strengthened and healed
And will have eternal joy.
Timeless One, be compassionate
And have mercy on the one you love,
For this is my deepest desire:
To see your magnificent splendor.
This is what my heart longs for;
Have mercy and do not conceal yourself.
Reveal yourself, my Beloved,
And spread the shelter of your peace over me;
Light up the world with your glory;
We will celebrate you in joy.
Hurry, Beloved, the time has come,
And grant us grace, as in days of old.

Composed by Eleazar Ben Moses Azikri, a sixteenth-century cabalist who lived in Safed in upper Galilee. He and a few friends formed a pact to dedicate themselves entirely to study of the scriptures and worship of God, and this prayer was written for their use. Published the year after he died, "Yedid Nefesh" was so popular among Jewish communities all over the Mediterranean that it became an accepted part of the Sabbath liturgy. This translation is by Rabbi Harvey Spivak.