![]() Peace be with you, ministering angels, messengers of the Most High, Shalom aleichem mal’achei hashareit mal’achei elyon The full text of Shalom Aleichem is as follows: According to a letter Goldfarb wrote in 1963, the melody was composed on a Friday in 1918 on the campus of Columbia University. The most common melody for it was composed by Rabbi Israel Goldfarb, a Polish born cantor who emigrated to New York in the late 19th century. Singing Shalom Aleichem prior to the Friday evening Shabbat meal is a nearly universal Jewish custom. According to the teaching, if they find the person’s home prepared for Shabbat, the good angel declares: “May it be Your will that it shall be like this for another Shabbat.” And the evil angel answers against his will: “Amen.” If the home is not prepared, the reverse happens: The evil angel voices a wish for it to be this way for another week and the good angel responds “Amen.” The song originated among the kabbalists of northern Israel in the 16th or 17th century and was based on the talmudic teaching that two ministering angels - one good and one evil - accompany a person home from synagogue on Shabbat evening. In some families, the custom is to sing each verse three times. The poem’s four stanzas (some Sephardic Jews add a fifth) welcome angels into the home on the Sabbath - welcoming them in peace, asking for blessings of peace, and wishing them a peaceful departure (when the Sabbath ends). (It’s also the name of a beloved Yiddish writer, though the spelling differs from the common way the poem is rendered in English.) Shalom Aleichem (literally “peace be upon you”) is both a traditional Jewish greeting and the title of a poem commonly sung at the beginning of the Friday night Shabbat meal. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate ![]()
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