Since biblical times, night has been a special time for study and prayer. Didn’t the psalmist write (Psalms 119:62) \u201cI rise at midnight to give you thanks for your righteous judgments\u201d?<\/p>\n
With the emergence of the Kabbalistic school of Safed in Galilee in the 16th century, night prayer took on a new meaning: the mourning, at the middle of the night, of the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the divine presence, the Shekhina<\/em>.<\/p>\n This influence was particularly strong in the Near East and North Africa. In many communities in these regions, the practice of Shirat ha-Baqqachot<\/em> developed considerably.<\/p>\n On Saturday mornings in winter, before sunrise, worshippers gather in the synagogue to sing baqqachot<\/em> (or bakashot<\/em>), a collection of liturgical poems. Ariel Danan, a specialist in Moroccan bakashot<\/em>, explains in an interview given to IEMJ: \u201cThese songs begin on the first Shabbat after Sukkot, that is, on Shabbat Berechit, when the reading of the Torah is resumed, and continue every week until the Shabbat before Purim, in the Moroccan rite. In the Middle Eastern rite, they continue to be sung until Pesach.”[1]<\/sup><\/a>Interview with Ariel Danan, filmed on August 19, 2024. To listen to excerpts, see the video Chirat ha-Baqqashot according to the Moroccan rite (link at the bottom of the page).<\/span><\/span>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.iemj.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Shirat-ha-Baqqashot_Lior-Elmaleh_CD-belle-couv-300x273.jpg\")
The influence of the Safed Kabbalah was such that, in addition to spreading the study of Jewish mysticism, many of its practices were adopted by Jewish communities around the world. For example, rarely does a community not welcome Shabbat by intoning the famous Lekha dodi<\/em>, written by Salomon Elqabe\u1e63, an eminent 16th-century Safed mystic.<\/p>\nWhat is Shirat ha-Baqqachot<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h3>\n