The following are interpretive translations of the prayers in Shabbat Sweet by Rabbi Brant Rosen

Candle Lighting
You are blessed. Drawing us close to your sacred presence, you invite us to kindle the Shabbat lights.

 

Shalom Aleichem
Peace to you, dear friends, messengers from beyond time, beyond space, beyond knowing, source of deepest blessing.
Come in peace, bless me in peace and depart in peace, dear friends, messengers from beyond time, beyond space, beyond blessing.
Source of deepest blessing.

L’cha Dodi
Observe, cherish, hear the word as one,
The universe completed at this moment of union,
Your world filled with
Beauty, glory and praise.

Shabbat calls and we return
to the place of deepest beginnings.
Last in creation, but first in thought,
Our original blessing arrives once more.

In the place of holiness arise,
Leave your grief behind, join the land of the living.
You have dwelled too long in the valley of weeping
Come bask in my love and compassion.

Come in peace, crowned with joy,
Abundant in happiness, we welcome you in,
Our beloved, our friend,
Our bride.

 

Barchu
Let us bless the source of all blessing.

Blessed are you, source of all blessing, now and forever.
Ahavat Olam
With everlasting love you love us,
With compassion and justice you teach us.

When we lie down your dreams become ours
And when we rise, we stretch out to the promise of your teachings
We bring them to life through the Torah of our very lives.

By day and by night, every lesson you teach is love itself.
May it guide our hearts and deeds now and forever.

Blessed in the love with which we sustain your world.

Mi Chamocha
Talking the first step, Moses, Miriam and the Israelites broke out in song,
Abundant in joy, in one voice they sang:

Who is like you? Who is like you, bathed in holiness,
Awesome and wondrous, radiating pure praise?

When your children saw the waters split, the path open before them they cried:

The way of God is the way of liberation – we will walk upon it forever!

And it was said:

Now you see there is a Power greater, yes far greater, than any you have ever known.

You are blessed, source of our liberation.

Hashkiveinu
Let us lie down tonight in peace
And rise up again in the morning
To life.

Spread over us the shelter of your peace
And protect us
Beneath the softness of your wings.

And as we go fourth each day
Every new morning
Renew us in the warmth
Of your presence.

Spread over us the shelter of your peace.

V’Shamru
Let your descendants keep Shabbat, renewing themselves throughout the generations, as an eternal bond. It shall be an eternal sign between me and your descendants, for in six days God made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day God ceased and drew a breath of rest. (Exodus 31:16-17)

Amidah
You are blessed, ever present in the lives of our ancestors: of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel and Leah.

Shalom Rav

Grant us abundant peace
And may we ourselves bring blessings of peace into your world.
Inspire us to do your sacred work of peace now and forever,
For ourselves and for all who dwell on earth
May we all know peace every day, every hour of our lives.

Aleynu
Let us offer praises to our source.
Let us affirm the goodness that pervades all creations.
Let us seek out eternal truths and
Live by them from generation to generation.

And let us bend and bow in service
To the greatest good we know,
Stretching majestically beyond the highest heavens
Reaching down past he deepest depths of the soul,
Greater than any power we have ever know.
This is our God, there is no other.

Adon Olan – One Beyond Time
One beyond time, who alone reigned
Before create itself was formed
Through whose word the world was made
Whose holy name was then proclaimed.

When all things have come and gone
The beauty of One will still sine forth
The splendor that was, that is, will be
Shall remain, still shining on.

Undivided, beyond compare
The One goes forth through time and space
Without beginning, without end
A power boundless, true and fair.

Living, breathing, sustaining all
My rock of support in time of pain
My banner soaring flying high above
My cup of boundless grace and love.

I give myself unto your care
When I sleep and when I wake
My life, my body, my very soul
I give to you and do not fear.