'About Time' (Lecha Dodi): A New Song for Shabbat by Adam Gottlieb (lyric video)

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“About Time” is a different kind of prayer song. It honors the struggle to get some rest in a society that tries to overwork us to death (if it doesn’t kill us in other ways first), and celebrates regular rest as a sacred, revolutionary practice. I wrote it as a prayer song for Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath.

Over time, I worked in the words of the chorus of a beloved Shabbat hymn, and soon “About Time / Lecha Dodi” became a piece that I often used liturgically, not just for myself but in Jewish community as well, making it the only hip hop (folk hop?) song to regularly feature at our Shabbat services at Tzedek Chicago, the intentional values-based synagogue where I work as a liturgical artist.

But “About Time” is not only about the Sabbath that comes every Saturday. It is also about the greater Sabbath that comes at the end of oppression, war, capitalism, and “work” as we know it. It is significant that in the creation myth of the Bible, God sees that the work of every day needed to create the world was “good,” but only the seventh day, set apart for rest, was deemed “holy.” As capitalism lurches in its dying crisis before our very eyes in these times, let us take this ancient wisdom to heart: the purpose of rest is not to work, but rather, the purpose of work is to rest. Even when work is good, rest is holy.

And after a year of working on producing this version of the song on my own (with much gratitude to the friends who lent their expert ears!), and many years before that working on it as part of my own spiritual practice both privately and in community, I am so happy to release this song into the world -- and take a rest from it! I hope it is something that helps you find your own practice to “try to take a break from the race regularly / to remember what it feels like getting free.” It’s About Time!

Blessings and Shalom,
- Adam G

Song by Adam Gottlieb (c) 2018
All vocals and instruments, recording, mix, production, artwork*, and video by Adam Gottlieb
(*I used AI to make the artwork)
With gratitude to Kevin Harris Jr. and Zhenya Nemirovsky for your expert ears and consultation on the mix!