Who Wrote Lecha Dodi?

I'm in Spat, year 1570. The greatest Jewish mines in the world are all in this one small city. And I'm about to find out why. After Spain expelled them in 1492, the greatest Sephardic minds wandered for two generations. And they all ended up here. This tiny mountain city. They built [music] something incredible. It's Friday afternoon. The whole city is preparing for Shabbat. The man finishing his book inside this synagogue right now is named Joseph Caro. The book he's writing, the Schulan Aruk, will become the code of Jewish law that every observant Jew anywhere in the world still follows today. 500 years later, two streets over, a man named Schlommo Alphabets is composing a song. Tomorrow night, every synagogue in the Jewish world will sing it. >> His name is Schlommo Alphabets. The song he's composing is called Lea Dodi. [music] Come my beloved. It welcomes the Sabbath as a bride descending from heaven. Some songs survive empires. Some prayers cross 500 years and find your kitchen. This one was written here in this city. Every [music] Friday at sunset, the cobalists of Tvat walk out into the fields dressed in white [music] singing psalms. They're going to meet the Sabbath in person like guests waiting at a wedding. They believe the Sabbath is a real presence, a bride, a queen approaching from another realm. And they invented this ritual, Kabala Shabbat, exactly here, 500 years ago, this [singing] evening, this hill. 500 years later, the bride is still arriving. [music and singing] >> Every Friday night in synagogues and homes across the world, this prayer is still sung. Laodi from this city, from this hour. [singing and music] [singing] >> [singing] [singing]