Shir HaShirim on Erev Shabbat (Kabbalistic Weekly Recitation)

The Lurianic kabbalistic custom of reciting the entire Song of Songs on Friday afternoon, as a spiritual preparation for Shabbat. Originating in the Arizal's Safed circle and recorded by his student Chaim Vital, the practice spread as the primary Sephardic and kabbalistic weekly rite, distinct from (but not excluding) the older Ashkenazic custom of reading Shir HaShirim specifically on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach. The weekly Erev Shabbat timing is the Arizal's specific kabbalistic innovation, grounded in the mystical correspondence between the Song of Songs and the three levels of Shabbat holiness. The Lurianic custom spread through kabbalistic and Sephardic communities across the Ottoman empire and North Africa through the 17th century. The Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Arukh HaRav (OC 490) incorporates the Pesach-Shabbat variant, reflecting Chabad adoption. The older Ashkenazic custom of reading Shir HaShirim on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach (attested as early as Machzor Vitry, 11th–12th c. France, and in Shulchan Arukh OC 490) is a parallel tradition predating the Arizal; the two coexist. The Seder-night recitation is a separate variant attested in the Abudraham and Yemenite/Moroccan communities.