What Is the Meaning of Baal HaSulam’s Nigun “Asader LeSeudata”?

Asader LeSeudata is a Nigun based on a poem written by the ARI (Kabbalist Isaac Luria) that is traditionally sung during the Shabbat morning songs.

I will prepare the feast, at the dawn of the Sabbath.
And I shall now invite the Ancient Holy One.
Light shall dwell within it, in the Great Sanctification.
And with good wine, the soul shall rejoice.
He will send us His beauty, and we shall behold His honor.
And He will reveal to us His hidden secrets, whispered.
He will uncover the reasons, from the twelve loaves,
Which exist in the heavens, fragile and substantial.
The bundle above, the house of all life,
And the power shall increase, and rise to the top.
Happy are the harvesters of the field, in speech and voice.
And they will speak words, sweet as honey.
Before the Master of the worlds, with hidden words.
They will reveal sayings, and declare something new.
To adorn the table, with a precious secret.
Deep and hidden, and not an empty matter.
And these words, will ascend to the heavens.
And there, who resides? Isn’t it that very sun?
Greater shall it become, beyond the level.
And He shall take His mate, who had been separated.

The initials of each stanza form the name of the ARI: “I am Yitzchak Luria (Ashkenazi).”

Every ascension we undergo on the spiritual path is another special reception from the upper force of love, bestowal, and connection, or in other words, another revelation of the Creator, and each of these steps is likened to a feast that has been prepared by the Creator and offered to a person.

While “Azamer Beshvachin” refers to the first revelation of the Creator, “Asader LeSeudata” refers to what one sings on their second step.

It refers to praising the Creator and the connection with Him in a more conscious way, i.e., where one can see the actions they can apply to be included in the connection with the Creator.

Upon ascending to the second level, which means having passed through the entire period of one’s spiritual adolescence, a person’s soul naturally strives further, toward its complete understanding and fulfillment with the light of infinity and perfection.

In other words, “Asader LeSeudata” is a Nigun of one whose desire for spirituality awakened, and after a very long path of preparing for spiritual work, they reach a state where they cross the Machsom (barrier between this world and the spiritual world), entering the spiritual world.

In the journey up the spiritual worlds, we traverse the degrees of the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya) up to Atzilut, and acquire the vessels of bestowal of Gadlut (adulthood), where we reach the Rosh of Atzilut. This is where our soul becomes ready and welcome to receive the light of Ein Sof (infinity), receiving in order to bestow. At that stage, we become filled with the light that is called “the feast of the righteous.”

After we feel the preparations that we have been through and the components of the spiritual work at this exalted state, we praise the forces we felt and through which we rose to this high degree, and invites them to a feast. In other words, the myriad forces we have experienced in our spiritual journey then participate in a major Zivug (coupling) of adhesion with the upper force, the Creator, where we and the Creator unite in our inner vessels. We then invite the upper levels who used to take care of us while we were in a state of Katnut (smallness, infancy) on the spiritual path. Zeir Anpin and Malchut of Atzilut, both of which give birth to the soul. They previously controlled us, helping us spiritually grow, they lead us from one spiritual state to another — from darkness to light — so that in which we come to acquire myriad spiritual discernments and grow wiser, until we grow up to a state of Gadlut (adulthood). At that stage, we grow above our desire to receive and are then able to control it and work with it in order to bestow.

Now that we are in a state of the greatest and loftiest unity with the Creator, we sing this Nigun, “Asader LeSeudata” (“I Will Prepare the Feast”). For this high meal of the Sabbath, a next world, an end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), we use all the means, elements, and forces, both internal and external, us together with our entire soul and all the worlds that have brought us to this state. At this time, we enter into a single unity with the Creator, in one vessel, in the feast of the righteous.

You can listen to “Asader LeSeudata” here.