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As a (marginal) folkie, I found this fascinating. From Wikipedia:
Lcha Dodi (Hebrew: לכה דודי; also transliterated as Lecha Dodi, L’chah Dodi, Lekah Dodi, Lechah Dodi; Ashkenazic pronunciation: Lecho Dodi, Biblical: Lekhah Dhodhiy) is a Hebrew-language Jewish liturgical song recited Friday at dusk, usually at sundown, in synagogue to welcome Shabbat prior to the Maariv (evening services). It is part of the Kabbalat Shabbat (“acceptance of Sabbath”).
Lekhah Dodi means “come my beloved,” and is a request of a mysterious “beloved” that could mean either God or one’s friend(s) to join together in welcoming Shabbat that is referred to as the “bride”: likrat kallah (“to greet the [Shabbat] bride”). During the singing of the last verse, the entire congregation rises and turns to the open door, to greet “Queen Shabbat” as she arrives….
Its importance in the esteem of Jewish worshipers has led every cantor and choir-director to seek to devote his sweetest strains to the Shabbat welcomesong. Settings of “Lekhah Dodi,” usually of great expressiveness and not infrequently of much tenderness and beauty, are accordingly to be found in every published compilation of synagogal melodies…
One has to assume that Leonard Cohen, observant Jew and Zen Buddhist, considers this re-purposing… amusing, yes?
Or do I misunderstand?