How to Perform the Traditional Friday Night Kiddush Video & Text

This step-by-step video demonstrates how to recite the Kiddush ceremony at the beginning of a traditional Friday night Shabbat meal in a traditional Ashkenazi home. Beginning with a short introduction to the meaning behind the ritual, Rabbi Chaim Galfand then provides a detailed explanation of which words are recited and gestures are performed throughout the Kiddush, including a transliteration of the Hebrew. This video was produced by Rabbi Chaim Galfand, the rabbi of the Perelman Jewish Day School of Pennsylvania, a community day school affiliated with the Conservative movement. 

Text of Friday Night Kiddush

The Kiddush ritual is very similar throughout the Jewish world, yet there are slight textual variations in different communities. While the Ashkenazi Kiddush is the longest, generally including all of the words in parentheses below (as seen in the first video), many Mizrahi and Sephardic traditions omit some or all of them (as seen in the second video).

Hebrew

(וַיְהִי עֶרֶב וַיְהִי בֹקֶר)
יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי, וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ וְכָל צְבָאָם.וַיְכַל אֱלהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה. וַיִּשְׁבּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּו אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה.וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אתוֹ. כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר בָּרָא אֱלהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת.

סַבְרִי מָרָנָן:בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי, אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגפֶן.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי, אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְרָצָה בָנוּ. וְשַׁבַּת קָדְשׁוֹ בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן הִנְחִילָנוּ, זִכָּרוֹן לְמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית. (כִּי הוּא יוֹם) תְּחִלָּה לְמִקְרָאֵי קדֶשׁ זֵכֶר לִיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. (כִּי בָנוּ בָחַרְתָּ וְאוֹתָנוּ קִדַּשְׁתָּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים) וְשַׁבַּת קָדְשְׁךָ בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן הִנְחַלְתָּנוּ.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי, מְקַדֵּשׁ הַשַּׁבָּת.

Transliteration

(Vayehi erev vayehi voker)
yom hashishi vayechulu hashamayim veha’aretz vechol tezva’am.Vayechal elohim bayom hashvi’i melachto asher asah. Vayishbot bayom hashvi’i mikol melachto asher asah.Vayevarech elohim et yom hashvi’i vayekadesh oto. Ki vo shavat mikol melachto asher barah elohim la’asot.

Savri maranan:Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha’olam boreh pri hagefen/hagafen.

Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha’olam, asher kideshanu bemitzvotav veratzah vanu. Veshabat kodsho beahavah uvratzon hinchilanu, zicaron lema’aseh bereishit. (Ki hu yom) techilah lemikraei kodesh, zecher litzeeat mitzrayim. (Ki vanu/banu vahartah veotanu kidashtah mikol ha’amim.) Veshabat kodshecha beahavah uvratzon hinchaltanu.

Baruch atah adonai, mekadesh ha’shabat.

Translation

And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.

And the heaven and the earth were finished and all their host.

And on the seventh day God had finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and he hallowed it, because he rested thereon from all his work which God had created and made.

With the permission of my masters and teachers:

Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who createst the fruit of the vine.

Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by thy commandments and hast taken pleasure in us, and in love and favor hast given us thy holy Sabbath as an inheritance, a memorial of the creation — (that day being also) the first of the holy convocations, in remembrance of the departure from Egypt. (For thou hast chosen us and sanctified us above all nations,) and in love and favor hast given us thy holy Sabbath as an inheritance. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hallowest the Sabbath.

Translation based on The Standard Prayer book by Simeon Singer (1915) (public domain)