So What If It Doesn’t Fit the Tune as Well?!

The classical version of many Zemiros Shabbos is distorted.

One example is the diacritics for these words in Mah Yedidus:

הלוכך תהא בנחת. עונג קרא לשבת. והשנה משבחת. כדת נפש משיבת. בכן נפשי לך ערגה. ולנוח בחבת. כשושנים סוגה. בו ינוחו בן ובת

It should be “Oneg Kra”, not “Kara”. We don’t find Hashem calling the Shabbos Oneg, obviously, but we are told וקראת לשבת ענג. And the whole piece is written in the imperative, such as “Hiluchach tehei…”

The translations are horrible, too, but that’s for another time.