Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Lighting the Candles Part 2


The Jewish Project

Tishrei 19, 5770

Side Note: Sukkot started on Oct 3 and I do plan to post on this Feast of the Lord but it will probably be next week.

I must say that the more I research and learn about His feasts and Jewish customs, the more I realize 1) how much I do not know and 2) how awesome it is to discover the mysteries that I’d missed all these years in the Bible.

So, again, I must reiterate that my family has only scratched the surface when it comes to studying out Shabbat. But, I promise to post what I discover!

I left off Monday’s post with the items that are on the table for our “lighting of the candles”. Another item we use is prayer shawls.

Recently, my grandmother hand crocheted a prayer shawl for myself and my daughter.



Although these shawls do not look like a typical ornate prayer shawl worn by Jewish women during blessing/prayer ceremonies, it is very special to me and an heirloom that I can pass down. (Thank you Grandma!)


Here is our daughter wearing the prayer shawl.



And, wearing the shawls, it is now time to start the ceremony. I, as the eldest woman in the house, light the candles. I wave my hands over the flame three times to welcome in the Sabbath. Then, placing my hands over my eyes so that I’m not looking directly at the candles, I say the blessing.

First in Hebrew as follows:

Barukh attah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam,
Asher kideshanu bemitzvotav ve-tsivanu lehiyot or
Le-goyim v’natan-lanu et Yeshua Meshicheinu or ha-olam

And then I repeat it again in English:

Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, King of the universe,
Who sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us to be a light
to the nations and who gave to us Jesus our Messiah the light of the world.

After saying the blessing, Daddy prays over each child for the coming week. We then have a devotional regarding communion followed by the partaking of the elements.

We conclude the ceremony with the kids giving any prayer requests they may have, and then corporately offering the requests to the Lord in prayer.
In the future, I would like to add reading the weekly Torah portion to our ceremony as I just learned that technically you are supposed to that.
For Friday’s post, I’ll sum up our family’s “lighting of the candles” and share how we celebrate Shabbat.

Remember to leave a comment with any questions so we can chat about it.

Until Friday, Shalom!

2 comments:

B His Girl said...

Spring, this sounds like such a beautiful time together. I hope to dig more into my book this week. I love the prayer shawls. My friend and I minister in a very poor area in Pensacola. We are inviting some women in my church's prayer shawl ministry to teach them how to knit also. My teaching there yesterday was to be a light in the Village.

Sista In Arms Lxx said...

This sounds beautiful Lxx