Shabbat Shalom – כ״ב בְּאַדָר ב׳ תשס״ח
Shabbat Shalom!
Welcome to another Glorious Shabbat. Candle lighting is at 1925 (7:25pm) if you live in the East Dallas area. If you don’t happen to live in that area, or if you just want to check your times yourselves, HebCal has a great online utility for the Shabbat Candle Lighting Times. Just click the link, enter your zip code, and click ‘Get Shabbat Times’.
For those who don’t know, the candle lighting takes place before Shabbat begins because it is forbidden to kindle fire on Shabbat (see Sh’mot 35:3). It is traditional to light the candles 18 minutes before Shabbat begins. That is why the candle lighting time for tonight is 1925 (7:25pm) and not 1943 (7:43pm) which is sundown/begining of Shabbat.
Traditionally, the woman of the house lights the Shabbat candles. There are usually two of them, though some people (mostly singles) only light one. In some families, there are two candles plus one additional candle per child. After lighting the candles, a Blessing is said:
Shabbat Candle Blessing:
English Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel shabbat.
English Translation: Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the Shabbat candles.
In my family, my wife lights the candles and says the Blessing. She will usually wear either my tallit or a lace shawl that I bought her for this purpose.
After lighting the Shabbat Candles, we do Hamotzi, which is the Blessing of the bread. Most people use Challah bread. When doing Hamotzi, we hold the bread in the right hand. This is because Yeshua sits at the right hand of the Father.
Blessing over Bread called Hamotzi:
English Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, ha-motzi lehem min ha-aretz.
English Translation: Blessed are you, LORD, our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.
And then Kiddush which is the Blessing over wine. Once again, we hold the wine in the right hand. The reason is the same as that for Hamotzi.
Blessing over Wine called Kiddush:
English Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, bo’re p’ri ha-gafen.
English Translation: Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
For those interested in knowing, the reason we do Hamotzi first is because you must tear the “flesh” to get to the “blood”. In my family, we literally tear or break the bread as opposed to cutting it.
After the Blessings, we eat our Erev Shabbat (Eve of Shabbat) dinner. Typically we will then spend time together playing games, reading from Torah, etc.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jason
