Shabbat Shalom – ו׳ בְּנִיסָן תשס״ח
Shabbat Shalom!
Welcome to another Glorious Shabbat. Candle lighting is at 1935 (7:35 pm) 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 1935 (7:35 pm) and not 1953 (7:53 pm) 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
Tags: Shabbat
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April 18, 2009 at 4:32 am
Interesting blog, and many things I agree with you on. Indeed when we are exposed to the roots of the faith (the Hebraic roots of Christianity) we must reject many “christian” ideas in the name of scriptural and historical truth.
But I take issue with a statement you make on your “about the author” page where you say that it would be nice if all Jews recognized Jesus (Yeshua) as the Messiah (agreed so far) and then you go on to state that faith in Yeshua as Messiah is for them not necessary as long as they are practicing Torah, because Yeshua is the Living torah.
Are you absolutely sure you’re right about that very important point?
We must be able to distinguish between the Messiah, who’s “yoke” or interpretation of Torah, was light, and the actual written Torah of Moses. The two are not exactly the same, and to blend them together so as to say that Jews keeping Torah are already saved is deceptive.
Acts 4:12 says “there is no other name by which we must be saved”.
John 3:16 says “that whosoever believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life”
By sending the message to Jews that they do not actually need to have faith in Yeshua you give them a false sense of salvation, storing up wrath for yourself and steering them astray of the truth.
The messianic movement is a great move of God in our present times, but there is a danger also of “messy antics” such as:
1. teaching that Yeshua is not God
2. teaching that Yeshua is not even necessary as long as Torah is kept
3. teaching that Torah is more important than the Gospel (go into any Messianic congregation and compare their evangelism to the average evangelical congregation – often you will find the are so involved in discussions of how to tie tzit-tzits and such that they’ve forgotten to outreach to their unsaved neighbors).
Thanks for listening -
August 20, 2009 at 9:53 am
In response to Brad’s April 18, 2009 to Jason. In my
humble opinion, one should consider Jason’s honest hearted spirit reqarding his comment about Jewish People following Talmud; therefore one must “read between the lines” so to speak.
Regarding Yeshua being God, I would encourage anyone to honestly study available materials starting in the
first century BC forward. Arius is a good place to start. Yeshua did not come to start a new religon. Since the first century BC, man’s pagan thoughts have
slowly but surely influenced “Christian” thinking.
Thank you, Jason for helping me understand why we should use the name Yeshua.