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Shabbat Balak
Numbers 22:2-25:9
Candle Lighting Time: Friday, July, 18, 2008 8:09 P.M.
At the conclusion of this week's Torah portion we are reminded, as we read
about the weekly offering, not to neglect the Sabbath. "On the Sabbath
day: two yearling lambs without blemish, with two-tenths of a measure of
choice flour with oil mixed in as a meal offering, and with the proper
libation..." (Nu. 28:9) Although we don't worship God with sacrifices any
longer, we have our own ways of observing the Sabbath. I would like to
share with you an inspiring letter an aunt and uncle wrote to a newlywed
couple.
Dear Children,
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy!” These are God’s words,
expressed to the Jewish people, urging us to work six days but to keep the
seventh day hallowed as a day of rest. One of the ways we manifest this is
in the lighting of the Sabbath candles.
As your marriage goes on and you are blessed with children, religion
will play an increasingly important part in your family’s existence and
growth, and in the fulfillment of your roles on this earth. It is not too
much to say that this candle holder, which we are giving you as an
engagement present from us and which was patterned closely after the one
that your late Grandmom Bessie used for all the years that her children can
remember, will form a central core of spiritual feeling and goodness that
can come from no other source.
Mackie and Steve – we don’t want to try to impose anything on you that
you may not at first be able to follow in the face of all the pressures of
the early years of your marriage. In our own case, we did not have a
regular religious Sabbath night until a few years after we were married.
But now we are happy that we started to keep Friday night as a special night
at home and that our children were born and raised in that atmosphere and
have become closely attached to it. Our children realize that Friday night
dinner – with the blessing over the challah and wine and the brightly lit
candles, with Mother’s prayer over them and a silently mumbled blessing for
all of us, our family, for Israel, and our entire people – is indeed
something special, and we have every reason to want to continue it.
Our religion is sorely in need of whatever help it can get, to sustain
and nurture it in the face of its detractors and those who would forsake
it. By lighting the Sabbath candles you will be keeping a covenant with God
and carrying on a tradition that has survived for over three thousand years
and constituted one of the powerful forces that have kept our religion alive
in a hostile world. This simple act is one of the vital links that bind our
people together and which we pass on from one generation to the other.
The glow of the candles radiates a warmth and a spirit that cannot be
compared with any other light. The significance of the burning candles adds
meaning to the household and the Friday-night dinner. The very act
represents the fulfillment of a God-given commandment, or mitzvah, which is
little enough to pay for the privilege of being a Jew and the very miracle
of being alive.
We can only say, in conclusion, that “benching licht” on Friday night is
one of the most beautiful and moving experiences in our own lives, and we
hope it will be in yours. May God bless you both with a long and happy
married life together.
With love, from your Aunt Jeannette and Uncle Albert (from: A
Shabbat Reader: Universe of Cosmic Joy, edited by Dov Peretz Elkins, UHAC
press, page 128)
May the light of Shabbat candles illumine your Jewish homes.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Gary Greene
Services Schedule:
Friday night 7:00 p.m.
Shabbat 9:00 a.m.
Mon. & Thurs 6:30 a.m.
Sun. -Thurs night 7:30 p.m.
Announcement
Monday, July 21 Open School Board Meeting right after minyon
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