The Power of Light
For many years in the 90's there was a small advertisement that ran every Friday on the bottom corner of the front page of the New York Times. It read, “Jewish Women: Shabbat candle lighting time this Friday is ____pm.” It not only served as a reminder of this eternal mitzvah, but it also expressed Jewish pride.
The advertisement ceased after the sponsor ended it, but it reappeared once.
On January 1, 2000, the NY Times ran a Millennium edition. It was a special issue that featured three front pages. One had the news from January 1, 1900. The second was the actual news of the day, January 1, 2000. And then they had a third front page, projecting future events of January 1, 2100.
This fictional page included things like a welcome to the fifty-first state: Cuba, a discussion on whether robots should be allowed to vote, etc. And there was one more thing. Down on the bottom of the Year 2100 front page, was the candle lighting time in New York for January 1, 2100. No one paid for it, it was a fictional advertisement put in there by the NYT.
The production manager of the New York Times – an Irish Catholic – was asked about this curious entry. His answer speaks to the eternity of our people and to the power of Jewish ritual.” We don't know what will happen in the year 2100. It is impossible to predict the future. But of one thing you can be certain. That in the year 2100 Jewish women will be lighting Shabbos candles.”
In this week's Torah portion we learn about the marriage between our patriarch and matriarch Isaac (Yitzchak) and Rebecca (Rivka). After a series of miraculous and exceptional events leading up to their encounter, Isaac finally meets Rebecca and invites her into his mother Sarah's tent through which he finds comfort following his mother's untimely death.
The verse states, “Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebeccah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother's death.” -Genesis 24:67
Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, explains the significance of these words, “He brought her to the tent, and behold, she was Sarah his mother; i.e., she became the likeness of Sarah his mother, for as long as Sarah was alive, a candle burned from one Sabbath eve to the next, a blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud was attached to the tent. When she died, these things ceased, and when Rebecca arrived, they resumed.”
These three miracles correspond to the three commandments that G-d entrusted specifically to Jewish women: lighting the Sabbath lights, separating challah from the dough, and observing the laws governing a married couple's intimate relations by immersing in a Mikvah following menstruation. The fact that these three miracles all occurred for Sarah indicates that her life was the quintessential expression of Jewish womanhood.
A person's essential physical needs can be divided into two categories: internal needs, such as air and food, and external needs, such as clothing, shelter & family. These are alluded to through the miracles associated with dough (food) and the divine presence in the tent (shelter & family). Yet, there is a third human need: light. Lighting up a dark room adds nothing per se to the room, yet the entire ambience has been transformed.
Confusion, disorientation, and gloom are replaced by clarity, direction, and joy. Similarly, we can go through the motions of Jewish rituals and traditions but without light, warmth, and vitality. This is the third miracle represented by the Shabbat candles: our ability to invigorate our work with warmth, enthusiasm, and vitality. We merit this third miracle performing Mitzvot and studying Torah, especially the study of the inner dimensions of the Torah.
This special Mitzvah is especially given to women, for they are given the unique ability of bringing warmth, clarity, and proper values into our homes and family life.
Olga Fin shares the story of her mother's arrival in Auschwitz and how she would count the days to Shabbat. Every Friday she made two little candles from the margarine she saved and did not eat, and took some threads from the bottom of her dress and lit them.
“My mother encouraged all the other women in the barrack to do the same, and they all did it, so the barrack was lit every Friday night with these candles. She never lost her faith, and even after the war she remained connected with her Jewish identity and observance. She claimed that she survived only due to her Shabbat candles", Olga relates.
In 1974, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, launched a campaign to encourage every Jewish women and girl, from the age of three years old and on, to light Shabbat candles. This campaign breathed new life into this age-old Mitzvah which has been practiced throughout history.
A few months later, a little girl of five or six years old who was attending a public school learned about the Mitzvah of Shabbat candle lighting from an older girl in her school. She was taught the blessings, and received candles and candlesticks to take home.
The young girl was delighted! At first her family discouraged her. But slowly the Mitzvah began to penetrate their hearts as well. First they stopped watching television as long as the candles were lit. Then they stopped answering the phone. Then the mother began to light too and host Shabbat dinner for her family…
Little by little, the family reconnected with their Jewish roots. And what sparked it all? One Shabbat candle of a young girl.
These stories, among many others, express the immense power of lighting Shabbat candles, even at a young age.
Today millions of Jewish women and girls around the world light Shabbat candles each Friday afternoon before sunset bringing the warmth of G-dly light into a world which so desperately needs it.
In the Zohar, the seminal work on Kabbalah, it affirms, “When a woman lights the Shabbat candles with joy in her heart, she brings peace into the world, health and happiness to her family, and is blessed with children who brighten the world”.
As the Midrash declares, “If you keep the lights of Shabbat, I [G‑d] will show you the lights of Zion (i.e. Moshiach).” Just as Shabbat candles brings light and warmth to our lives, so too, the time of Redemption will bring light and warmth to the entire world.
Every Shabbat candle lit, every Jewish home bathed in the tranquility and sanctity of Shabbat, is one step closer to the ultimate Redemption, the era that will be “entirely Shabbat and rest".
