Lights Out Shabbat

A little boy spends Shabbat with his grandparents in Georgia and gets a snowy surprise.

A little boy spends Shabbat with his grandparents in Georgia and gets a snowy surprise.

In this charming picture book for young children, the magic of Shabbat is celebrated through light. As the sun goes down on a Friday evening and darkness descends, different sources of light welcome in the Sabbath: candles, lanterns, the moon and stars, fireflies, nightlights and then the next morning, the sunrise. Told in gently rhythmic rhyming couplets and beautifully illustrated throughout, this is an enchanting exploration of light and dark, and a journey through the various rituals and delights of Shabbat.

In this charming picture book for young children, the magic of Shabbat is celebrated through light. As the sun goes down on a Friday evening and darkness descends, different sources of light welcome in the Sabbath: candles, lanterns, the moon and stars, fireflies, nightlights and then the next morning, the sunrise. Told in gently rhythmic rhyming couplets and beautifully illustrated throughout, this is an enchanting exploration of light and dark, and a journey through the various rituals and delights of Shabbat.

Enrich your spiritual experience of Shabbat by exploring the writings of mystical masters of Hasidism. Drawing from some of the earliest teachings in the family of the Ba'al Shem Tov through late 19th-century Poland and the homilies of the Sefat 'Emet, Eitan Fishbane evokes the Sabbath experience, from candle lighting and donning white clothing to the Friday night Kiddush and the act of sacred eating.

When Izzy and Olivia Bloom invite their neighbors over for Shabbat dinner, everyone is shocked to find out that the Blooms don't have Shabbat candles. Instead, they have something much more unusual: an antique Sabbath lamp that's been passed down from generation to generation. How did the Sabbath lamp get to America? That's a good story . . .

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of books written about Judaism and Jews, but this book is unlike any previously published. It focuses on the topic of 'circumventing custom' with special emphasis on the ingenious ways Orthodox (and other) Jews have devised to avoid breaking the extensive list of activities forbidden on the Sabbath. After examining the sources of Sabbath observance as set forth in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and rabbinical writings, some of the most salient forms of circumvention are described. These include: riding a special Shabbat elevator, unscrewing the lightbulb in the refrigerator, constructing an eruv (a space extending one's domicile so that objects may be carried outside the home), and relying on the services of the so-called 'Shabbes Goy,' among others. Dundes respectfully analyzes such facets of Jewish characteristics as an undue concern with purity, and a long-established tradition of indulging in nit-picking and argumentation. The resultant picture of Jewish character is drawn from an unusual mixture of religious written texts and oral tradition (jokes and proverbs). The sources range from ancient Israel to works from the twenty-first century. In many ways, it is an authentic and striking Jewish self-portrait that is painted for the very first time in this fascinating volume.