A Christian Menorah: The Fourth Night

My previous post sent me looking up the words "Shabbat Candle."  I knew "Shabbat" meant Sabbath, but I did not know about the tradition of lighting the Sabbath Candle every week.  (This is separate from Chanukah.)

Apparently, the timing of the lighting the Shabbat candle is very important.  There are even websites dedicated to stating the proper time depending on where you are on a specific date anywhere in the world.  The proper time is eighteen minutes before sundown on Friday night.  Once the Shabbat candles are lit, the Sabbath begins, and it does not end until sundown the following day.

There is much more to the tradition, and it is quite meaningful.  So, I will definitely write more about it in the future.

Until then, I found this article particularly enlightening - Shabbat Candles: Shedding light on the day of rest.

A Christian Menorah: The Third Night

I am cheating a bit tonight and posting my intended post for last night tonight.

The center candle on the menorah is called the Shamash candle.  It is the first candle lit, and the one that lights all of the other eight Chanukah candles.  (Note: This is not really possible to do with votive candles, so I had to improvise.  Now I know why traditional menorahs use taper candles.)

Shamash and Shabbat candles are two different things.  However, because the Sabbath began yesterday and it was also Chanukah, people of Jewish faith lit candles for more than one ceremonial tradition.

This was one of the posts from Chabad.org yesterday, which I follow on Facebook:

Shabbat candles are lit inside our home.  By contrast Chanukah's candles have to light up the darkness of light, into the street. 

Shabbat candles bring light within, but the Chanukah lights go further, also transforming the darkness outside.

May Christ be our Shabbat candle that burns inside us.  And may we bring light to everyone we meet.

Amen.