Welcome to FridayLight

I may only be 19 ( 20 in a few weeks) But lighting up is the most amazing experience I have ever beheld. My best friend is a 43 year old woman with 3 kids. Her Fioncee is like a brother to me. When I am at their home I feel HaShem more and see his light he hides int he world. And when I light up at their home I feel the experince more. I feel the warmth the love the power the amazement. Thank doing it alone.It is the single most important part of my week. As a Jewish woman I feel that this is an important task, and I am so blessed to be able to take part in this.

NATIONWIDE CANDLE-LIGHTING MEMORIAL ON CAMPUS
On April 20 and 27, Colleges Respond to Tragic Virginia Tech Massacre

This Friday night, April 27th (and last Friday night, April 21st), Jewish women on college campuses across America will join together to dispel the darkness of the Virginia Tech tragedy with the shining light of Shabbat candles.

Rabbi Ari Baitelman, Director of Chabad’s FridayLight project, said that both public candle-lighting events and more private prayer vigils will be held on campuses nationwide at 18 minutes before sundown on Friday, April 27th.

“Many students want to hold a memorial for all those killed in this terrible event, and want to show their concern for their brothers and sisters at Virginia Tech,” said Baitelman. “There is a universal feeling of despair as these innocent young lives were cut short, but we can share the light of hope as the Shabbat candles chase away the darkness.”

The widow of slain Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu is encouraging Jewish women to light Shabbat candles in her husband’s memory. Marlene Librescu told Rabbi Shlomo Mayer from Chabad of the University of Virginia, “My husband loved this mitzvah, and he would remind me when the sun was going down on Friday and that it was time to light.” Friday’s candle-lighting memorial marks the start of a week-long effort by Chabad to encourage people to perform acts of goodness and kindness.

Through generations, in good times and bad, the Shabbat candle has symbolized peace and harmony. As students kindle the lights together, they will rejoice in the goodness of man and unite to bring a more positive spirit into the world. The traditional candle-lighting time is 18 minutes before sundown.

FridayLight is distributing thousands of Shabbat candle kits for the April 20 event. Rabbi Baitelman encourages interested participants to stop by their local Chabad center on campus or visit www.fridaylight.org for a free kit.

This intercollegiate effort is sponsored by the Chabad on Campus International Foundation (Chabad.edu), FridayLight (Fridaylight.org), and Chabad’s national network of on-campus student centers, which are listed online at Chabad.edu.

“Everyone is invited join us in this universal gesture so that we respond to this tragedy in a positive way,” said Baitelman. “As we remember those who lost their lives, let’s also strive to replace violence with peace, sadness with hope, and darkness with light.”

Tonight I lit the candles for the first time as a female adult. It took me a long time to get to this point, and I am proud to say that the calm I feel in my heart and soul was worth it.

I work on Friday nights, and though I have started a regular practice of going to the rabbi’s house after work; I have never had the joy of lighting candles.

I asked my boss if I could and was suprised to get a positive yes.

They are so beautiful, they fill me with a sense of calm, and happy and fulfillment. I only hope that I will not only continue the practice; but that as time moves on I can dedicate more uninterupted time to the practice.

Today I got two minutes, let’s hope next week for five.

It was the first time i was ever to lite the candles.. I wondered if i was doing it correctly. I lit 3 candles, one for me, one for My husband who was away, and one for my daughter who was working.. and my hopes of having us all together at this first momentous time were a bit dashed.. UNTIL I LIT THE CANDLES! I had a very wonderful experience! I felt the peace of the L-rd around me! HE SEEMED PLEASED.. I decided to just sit and watch the candles flicker as i prayed and then waited. IT grew dark except for the bright candle light. Shalom encompassed me about. I felt the JOY and I am not Jewish by birth.My heart felt so at ease, so at REST. I wondered how I could have not known about the candles all my life until now?
I support Israel and as a christian, my heart roots are based in the same TORAH, the Word of G-d that Israel embraces. Now, at age 51, i began Friday Lights, and the journey of Shalom begins. Blessings to you all and know that support Israel and all the Jewish People and we love you all,
Grace in VT

I am sometimes away on Friday nights and have lit up in all sorts of strange locations from Fiji (in our room) to London—where I had to dash to the hardware store to buy candles.

Last week was one of the strangest. I found myself in a non-smoking hotel in San Francisco so could not ask for matches. I went to Walgreens for water—-and forgot to ask for matches. It was candle lighting time as I headed back to the hotel and I was trying to figure out what to do……then I remembered that the Grace Anglican Cathedral across the way from the hotel and an interfaith chapel with candles, NO crosses etc, and pieces of the AIDS quilt (I am a quilter). So I went over there. The main part of the cathedral was closed for a concert. Luckily no one stopped me en route to the interfaith chapel as it is near the entrance. I lit two candles, said my blessing, meditated, admired the quilt panels and what had gone into them, calmed down and left.

I am not Jewish, and still light the shabbat candles - a practice which was introduced to me through Jewish friends. My family enjoys the consecration of this time, and our prayers are to bring the powerful forces of peace and sanctity into our home and on to the planet. I think it’s a wonderful idea that women hold this light together throughout the world, regardless of faith. We are all connected through G-d, and every one of us can contribute to this blaze of love.

This movement is the most remarkable application of what the power of faith and love can really do, not just for us as a community or even an indivisual, but for a unified vision to extend onto a global scale.
For some months now I have been partcipating, always in company of a loving friend or family member and the results have been life changing. Not only for myself, but for the people I effect as well. We all effect one another, and this wonderful notiion that together we can effect world peace, well that is the most beautiful honorable way of contributing beyond ourselves and directly applying the holistic nature of peace in the world. The unforseen,
energies that hide in the shadows cannot take that sanctity that bonds us as a collective unified whole away. Together we can, and we will continue to erradicate the menacing arbitrations of debate and conflict, the ugliness of greed and war. All is in unison and harmony, all is peace. Today and everyday.
Shalom

I have yet to experience this wonderful concept. I read “Sense of Peace” and as an Employee of the VA here in Sonoma County, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to read of this young woman’s experience.

I work with Mental Health patients who have suffered from the worse traumas imaginable. Many are newly returned vets from Iraq/Afghanistan who have witnessed what one can say, “the devil at play” events. At times I don’t know how I can cope after hearing of what they witnessed and trying to get these young men and women to be able to adjust back into society.

I pray that Sense of Peace’s husband will be able to adjust and may the power of Shabbos reunite them as a family both in mind and soul.

L’Shanah Tovah to all –

-hinda

I have been lighting the Shabbas Candles for two weeks now and I can’t tell you how peaceful the whole experience is and the wonderful memories it has brought back to me. My husband and I have looked forward all week long to lighting the candles together this Friday night. What a wonderful experience. Thank you so much for bringing this back into my life. Good Shabbas.
Rochelle

You see, I had a minor problem. I could no longer, safely, light Shabbos candles or any other candles or be near any kind of flame.

Why? I am waiting for a double-lung transplant and am now using oxygen to help me breathe. This precludes me from lighting our special Shabbos candles.

What to do? I thought there…where there’s a will, there’s a way.

I went to a good Chabad site and asked a scholar. I posed the question, ” What do I do if I cannot light candles?” The response, at first, was WHY could I not????

After the explanation there came the answer. An alternative. Simply turn off the light switch in the dining room (where I normally lit Shabbos candles) then flick it on, say the prayers and LEAVE the LIGHT ON.

Ah, so there you have it. Perhaps I cannot strike the match to entice the physical flame but I can create the Shabbos light within my soul, this house, our community, our collective Jewish neshama, one way or another.

Melody Masha Pierson/Montreal

I love lighting Shabbat candles.

Someone sent me a connection to this site, just as the war in Lebannon heated up.

I have family there and felt a bit powerless over what was happening.

So, I lit up. Friday night candles that is. The feeling of peace as I sent my best wishes to my family is amazing.

It’s a great step.

Why did you use a photo of a red-haired woman in an Asian dress holding a decorative candle rather than a shabbos candle???

I reconnected with Judaism after my daughter was born in September 2005. We began celebrating Shabbos and joined a synagogue. Every Friday I make challah with my 5 year old son and 11 month old daughter and I do the baking for our synagogue’s oneg. When my husband gets home he showers and we make kiddush. We usually have matzo ball soup and brisket for Shabbos and then we go to synagogue. My husband is not Jewish but wants to convert because of the peace and joy and love he has found in Judaism. Shabbos has become what we look forward to as a family, a renewal of spirit and life. My husband has been deployed for 6 months and we have celebrated without him but he is coming home in 2 weeks and we will once again be a complete family, celebrating and reconnecting by the flickering glow of our Shabbos candles.

I was walking on campus yesterday and saw two other women wearing the FridayLight necklace that came in our starter kits! I asked them where they got them and they said they had visited the site. What a blessing to see other women share the light!

I want to share a story about when I was traveling through Europe right out of high school. I was in Amsterdam and it was early Friday evening. I am Jewish but my parents are very casual about it and light Shabbos candles only now and then. I had been away about three weeks and was kind of homesick. My two traveling companions had gone to a café and I was out walking in a residential area when I noticed a family gathered around a table lighting Shabbat candles and I got tears in my eyes I felt so far away from my home in Philadelphia. One of the family must have seen me, because an older brother came out to talk to me and invited me in to share their Shabbat dinner. It was amazing. I’ll always remember them.

Last week I found FridayLight for the first time. Looks pretty hip. Peace & Shabbat candles? I didn’t know there was an association. I might just try it.

I light candles every week. It’s a reward for working hard. I am a civil rights attorney and love my work but need a time that’s mine to regroup and Friday night is it for me. My roommate who is in med-school often lights them with me.

I am wondering if it matters how you light the candles… right to left? Left to right? With a match? With a lighter?

I work until 7 p.m. most Friday nights?
How would I light candles when I’m not at home?