BH

I feel that the time when we are lighting Shabbos candles is the most special time of the week. When we are lighting the Shabbos candles it is a special time to ask Hashem for whatever we need. This time feels very spiritual and very holy. When I am lighting Shabbos candles it is as if I am lighting with my grandmothers all the way back, all those generations back to Sarah Imeinu.

Shabbos is also a time of rest. Right after we light the Shabbos candles we feel revived from our hard week.

This is also a special mitzvah because this mitzvah is for all Jewish women across the globe. All Jewish women are united at this time. I have decided that this must be a very special mitzvah because Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe ), appointed this mitzvah as one of the Ten Mivtzaim. This mitzvah is performed right after a busy day of work, Erev Shabbos. I will now share a very beautiful poem about the Shabbos candles:

As I sit here

My loaded mind is finally clear.

I haven’t felt so calm in a while

And all I can help but do is smile.

My family makes me feel so relaxed, there is nowhere else I’d rather be;

At objects in the room I stare

My emotions no longer in an exploding flare

Of hot flames. I look into my mother’s eyes,

Now they are filled with joy of a brilliant sky.

Then I look around and see

My siblings talking quietly, their thoughts free;

Shabbos is here,

It’s time to rest and have no fear.

 

—  Simi Davidson, Age 12
Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania, USA