The Rebbe's Shabbos Candles Campaign | Mivtza Neshek

there was a public school teacher who was asking the children in her class they were all from different faiths different backgrounds does your family have any religious objects at home so one little boy says yeah i think so we have this painting of this mother with her her head is glowing and she's holding a little baby and my mother kneels in front of it and and prays that's a religious object we have in the home and uh another one of the kids says yeah we have this uh statue this bronze statue of this this fat man kneeling on the ground sitting on the ground and my parents light incense in front of it every day and the teacher says yes it sounds like a religious object then this other little boy says yeah i think we have a religious object at home we have this platform in the bathroom on the floor and has numbers on it my mother goes in there every morning she stands on it and she says oh my god anyway today we are on our second class in a series a monthly series that is looking at the ten mitzvah campaigns initiated by the lava china and um it's interesting all of the mitzvah campaigns are in some way connected to the jewish home they're all about worship our relationship with hashem as it takes place not in the synagogue but rather in our own homes last month our class was about mezuzah mezuzah is clearly that something goes on the doorposts of the jewish home and tonight we're going to be discussing shabbos candles shabbos candles also is connected with the jewish home it's a mitzvah that is performed in the home and in some ways it is the mainstay of the home because it is that which turns on the lights in the jewish home and illuminates everything else that's happening there so we're going to speak about that the power of the shabbos candles to light up the jewish home and by extension to light up the entire world uh the the shabbos scandal campaign the mifsa began um in tough shin lamid dalit and the rabbit was speaking about the darkness in the world that we live in tumultuous times and you you read the siha the the transcript of the address and you could think that i was talking about today we live in tumultuous times and we don't know what's going to happen from one minute to the next there are forces of darkness in the world and we need light we need light and therefore that ever said what am i proposing i'm proposing that we launch a campaign to raise awareness and promote the lighting of shabbos candles by jewish women and girls all over the world and these lights these tiny little lights will stave off the spiritual darkness they will bring light to the homes of these jewish girls and women and by extension they will bring light to the entire world so the rabbit really framed this campaign in terms of the micro and the macro the the home and the world at large and the idea of shabbos candles having this power to influence and to change and to bring about a transformation a positive transformation both on the individual as well as global level so let's let's talk a little bit about this about the power of shabbos candles first of all shabbos candles are interesting in that they are light light is an interesting thing in fact it's questionable whether or not you can even refer to it as a as a thing you know that's the you know the the question in science well is light a uh a a wave or a particle by the way you know about the photon who uh checked into a hotel the clerk asked him sir do you have any luggage the photon said no sir i'm traveling light traveling okay anyway um so light is this intangible again i hesitate to call it a thing because it's not a thing it's not a physical object light is this uh this force this energy that defies physical categorization and in that sense it is it borders on the spiritual it's something that we can perceive with our physical senses yet it's it's intangible and uh and in that way light is often used as a metaphor for spiritual energy in in kabbalah we always speak about the the light the energy the uh the the godly force the spiritual uh power is always called light and even more specifically mitzvahs mitzvahs are called light the wisest of all men king solomon says in his proverbs that a candle is a mitzvah mitzvah is a candle and torah is is is light so in that sense light has this very rich symbolism and meaning in judaism but the shabbos candle is both symbolically a light as as all mitzvahs are as well as literally a light it's a it's a literal light and and in that sense the shabbos candles in a certain way uh are the quintessential mitzvah even though interestingly lighting chavez candles is not one of the taryag mitzvahs it's not one of the 613 biblical commandments it's one of the seven rabbinic commandments so it is considered a commandment that's why one who lights shabbos candles makes bracha recites the blessing blessing god who commanded us to do this mitzvah although the commandment is not explicitly in the bible it's a commandment that comes by way of the sages and the power they were vested with by the torah to legislate these um these mitzvahs so shabbos candles again is not a biblical mitzvah and yet in certain ways it's the quintessential mitzvah because all mitzvahs are light and and and chavez candles are literal light now what can we learn from this idea that shabbos candles are light you know there was one time the the previous rabbit was traveling through central europe and he stopped in a a hotel in vienna austria very lavish fancy hotel as are many of the hotels there in uh in vienna and a group of local activists jewish activists came to meet with him now they were not see them they were from you know vienna they were central european so they were neither siddhim or misnogne they were not you know they didn't they weren't in that fight that was more of an eastern european thing they were more modernized more cosmopolitan and so they met with the the previous rabbit and and they asked him you know what's the point of siddhis what did siddhis add to judaism now you have to understand something that is a damned if you do damned if you don't proposition and i'll explain to you why because if you say well i'll tell you what cause it is added to judaism oh it added it added we don't need you to add anything we don't want anyone to innovate don't add anything let's keep it pure give me that old-time religion right on the other hand if you say oh siddhas didn't add anything to to judaism so then the answer is oh great well if it didn't add anything then i'm fine the way i am that's what i have already right now so what are you supposed to do either answer the person is going to reject this so the previous rabbit took a light a lamp and tilted it so that it was shining upward at the crown molding on the uh the top of the wall there were these ornately carved wooden flowers at the top of the crown molding and the fruit if the photograph of the previous rabbit asked these uh these activists do you see the the carved wooden flower there at the top of the wall so they said yes we see it um now that you shine the light on it we we we see it so the previous rebbe said did you see it a minute ago they said no we didn't it was obscured by the darkness so we didn't take notice the previous editor said but was it there a minute ago they said yes of course it was there previous service says ah that is sidness i understand the answer what if siddhis add to judaism nothing just like the carved wooden flower in the crown molding wasn't added to the room by shining a light on it when you turn on the lights you don't put anything into the room that wasn't in the room already turning on the light simply enables you to appreciate what was there all along and and and that's what shabbos candles do shabbos candles as both literal and symbolic light allow us to appreciate what is already in the home see light is an intangible quality as we were saying before um and yet in certain ways it is as much of a staple or a mainstay of the home as the the tangible things that we need in a home you know it's it says about saurimeno the first uh jewish mother the first jewish wife that there were three miracles that occurred in her tent on a constant basis one was that there was a blessing in the dough and that meant that no matter how many guests they had and they always had guests of roman sarah abraham and sarah were always providing hospitality so now how many no matter how many guests they had there was a blessing in the dough everyone was able to be satiated and that's an important thing for you know a bala busta that she knows she can always serve her family and her guests and that they'll be associated second miracle it says that happened on a regular basis was the the unkashable there was a protective cloud over her tent and that provided special shelter special uh protection and then there was the ner dolok me aroshabus there was a a shabbos candle that stayed lit from friday afternoon until friday afternoon and by the way in case you're asking i i mentioned earlier that chavez candles are not one of the biblical mitzvahs they're a rabbinic mitzvah so you're going to say well then how did soda light chaba's candles and we know that the aves and the moist the patriarchs and the matriarchs intuitively because of their profound spiritual sensitivity kept all of the mitzvahs rabbinic as well just sort of um by by intuition um they were not commanded to do so they were not commanded the rabbinical mitzvahs and for that matter they were not even commanded yet the biblical mitzvahs they did all of it out of intuition but um the point is that sorta the first jewish mother did like chavez candles now the reason we like shabbos candles is not because she did it but rather because of the rabbinical commandment later um and joining us to do so at any rate this this these three miracles are sort of like the signs of the jewish home to the extent that when sarah passed away these three miracles ceased and then how did her son yitzchak isaac how did he know that he was marrying the right girl when rifka rebecca was brought to him when she came to the tent those three miracles returned the three miracles that were associated with with her uh late mother-in-law so the rabbit asks a question about these these miracles how come uh these these miracles um weren't there miracles going on all the time in sardis tent so so why these three i mean why not four we're not five not why not a hundred and and that ebb explains that really there were many miracles and the reason that the medler singles out these th these specific three is not to say only these three but rather these are three categories they're not three specific items they're three general categories within which can be included everything else that was going on in the jewish home and in fact they're a lesson to us about the three main categories or three let's call them irreducible needs of every jewish home category number one is represented by the blessing and the dough so that's one irreducible need that the jewish mother needs to be able to provide food obviously kosher food food that is spiritually fit but also on a very simple material level she needs to be able to provide for to feed her family and we know that's one of the things that a jewish mother has always prided herself in the ability to to feed the family so that's one of the main needs the next is the the protective cloud over the tent and and that sort of symbolically represents the category of the the confines of the home meaning the the house itself the structure the physical structure but also the decor and the furniture and and everything that makes the space a livable space so basically food is the first category and shelter shelter is the second category then you have the third category the third category the the shabbos candles which stayed lit from one hour of shabbos to the next that represents the warmth in the home the intangible quality of of of love and and vision of belief that's that's what the the shabbos candles represent and and you know obviously if you'd ask yourself which one of these three categories is not like the other remember sesame street which one which one of these kids is not like the other which one of these three categories is different than the other two i mean obviously all three of them are different from each other which makes them different categories but two of the categories are more similar to each other than than they are to one of the others and i think it's obvious you know the first category is food that's a material thing second category is shelter that's also a material thing third category is light that's completely intangible the warmth the the inspiration the the sense of purpose that permeates the home totally totally uh intangible and yet and yet just as much of a mainstay just as much of a staple as the first two it's interesting not to get off on on an aside here but you know viktor frankl who wrote uh man search for meaning so he had this whole theory called logotherapy and he basically ranked meaning along with biological needs like food and and clothing and shelter as as a survival need that people have to have meaning now meaning is a totally intangible uh quality meaning is not um a biological need it's not a physical thing and and yet uh frankel asserted that people can't live without it and he saw that uh affirmed for him in his auschwitz experience and and we see throughout the throughout jewish history really you know there were times when jewish people had very little uh as far as the material they didn't own possessions they couldn't own land they weren't protected under the law so they didn't really have even the safety of their own bodies and and yet they had light they had a sense of purpose and meaning they had a world view that comes from the holy torah and and that has allowed the jewish people not only to survive but to thrive even when they didn't have the basic material needs being met so not only is light equally a need on par with our material needs but in some ways even more important and has been the mainstay of the jewish people throughout history the point is that you can't just live a material life you cannot just live a life of things of objects surrounded by possessions you need to have light in the house and light doesn't mean physical you know actually light isn't physical but light that you see with the rods and the cones in your eyes okay that's the symbolism the symbolism is is that light but what it represents is light in the symbolic sense of meaning and and and and purpose you know it was helen keller who said what's worse than being blind lacking vision what's worse than being blind helen keller said lacking vision she didn't mean physical sight she meant vision the ability to dream the ability to to believe to hope and that's what light represents so again you can have a house full of things you can have creature comforts you can be surrounded by objects but if you don't have meaning if you don't have a purpose for it all then these objects are are worthless and and worse than that they're not just worthless they become an impediment think about the people for whom their their possessions become a curse you know um there's a story a schliere is performing a wedding on a an island on a private island for a very very wealthy family and um right before the chuppah he realized that there was not one single um shabbos observant guest which presents a problem because to have a kosher hopper the actual jewish marriage ceremony is a legal um it's a legal event as well and it requires legal witnesses now in jewish law one of the qualifications or perhaps the uh you know the the definitive qualification for a witness in jewish law is someone who's shabbos observant and there was nobody there who was um so the the rabbi thought fast and he thought can i the officiating rabbi be one of the witnesses and he realized yes he could be one of the witnesses he the officiating rabbi can act uh as well as one of the witnesses but he still needed another person and like i said they were on a private island so there was no way that they were going to just you know it's not like you're you're in a shul in a storefront and you can just go stand out on the corner and ask pastors bye excuse me sir are you jewish would you like to be the 10th for the minion it's not that kind of situation they're on a private island they're hours away from anybody so the rabbi finally he told the family he says i really don't know what to do we're in a real pickle maybe we have to reschedule the wedding i don't know what to do here they said no but everybody came from so far it's not going to be possible to reschedule he says but i don't know what to do my hands are tied by jewish law so the best man one of the groom's friends he steps forward and he says i'll do it the rabbit says you'll do what he says i'll become shabbos observant so he says what do you mean you become shabbos observant so the guy says would that work so the rabbi is thinking you know it's an interesting question would it work and um so he thinks and he realizes yeah actually it would work even though you know there hasn't been a shabbos yet but if a jew resolves to be shab's observant then even before they've had an opportunity to observe shabbos they would be considered a shabbos observing jew so he says yeah it would work he said so i'll do it says no no but hold on a second i'm just telling you technically it would work practically i don't think it's a good idea he says why not i'll do it the rabbi says have you ever been shabbos observant the guy says no rabbi says i don't think you realize what you're getting into i i can't i can't let you just impetuously take on this this commitment it's just too much the guy says i really want to do this this is my wedding present to the to the bride and groom so the rabbi sees the guy is serious so he says you know what go think about it for an hour an hour is not that long because to get to the mainland and bring somebody back would have taken you know half a day so an hour you know that's you know serve some more hors d'oeuvres for an hour and drink some more champagne and let everyone wait so he says okay think for an hour so after the hour the guy says i thought about it i want to become shabbos observant so rabbi says okay i see that you're you're serious fine your shabbos observant and they they acted as the witnesses for the for the years later the rabbi was walking down the street in miami beach and uh a guy walks over and says rabbi how are you doing the rabbit doesn't recognize him and the guy is like grandpa you don't recognize me he's like i'm sorry i really don't you says that wedding on the private island remember shabba's observant the rabbi is like ah yeah of course i remember you and the rabbi then all of a sudden once wants to ask a question but he's not sure how the polite way to ask the question is so the guy sees it he senses he says rabbi i know what you want to ask me but you're nervous to ask me you want to know if i still keep shabbos the rabbi is like yeah actually i did i i'm very curious he says rabbi not only do i keep shabbos chaba saved my family rabbi says how's that so the guy says listen my peer group you know you saw where you know that wedding happened on that private island you know these are all very very rich very powerful people everyone that i know my age they're either divorced already or they're miserable in their marriage i'm the only one from my peer group who's happily married and i and i only have one reason to believe that my life is different than everyone else's and that's because i'm the one whose job is observant and if i have to think about why that's so i realize it's because you know wherever i am in the world on business i'm home by friday whatever else is going on the family sits down at the dinner table together shabbos candles are lit we're sitting there we're together no distractions and that helped our family remain a unit it held us together and that's why i believe that our family is the only one like ours out of all of our peer group it's what's the difference between us and them we have shabbos so saying before you know shabbos and especially shabbos candles are the light that allows you to appreciate what's already there in the home that if you don't have the light you just have the physicality of the home so then not only do the physical things in the home become worthless but they can actually become an impediment so if you have all the physical stuff but you don't have the lights on meaning you don't have meaning you don't have vision then all the physical possessions not only are they worthless but like i said much worse they can they can become an impediment so like this guy is saying my peer group they don't lack for anything they have whatever they want they're surrounded by all the you know the creature comforts all the amenities but it's not helping them it's not promoting healthy happy living but when you have the light of the shabbos candles now you can appreciate what you have and more importantly than appreciating what you have appreciating who you have in your life because the shabbos candles allow us to appreciate the people in our lives what does that mean you know there's uh there's a mishna that talks about somebody who has tsaras saras is a difficult idea to explain but it's a it's a disease that existed in biblical times they call it leprosy it's not really leprosy but at any rate a person who has this condition uh if they are in a home it defiles everything in the home it defiles the home and everything in it so the question is what happens if this person who has this condition called seras enters his neighbor's home okay and the neighbor didn't give permission so can he against the will of the neighbor defile the neighbor's home by coming in you know uninvited and and the answer is no but that's if he's truly uninvited if he stays there and nobody kicks him out then he's implicitly considered invited or at least tolerated and then the impurity takes hold in the entire house so the the owner of the home has to kick him out he has to say get out of here you're impure um how long does he have to kick him out you know like an hour no a very short amount of time the mishna says the amount of time it takes to light a shabbos candle very interesting the amount of time it takes to light a shabbos candle it's a very interesting way of quantifying time i mean first of all it's not something that happens often in the home it only happens once a week right so it's not like a regular occurrence in the home so that explains a deeper meaning to this mishna which is just so powerful beautiful what is so i was saying before it's this you know disease that that causes impurity but i we also know that it it comes about because of uh fractured relationships one of the causes why a person is punished with suras is because he speaks lush and harder he speaks a divisive speech that that breaks ties between friends and between uh spouses and uh siblings so tzaras is a punishment for causing division in relationships that's why also media can negate me the measure for measure the rehabilitation of the person who has toras is to be quarantined to be isolated he has to sit outside of the community during his rehabilitation period and be by himself and uh because he caused people to separate from each other so his rehabilitation is to be separated temporarily before he can then become reintegrated into the community so really is the spiritual impurity that comes about because of broken relationships or another way you could say it is it is the negative energy of isolation it is the negative energy that causes people to be lonely that is what suras is so if you understand it that way you can read the mishnah in another way how do you ward off how do you banish the negative energy of isolation and loneliness from the home by lighting a shabbos candle that's how we read the mishnah that by lighting the shabbos candle we ward off the spirit of isolation and loneliness we live in a time today when everybody is lonely people live under one roof and they don't know each other they pass each other in the hallway while they're looking into their smartphones i heard a comedian say in today's day and age if you want to call a family meeting you know what you do you want the whole family to show up you go to the room where the router is where the wi-fi router is you pull the plug you stand there and you wait and in a few minutes you'll have the entire family standing there you have a family meeting so we're living in this time of like this isolation this loneliness crisis where people are living under one roof and they're lonely they don't know each other so what is the cure for this loneliness epidemic you light the shabbos candle the shabbos candle banishes the spirit the spirit of impurity the negative spiritual force of of of separation and loneliness and isolation quite literally when the shabbos candle is lit and the family is able to sit there for at least a few minutes they see each other they actually see each other so i was saying before the light of the shabbos candle doesn't just allow you to see what you have it allows you to see who you have in your life when the shabbos candles are lit and the family gathers around and they have that family time all of a sudden we see each other you're sitting across the table from someone and and you don't have the advantage or the disadvantage as it were of looking into this piece of plastic this smartphone and ignoring the person any longer the shabbos candles more than ever in our day and age are are absolutely a necessity to call the family together and have an opportunity to actually see the people in your life who are these people who live under the same roof with you and has this incredible power of bringing us together i should mention also i want to go back for a minute i was saying that the shabbos candles allow you to to see what you have in your life that that when you just have material possessions without the light of meaning and vision and purpose that our possessions can become an impediment so i just want to go back to that for a second um i started speaking about relationships and and the people that we live with but i want to go back to the idea of the physical things we're surrounded with it's interesting that in shock and the code of jewish law it says that the purpose of shabbos candles is to bring about shalom peace now that's actually from from their album says that and so does the gemara the talmud but uh the wording in the alt is uh and that's in uh uh chapter 263 uh halacha the first you light the shabbos candle so that you shouldn't stumble or trip on a piece of wood or a stone now traditionally in the old times when they didn't have electric lights blaring all night once the sun went down it was dark the house was dark so if you wanted to have an evening meal like you do on shabbos if you don't like chaba's candles so it's dark and you're going to be bumping into people you put you're going to put your elbow in the soup right so you light the shabbos candles so you don't bump into wood and stone shallow your kashal eights uber evan but again there's a deeper reading again this is from the a deeper way of reading this eight and evan wood and stone are symbolic of idol worship there's a there's a verse one of the haftaras that we read during the three weeks where the the prophet is decrying how the jewish people have fallen into idol worship and the imminent they say the jewish people say avi they say to a piece of wood an idol of wood you are my father vela evan and they say to the stone at illinois you gave birth to us they call the the stone their mother now obviously no one literally believes that what a piece of wood is their father in there and their and their mother is a stone what it means is that they're giving power to these to these idols you know giving them a central place in their lives how do we relate to this in our day and age you know we don't have actual idols or or do we the idea that the material world functions autonomously that one god one power one unifying force isn't directing at all that that's idolatry so when we live a fragmented life where we actually believe that let's say our material prosperity is in the hands of the stock market or of the politicians or of whatever we want to believe whatever non-godly power whatever human power that's a form of idol worship when when we start to become attached to physical possessions as if they just you know we have them because we think we went out and we earned them and we bought them rather than understanding that hashem is creating the world every single second the way that he wants to and and giving everybody whatever they have at this moment when when we live a life where you know sort of the material world becomes divorced from the spiritual reality that that is at its core that is idolatry and so what happens is we look at the physical objects around us the eights and the evan or the you know the the the smartphone and the laptop and the uh you know the dishwasher whatever whatever it is the new car the self-driving car and we start to see these things as having value unto themselves as as something that just it just is because you know it is i have it just because i like it rather than understanding that really hashem is creating it all and giving it all to us at this moment for a purpose and we're supposed to use it for a purpose so so that separation of the material from the spiritual is is a form of idolatry and and what do we need to do we need to realize no there's no such thing as that separation that separation we're creating that separation in our mind really everything we have exists for one purpose it's all to serve the one that idea that it's all to serve the one is called shalom it's called peace making peace between the material objects and their spiritual purpose is called shalom it's called making peace so what happens you light the shabbos candles and they illuminate our eyes we start to see that things have purpose they have meaning we don't just have these things around us to have them that god gives us these gifts as blessings so that we can use them so instead of tripping over the the dining room table because we're in the dark so to speak we have the light on so the dining room table becomes the place that's our altar in our home where the family gathers around and we bond with each other and and that i'm just saying that as a metaphor for everything that we have in our lives so instead of the things in our lives just becoming separate from from any sense of purpose or vision or or calling or or or directive when we have the lights on now everything now there's shalom there's peace because there's an integration between the material and the spiritual and we see the purpose for everything in our lives so that's the rabbit says that's the hidden meaning of that line in the code of jewish law you like the shabbos candles to bring about peace shall you kashaba custom but evan so you don't so you don't trip on the wood and the stone the peace means you see that the material and the spiritual have to come together to serve a single purpose and now you won't stumble meaning you won't make a mistake on the wood and the stone you won't think that the physical objects in your life are just there because they're there and you know just enjoy them for the heck of it so again the idea of the shabbos candles is to give us that clarity that vision to appreciate why we have what we have and how to use it in a mindful purposeful way as well as what i mentioned earlier the shabbos candles allow us to appreciate the people in our lives the people that we live under the same roof with but the point is the the same light doesn't put anything new into the house that wasn't in the house light allows us to see what was what was already there and to use it in the right way to appreciate it and in that sense shabbos candles have such a power because once you start appreciating what you have um one epiphany leads to the next you know in cartoons when people have a a an epiphany when they have a realization a moment of clarity there's a light bulb that appears over their head they have a light bulb moment so i would like to suggest that there's something um of a shabbos candle moment when a shabbos candle sort of appears over your head metaphorically where all of a sudden you say aha right you're looking around you it's the same house the same stuff the same people but all of a sudden it has meaning all of a sudden you realize this is a gift from hashem and i have to use it in a meaningful way that's what chaba's candles do for us and in that sense it's life-changing it's absolutely life-changing in that vein i want to add you know some people ask regarding the mitzvah campaigns why did the rabbit choose the campaigns that he chose um you know when you're makarev when you are trying to draw a junior there are certain mitzvahs that you try to educate them about first this is the argument why do we why does why did the deb encourage that we should introduce people to shabbos candles specifically which again i mentioned earlier is rabbinic why are talking about smear shabbos about keeping shabbos you know like not doing work on shabbos and and there are people who ask this question quite often they're kind of confused by it i mean not working on shabbos that that's a biblical commandment right and and i guess the answer if i may humbly suggest is kind of what we've been talking about so far which is when you light the shabbos candles and you have your shabbos candle moment and you start to see things more clearly that will bring you to eventually keeping shabbos ultimately and it'll bring you to ultimately keeping other mitzvahs but the shabbos candles turn on the lights so we can start to have some clarity and start to appreciate things for what they really are in fact there's a story that rabbit told this story in the early days of the shabbos candle campaign that ever told a story about a little girl in eretz israel a little israeli girl who went to a public school a non-religious you know very secular school and she met a girl in her neighborhood seems from the story it was probably a laboratory girl and this one girl offered the other girl shabbos candles so this very um non-observant girl from this very non-observant family comes home with shabbos candles and she wanted to light the shabbos candles well her parents weren't thrilled about it but they didn't want to you know they don't want to nix it so they let her you know okay fine go let your shabbos candle but what happened is slowly you know the family started to notice it's hard not to notice this you know it's fire it's you know there's something primal there's something primal about the glow of fire you ever seen people whenever there's a fire they just stop and they stand around they ooh and they are there's just something that draws us so she would light the shava's candle and that's it she was she was just lighting the shower scanner but the parents who were completely non-observant but they kind of knew some things i mean they were israeli they lived in israel they had some concept maybe they had a religious grandparent they had some concept of of judaism so eventually what happened is while the shabbos candle was lit they didn't want to do labor in front of the candle whatever they understood i mean they hadn't studied la mentes malaccas they didn't know exactly what the 39 forbidden forms of labor were but to their understanding they didn't do work in front of the shabbos candle because they had some sight of some sort of a sensitivity that that would be you know inappropriate and and then after a while they said you know as long as we're not doing work they haven't told this story you know what what should we just sit here for let's have a meal you know shabbos we'll have a meal and then once they were having a shambus meal they said you know let's make sure it's kosher how can you have a shabbos meal and it's not kosher and step by step this led the family to shops of observance and they said you know if you know if we're observant on shabbos why shouldn't we be observing the other six days of the week and eventually the the entire family became completely torah observant all of the mixes in their own time at their own pace out of love and excitement and and their own interest and passion but how did it start because a little girl brought that one little flame into the house and it turned on the lights literally turned on the lights for all of them and and they got that clarity and once that clarity sort of entered the home it was only a matter of time that they were able to to see the truth at all in all ways so you know when people ask what's with the shabbos candles why not you know observing shabbos which is a biblical commandment lighting shabbos candles will bring to observing shabbos and kasras and tarasamishbacha and fillin and all of them it's in torah study and everything else there is but first you got to turn on the lights and and i think it's important to also um emphasize here because this was a very important theme when the rabbit would speak about shabbos candles is i think it's important to emphasize not just how shabbos candles have this this effect to slowly awaken us and inspire us but it's very important to to mention here because the devil always did that it's specifically something that girls do women and girls but that almost emphasized the little girls more than than the mothers that was one of the the novel things that that i've encouraged even little girls before bass mitzvah and in fact as young as three years old and in fact there were times that abbott even encouraged girls younger than three if they could make the bracha they could recite the blessing that even tiny you know toddlers should light chaba's candles there's something very special about this idea of women and girls having this power this this this power to light up the home and to light up the world and it comes specifically from women and girls and even very very small girls there's a certain power that that that women have it starts from the home but it emanates to the community into the whole world i just want to mention that of course as we're speaking about jewish girls i want to mention that this entire series of mitzvah campaign classes is dedicated in in memory of dinalea rosensweig and this should be every mitzvah that we do because of these classes should be in in in her merit and when you light shabbos candles this shabbos and every shabbos you should you should have her in mind i also uh want to mention uh her friend esther perel bass khan advaira we send her our prayers of of healing and again when you light shabbos candles this shabbos have in mind esther pero baskana de veda for a complete and speedy recovery um i think i just you know i want to finish off by sharing a story with you uh about the power of chavez candles and little girls and it's one of my favorite stories and uh it was told to me by a friend of mine who who was the person in the story so i'll i'll share it with you i have a friend remy berkowitz and uh when he was a baker and yeshiva a yeshiva student he went america schliches to alaska miraculous is when they send yeshiva boys in the summer time to areas that are not don't have enough of a jewish community to sustain a full-time chabad presence so he and his friend levy went for the summer to alaska and on the very last day there was a community that they hadn't visited yet was called homer alaska and they they heard about one jewish woman who lived in homer so they made a calculation do we have time can we get to homer and get back to i think anchorage and then they had to fly to seattle seattle to l.a allied to new york so it was their last day they said yeah if we hurry we can go there we can meet this one jewish woman who lives in homer and then we can get back and we'll make all of our flights so they get the homer and the jewish woman the one jewish woman who lived there was a schoolteacher so it was the middle of the day she was at work she was at the school so they went to the school and they were looking for her and they met her and she told them her whole story she live she grew up in in new york and she left home and she ended up in alaska and she married an eskimo an actual eskimo a native alaskan and they had a daughter and all of a sudden the yeshiva boys they said her you have a daughter that she says yeah they say so there's not one jew in homer alaska there are two jews your daughter's your daughter she's jewish we want to meet her where where is she she says she's in school what school she says what school this school there's only one school for 100 miles this is it can we meet her yeah you can meet her so the mother left and she told the principal to say you know pull her daughter out of class and send her down so this little eight-year-old girl is pulled out of class she's coming down the hall and if romney is thinking to himself i'm about to talk to a little eight-year-old jewish girl who has probably never seen another jew in her life other than her mother and her own reflection in the mirror i'm probably the first jewish man that she's ever seen in her life and for sure the first rabbi and i have one minute before levy and i have to get in the car get back to anchorage to fly to seattle fly to la to fly to new york i have one minute what am i going to tell this girl imagine that you meet someone who has never met another jew except for their own you know uh mother in their entire life you have one minute to talk to her one minute to empower her what are you going to tell her so remy told me he says look i was only there because labor laboratory ever sent me there so i thought to myself rabbi you sent me here i'm just a yeshiva boy i have no idea what to say you put the words in my mouth and i'll i'll just say that so the girl walks in he's standing in front of this eight-year-old girl and he just opens his mouth and he starts to talk now he realized he was already instinctively holding in his hands the shabbos candles why because when when we go on with you when we go you know on the mitzvah campaigns you know we put on filling with men and we offer shabbos candles to women so he instinctively knew he was meeting a jewish girl he was already holding the shabbos candles in his hands so he's holding the shop's kennels he holds it up in front of this little girl says you know what this is she says there's a candle he says you know what kind of candle she says no he says it's a shabbos candle you know what that is no you know what shabba says no no clue he's got 30 seconds he says to her god created the world in six days on the seventh day he rested every seventh day friday night at sundown god rests against god's holy day of rest and to usher in the holy day of rest jewish women and girls all over the world light a candle now the first place where shabbos comes into the world first place where it's sundown friday and the entire world farthest east place is in australia so you see the world if you can look at the globe you look at the the world you can see little lights start to pop up in melbourne and sydney that's shabbas coming into australia then a little while later you see some lights in south africa and up in europe england then it's quiet for a while the sun is setting over the atlantic oh then there's this big light the light in new york there's lights in chicago there's lights in california and and god watches this as the lights pop up as women and girls and all these communities all over the world light shabbos candles and and god watches and he waits for each of these lights to be lit on the eve of the holy day of rest and god waits and he watches until the last jewish girl in the entire world who lives in the last place the farthest west place in the whole world where the sun sets every friday afternoon until she lights shabba's candles god waits and watches and who is that little girl remy says to the eight-year-old who's the last little girl who's the farthest out farthest place the last place where the sun sets every week who has the ability to light a shabbos candle that little girl is you and it rummy gives her the shabbos candle we were given a gift to have this knowledge i'm saying that the rabbit told us how powerful shabbos candles are and that we know that every little jewish girl who lights another shabbos candle is bringing more light into the world and it's no small thing and if you can encourage another jewish woman or girl to light chavez candles that is making the world a holier healthier place i just want to tell you one last thing and this is something only the rabbit could say that i'll tell it to you and you'll understand only that ever could say this such a powerful idea the speed of light is approximately 186 000 miles per second the circumference of the earth is approximately 24 900 miles that means the wide way around the world okay at the equator or from any point to its opposite point and back again that would be approximately 25 000 miles now that means that if light shines on any spot of the face of the earth unobstructed it will shine around the world and back again more than seven times in a second what does that mean that means that when a light is lit at any spot on the face of the earth its effect on the entire earth is instantaneous let's remember that there's no small light every light changes the entire world thank you again for uh for joining us and maybe may we all see light in our lives and and in the entire world