Modern Shabbat

​Modern Shabbat
By J. Kott-Wolle
Oil on Canvas, 20x24, painted 2016
Original photograph taken - 2016
 
Shabbat dinner on Friday nights is one of the few Jewish rituals that I have consistently kept with my family for as long as I can remember. Just like my mother and grandmothers before me, I light candles, we join together around the dining room table to recite the Sabbath blessings and settle in for a quiet evening at home. When my kids were little it was very easy to mark Friday nights as ‘off limits’ and guard Shabbat dinner as sacred family time.  But there are so many competing demands today.  My daughters often have dance rehearsals on Friday nights.  I compromise by lighting my candles at sundown in full view of my children so they experience the light and beauty of how Jews mark and sanctify time.  The girls then bundle up to go to the studio to practice ballet for their company’s performance of the Nutcracker and return to a home that smells like challah and chicken soup and a traditional Shabbat meal.  It’s not exactly how I want things to be but it works for us.