Shabbat Candles
Shabbat candles (Hebrew: נרות שבת) are candles lit on Friday nights, 18 minutes before sunset, to usher in the Jewish Sabbath. Lighting Shabbat candles is a rabbinically mandated law. Candlelighting is traditionally done by the woman of the household, but in the absence of a woman, it should be done by a man. After lighting the candles, the woman waves her hands over them, covers her eyes, and recites a blessing.
Famous quotes containing the word candles:
“Both nuns and mothers worship images,
But those the candles light are not as those
That animate a mother’s reveries,
But keep a marble or a bronze repose.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)