 | | | | | | |||||
| ||||||||||
 | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
 | From The Editor... As each week rolls to an end, I think about the upcoming Sabbath and how I hope to celebrate Shabbat. What most often comes to mind is a fresh-baked challah from my oven, relaxing dinner with my husband, saying kiddush and perhaps a drive to the shul for evening services. That’s the fantasy Shabbat; the reality goes more like this: As the sun begins to descend toward the mesa, I throw together some tofu and starch and hope that the green beans haven’t become leopard beans from their extended stay in the fridge’s crisper. If I’m lucky, we’ll have a couple of quesadillas to use for motzi, as my last homemade challah ended up as construction material for someone’s adobe. Kiddush usually includes the red wine that sits by the stove as a cooking aid, and our 15-month-old usually makes it clear that any 7:30 p.m. outing we have spans no further than the sidewalk in front of our house. But regardless of how hectic my Friday is or how much of my “best-laid plans” go awry, the one thing that brushes all that aside and makes this holiday special is the lighting of candles each week with my daughter. She always watches intently as I kindle the flames, then wave my hands over the candles, cover my eyes and sing: Baruch ata adonai, eloheinu melach ha’olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav vitzyvanu. l’hadlik ner, l’hadlik ner, shel Shabbat. In this issue, Nahalat Shalomers share how they’ve made Shabbat special. I hope that you, too, have a ritual that elevates this day above the rest. If not, perhaps these stories can inspire you to let your imagination wander and create your own unique celebration. Nicole Deutsch | |||||||||
