Tag: candles

Update: Shabbat 2/11/2022, Judaica purchases

Published on by Gunther GlitterLeave a comment

This past Shabbat, I was unable to light candles since I’m currently at my parent’s house and since I wasn’t planning to spend Shabbat there, my candlesticks remained on my Judaica shelf at my apartment! Funnily enough, I bought new candles at a Judaica store local to my parents a few days prior, but lacking the candlesticks I wasn’t able to safely light the candles!

I’ve wanted to visit the local Judaica store for several weeks now, and am excited I was finally able to make it out there. In addition to the Shabbat candles, I also purchased a Havdalah candle, a necklace, and a book on prayerbook Hebrew. Other recent additions to my library include a weekday Siddur Sim Shalom and a Hebrew writing practice workbook that is by the same author who wrote the book on reading the Alef bet that I’ve mentioned previously. Converting to Judaism sure seems to involve having to purchase a lot of things!!

Luckily, I have challah-baking supplies stored here at my parent’s house so I was able to spend Shabbat afternoon baking away. Another perk to being at my parents for Shabbat was finally getting to bring a loaf over to my best friend to try (as she’s been tortured by seeing me enjoy fresh-baked bread when we game on Friday nights!). That loaf didn’t last very long at her house, and we finished up the two loaves I kept for here before Saturday hit! My challah-baking skills continue to improve, and I’ve got it almost to perfection at this point. Next up on the list of cooking things to try are making rosemary challah (I’m going to infuse the oil that goes into the dough with rosemary before adding it!) and chicken matzo ball soup. Those will have to wait until one of the days I’m back at my apartment! I’m also intending to bake a large batch of challah to freeze and keep on hand at my apartment and at my parents; with my health status, I often don’t have the energy to bake and I’d still like to be able to enjoy challah on Shabbat.

In other news, I’ve finalized what my Hebrew name is going to be once I convert! The story behind that will have to wait until after my official conversion, as I’m going to keep the names to myself for the most part until then, but the story of choosing the first name, in particular, is pretty amazing, and as my sponsoring Rabbi said, it’s bashert – “meant to be” in Yiddish.

Reading Update

What am I reading right now? I’m working on “The Observant Life”, “Jewish Literacy”, “Essential Talmud”, and “Choosing a Jewish Life”. Some of those are ones I’ve been reading for awhile but others (The Observant Life and Essential Talmud) are new over the last few weeks. I’ve also got the Prayerbook Hebrew book I got from the Judaica store, and the Alef bet writing workbook as well.

Lighting Shabbat Candles for the First Time

Published on by Gunther GlitterLeave a comment

Tonight I lit Shabbat candles; technically for the second time, but it feels like the first time (The first time was months ago, after we learned about Shabbat in the AJU class. It didn’t feel quite right and I wasn’t sure whether it was okay for me to be doing a ritual thing like that, so I stopped). I’m at my parents house this week and am very unorganized, so I didn’t have time to bake Challah and my wine is at my apartment 2hrs away!

I lit the candles, said the blessing, and said Kiddush over a plastic cup of juice – not very exciting nor fulfilling the mitzvah of having beautiful items to use! But it was what I had, and hopefully more of my Judaica will have come in by next Shabbat (I was gifted a Challah board, and I’m trying to acquire a Kiddush cup and Havdalah items).

Before candle-lighting time, I let my family know to please not knock on my door for the next few hours – I’m obviously not fully observing Shabbat yet, but I’m trying to find the mindset and the spirit of it as well as getting used to staying off social media for that stretch (news flash- I’m struggling in that area haha). After saying Kiddush, I listened to the recordings of the Shabbat blessings that my synagogue put together, I read a Torah portion (I’m very behind and working on catching up) and the related chapter in the commentary book I’m using for studying, I had fun experimenting with some Tichel wrapping (I’ve been exploring different ways to cover my hair/head for at synagogue)… And then I lost focus and struggled to get it back.

I kept my focus on the Shabbat mindset for about 2 hours, and then it sort of derailed and I couldn’t find it. That’s disappointing, but I’m brand new to this particular observance, and there’s a lot going on in the house, community, and world right now that is holding a lot of my attention. I’ll shoot for longer next week, and there’s a large portion of time tomorrow for finding the mindset again!

I have app-blocking set up to block most of the apps on my phone from 5pm-5pm. This blocks all the social media and streaming apps, but leaves me with the ability to communicate via text/call with people so as to not leave me stranded and alone. I’m able to get around the blocking fairly easily, which makes sticking to it hard… But I’m hopeful that just seeing the apps grayed out and having to take those steps to unlock them will remind me why I shouldn’t be going on the apps.

So where am I now? I’m trying to pass the time until midnight (Happy New Year’s, by the way!) through working on this blog and connecting with friends to the best of my ability. I’m hoping to read myself to sleep tonight rather than “TikTok” myself to sleep like usual. I’ll be going to Shabbat services in the morning, although I’ll be going virtually due to sickness here. I’m not sure what next week holds, but I start up classes again on Monday so I’m guessing whatever it holds, there’ll be a lot of tiredness.