Sicha, 24 Elul 5734,
Sicha, 20 Cheshvan 5735,
And Sicha, 6 Tishrei 5735.
A. The Shabbat Candle Lighting Campaign
Jews have always made an effort to brighten their lives. Women have a special role in this regard: they light candles before Shabbat and holidays to bring more light into the home.
The Code of Jewish Law cites two reasons for candle lighting: peace in the home and enjoying Shabbat. It emphasizes that this mitzvah is primarily the responsibility of women. (Source 1)
In the face of growing darkness, the Rebbe called to bring more light into the world, beginning at home with Shabbat candles. The Rebbe added that this should be done by young girls as well, not only married women.
An additional reason for the importance of young girls lighting Shabbat candles is that the girls lighting candles can help influence their mothers to begin lighting Shabbat candles if they didn’t already.
B. The Scriptural Source
In this week’s Torah portion, we read about the successful mission of Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, to find a match for Isaac: “Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother.” Rashi quotes the Midrash, which explains that when Rebecca entered Sarah’s tent, three miracles that had occurred in Sarah’s merit and had ceased at her passing reappeared: the cloud above the tent, the blessing in the dough, and the candle that remained lit from Shabbat to Shabbat (Source 3). This was what showed Isaac that Rebecca was the proper wife for him.
It is evident from this story that even before her marriage to Isaac, our matriarch Rebecca lit Shabbat candles! This is inferred from the verse’s order: first, she entered the tent, and the miracle of the candles returned (“And Isaac brought her into the tent—and he saw that she was like Sarah his mother”), and only afterward were they married (“And he took Rebecca, and she became his wife”).
According to Jewish law a man should light candles when there is no woman in the house, so Abraham and Isaac had certainly already been lighting candles themselves. Nevertheless, young Rebecca lit candles on her own.
The lesson from this is that even when there is an older woman lighting candles in the home, the young daughter should also light candles, just as Rebecca did.
We see here another beautiful concept: although Abraham himself had been lighting Shabbat candles since Sarah’s passing, the miracle did not occur for him; it occurred only when Sarah and Rebecca lit the candles.
The reason this miracle happened specifically with the women’s lighting is because it is the woman’s mission and role to manage and illuminate the home, and therefore, it was through them that the miracle brought light to the home for the entire week.
