Our Erev Shabbat...sorta!

I started the chollah early and put it in the fridge. Then, I coloured my hair. Sorry, but I'm still not read to go grey! We all drove off to another nearby town with a half-decent mall to start our Christmas Shopping. Jack and I paired up and so did Grace and Jamie, and we met for lunch in a cafe before switching the pairings. The loot is still on my bed waiting to be secreted away around the house.

When we came back I set to making our Shabbat feast. Now obviously, if we were Jewish, we'd have Erev Shabbat (the evening before the Sabbath) on Friday and I do have christian friends who do have theirs on that evening. But a few years ago, when we were starting to think about doing this special meal, we decided it made more sense for us on a Saturday evening.

We've missed a couple of Saturdays at home lately and the children asked if we could please 'do Shabbat' again this week. Actually, we all miss it when we don't connect in this particular way once a week.

There must be special Jewish and Messianic Christian ways of doing this, but we have evolved our own Family Way and this is what we do. I make chollah, a sweet, eggy bread. Actually, I make two so there is enough for Sunday too. Traditionally, there are two of these plaited loaves on the table to remind us of God's provision for the Israelites in the desert. They collected twice as much manna on the day before the Sabbath, so they could rest on the Sabbath itself. The loaves are under the white cloth on the right. Jack particularly loves this bread. The recipe I use is an old one from Whole Foods for the Whole Family (a LLL book.)

There is always red wine, salt to dip the bread in and two white candles to light.

Tonight, I deviated from my menu plan as we really wanted Indian food. So I made a turkey Balti dish, a spicy rice and vegetable Biriyani. I already had some Mutter Paneer, a pea and cheese dish, in the freezer from the last time I'd cooked it and we had some yoghurt and cucumber raita with coriander.

The evening starts with my role, that of lighting the candles, covering my eyes and reciting the age-old blessing, the Kidoosh. I attempt it in Hebrew and English, though never having heard the Hebrew spoken, I have no idea if I am pronouncing it at all correctly! But it's OK, because God also speaks English, which is good! {g}

There is a response from the whole family and we all greet eachother with 'Shabbat Shalom'! Then Jamie says a blessing of the children and praises me! I read somewhere when researching Shabbat practices that often Proverbs 31 would be read in its entirety at this meal in Biblical times. We limit this section to a brief recognition of my role in the family, which I love hearing! Every week Jamie delights in saying something positive about me out loud which I find so encouraging! I love to think that Joseph would have done something like this, expressing gratitude for his wife Mary in Jesus' presence. When we have visitors, we encourage the men to say something good about their wives at this point too, and to bless their children.

Next, Jamie gives thanks for the wine with the words, 'Blessed art thou o Lord our God, ruler of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.' Again, I think about how many times Jesus would have said these words for his disciples at the evening meal at sundown on the evening before Shabbat. There is time for a symbolic act of hand washing which we sometimes do by pouring water over eachother's hands into a glass bowl, but obviously as our hands have already been cleaned, this is a spiritual act.

Then Jamie blesses the bread in the same way as before with the wine. He cuts up the bread and distributes it which we dip in the salt bowl and eat. I imagine that the key elements of wine, bread and salt are just reminders of God's provision of all good things and how everything we have belongs to Him.

I must admit I find this whole symbolic part of the meal much more significant than church sometimes. I love that it's family-based and also love it when we have visitors to share this with. We have found the practice of this special meal to be very unifying for us as a family and it has helped us to deepen our faith and focus our minds for the Sunday following.

The family meal itself, preceded, as it has been, by these prayers and actions, always seems more light-hearted and blessed than other meals. Whilst for other families, 'doing Shabbat' as we do might be a temptation to legalism or meaningless ritual, and I can understand that for some it might be, for us it has been a wonderful addition to our family life and faith.