I have regular Friday evening Sabbath candle lightings and invite a few friends. We often eat afterwards.
Why would this be of interest to any of my readers? Jews have been doing it for several thousand years, weekly.
Primarily because my friends, Jew and non-Jew have come to enjoy the Sabbath ceremony. I use it as a way to have each guest talk about their week. We need that kind of summary and review of our lives, those of us who don’t go to therapists.
Guests also seem to love the ritual where we pour the wine into glasses overflowing. Smaller than normal wine glasses. This is a symbol of abundance. An extraordinary symbol that I've regularly seen in Japan for pouring sake.
Lastly, this may be of interest to my readers who like ritual but are not ‘God Centered’ as my Reform rabbi father used to say.
In translating the Hebrew, I explain that a late friend who was a Buddhist priest turned Conservative rabbi, Alan Lew, had a different translation. He translated the Sabbath prayer's first six words (from the right) as ‘Praise to you, oh great sound that pervades the universe..’
This turns Jehovah into a Buddhist entity.
I have one personal reason for loving this interpretation of Hebrew. My son knows the daughter of the man who jointly found the 2 degree background microwave radiation of the universe, Arnold Penzias. She, Penzias' daughter, is a rabbi. I’ve met her.
The universe really has this ancient ringing sound everywhere.
So, Rabbi Lew is right in a unique way. There is a sound that pervades the universe, a sound left over from creation.