The Last Shabbat Candles in the World
Tech Tribe Dispatch 111
💡 Think:
Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz and a fellow Roving Rabbi rabbinic student came to a small city in the northwest part of Alaska. The mayor told them that he knew of no Jews in the city, but invited them to give a talk to the students at the local school. The men shared with the fourth through eighth-grade students some teachings about Judaism. The students in turn performed a few Inuit dances for them, and the Chabadniks performed a Chasidic dance for them.
Knowing that the Rebbe wanted them to find Jews if they could, Berkowitz asked the students, “Did any of you ever meet a Jew?”
One girl raised her hand.
“Who ever did you meet?” Berkowitz asked her.
“My mother,” the girl answered. “She’s right there.” She pointed to the school’s fifth grade teacher.
After the class, the mother was visibly moved and thanked him for coming. A native of the lower 48, she had always loved nature and years earlier, she had come to Alaska, and fallen in love with a native man.
“I must tell you that living here I don’t know if my daughter will ever meet another rabbi again. I ask you to give my daughter a message so that she will always be proud of her Jewish identity.”
Berkowitz’s mind was racing. He knew he only had these few minutes, but what should he say? Thinking back to the Rebbe’s talks, he realized that one of the Rebbe’s great strengths was his ability to personalize a mitzvah, to empower the individual. He started to speak to the girl about the holiness of the Sabbath, the day which Jews dedicate to God: “And who ushers in Shabbat? It is mothers and daughters who light the Shabbat candles. They bring peace and light into the world”
He then asked her: “Where is the first place in the world where the sun sets?” The girl knew geography, and she said, ‘Probably New Zealand or Australia.’”
And Berkowitz told her: “That’s right. Jewish mothers in New Zealand and Australia are the first to usher in Shabbat. And then Shabbat is ushered in with lit candles in Asia, in Israel, in Europe, and then New York, Chicago, Seattle, Anchorage. And even then, there is one part of the world where the sun has not yet set. Here in the Yupik territory of Alaska. When mothers and daughters around the globe have welcomed the Shabbat, God and the Jewish people are still waiting for you, the last Jewish girl in the world, to light the Shabbat candles.”
Lightly adapted from What The Rebbe Taught By Joseph Telushkin
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