ABOUT LIGHT UP THE WORLD
Light Up the World is a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading light to the world. To focus on doing so through the Mitzvah of lighting candles on Friday evening, we have started a project called My Shabbos Light as a part of an ongoing campaign started by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Our goal is to encourage women to light the Shabbat candles and by doing so, bringing a spiritual light into their homes, families, and the entire world.
THE REBBE'S INITIATIVE
Starting with our matriarch Sarah, for thousands of years, starting at the age of three, Jewish women all over the world have been lighting candles Friday evening, just before sundown, in order to welcome the Shabbat.
In 1974 the grand Rabbi, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson began a campaign to encourage every single Jewish woman, irrespective of religious affiliation and beliefs, to adopt this practice. The Rebbe explained the great benefits of this practice.
Unfortunately, we live in a dark and divisive world and oftentimes the best path forward
is obscured.
Lighting that candle in your home brings a tremendous amount of light into the world. It illuminates your home with warmth and brings peace into your life and that of your family.
Let every woman [young girls included] add her holy light to illuminate the world shrouded in darkness and confusion.
— Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
WHY THE WOMEN?
The job of lighting the candles is given to the women of the home. It is the woman who sets the foundation of every Jewish home. Through her nurturing presence, it is primarily the woman's job to ensure that the home has an atmosphere conducive for spirituality and G‑dliness. It is therefor appropriate that she be the one to bring that extra bit of light into the home.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, also adds that the Jewish people were taken out of slavery in Egypt because of the merit of the women, and so too it will be because of the women that we will be taken out of this Golus (exile) and greet the Mesiah. By lighting Shabbat candles, the women are channeling the light of G-d into the world and bringing us closer to the
final redemption.
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