PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 240: The Shabbat Meal
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 240: The Shabbat Meal
I have received a number of requests recently asking how we do the Shabbat meal. This podcast tells you what we do in our home. Be blessed and inspired.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Well, my husband and I have just come back from Florida, from the Above Rubies Family Retreat, the first winter family retreat that we have had. We have an April retreat every year in Florida, but it has got so big that we wondered what to do! We can’t fit any more people in. So, Allison and Daniel, who organize these retreats, decided to have a winter one in January so that they could give some of the families an option of coming to this one.
Well, it wasn’t as big. It was a smaller retreat, but it was so wonderful. It was so great that I think it will now become a tradition every year. It was so great for people. Some came from Canada, some from way up north of USA. They could get away from the cold and the snow and get down to Florida where it was kind of warm. The water’s still very cold, although I did brave myself and went in with some of the young people one day. It was pretty cold, but once you got in, you could survive. I then went back a couple more times and was very invigorated by that.
We had a meeting every morning with the folks, and in the evening. In the afternoon, they had lots of wonderful things for the people to do. Of course, the favorite is going to the beach, but they had a volleyball competition, which was very, very competitive. They have such good players. Games on the beach, tugs of war and everything. It was so great!
On the Friday night, we had a Shabbat meal for all the campers. In fact, there were so many children and young people. They outdid the numbers of all the adults there, because the parents brought many big families. It was so wonderful.
On the last night, there were two single moms there. They so graciously volunteered to put on a beautiful meal for all the couples, which they did. It was so delightful. Such a beautiful meal! Such a wonderful evening. Then my husband spoke about marriage. Oh, it was such a great retreat!
But at that retreat, as I said, we did a Shabbat meal. I’ve begun to get people emailing in, and messaging in, saying, “Look, couldn’t you share more about the Shabbat meal?” Then, we came home Wednesday. Friday night was Shabbat. Friday night we sat around our table with nine beautiful girls gracing our table. Six of our granddaughters and three lovely Above Rubies helpers, two who are here, and one was visiting. What a beautiful thing, to have all these glorious girls around our table!
I posted a picture on my Instagram and had more people saying, “Would you mind talking about it on your podcast?” I thought, “Well, I may as well.” So here I am doing it. Now, I hope those who have asked me are actually listening! But we have been celebrating the Shabbat meal for over thirty years, because we started it when we were in Australia. We’ve been in the States for 33 years, so it’s been a long time.
What is the Shabbat meal? Shabbat is just the Hebrew word for “Sabbath.” It’s a Sabbath meal, and it’s a Jewish meal. We do not do it because we are Jewish, because we are not Jewish. We do it because it is a very family-oriented meal.
I first heard about it when we were living in Australia. A wonderful man of God had been ministering in Israel and living there for some time. He came back, and at this meeting, he said, “There’s something very special I would love to bring back to you all, the most beautiful thing that I experienced in Israel.” And he said, “It is the Shabbat meal. It’s a Jewish meal, but I want to bless you Christian families with doing this meal.” He shared about it and how to go about it.
Of course, being one who wants to hang on to anything that will strengthen families, I caught ahold of it. I thought, “Wow, if this is going to bless our family,” and at that time, our children were still around us, “I’m going to do it!” So, I began to do it, and I’ll tell you what we do. We take the basic foundation of a Jewish Shabbat meal, but we adapt it to how it fits in with our family. We make it very personal.
Another reason we do it is that it is a meal that has blessed Jewish families over centuries. We are so blessed by the Jewish people. The Bible says that “In Abraham all the families of the world would be blessed.” It's from the Jews that we have our Savior. Jesus Himself was a Jew. He was born into Jewry. He was a Jew. It’s the people of God, the Israeli people of God, who brought forth our Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessing!
It is through the Jewish people that we have the Bible. What would we do without this precious living Word, this Word which is alive and active, and speaks to our souls and our spirits every day? Every word was divinely inspired but each book was written by a Jew. There are some people who would say, “Oh, but there was Luke. He was a gentile.”
But if you do a little bit of study, you will find that that is actually tradition. You will find that, really, they don’t have any Scriptural reference for that. Although there’s no Scripture saying that Luke was a Jew, we get to realize he obviously was. In fact, one time, when Paul came to Jerusalem and there was a riot because they said he brought Trophimus into the temple, because he was a gentile; he was from Ephesus, an Ephesian. There was a big riot about that, but Luke was traveling with Paul all the time. There was never mention of a riot with Luke. It is obvious he was a Jew also.
The whole Bible was brought to us by the Jewish people. What blessings they have brought to the world!
They’ve also brought the blessing of this meal, which although it was originally a Jewish meal, you can take it into your family, and do it as you would love. Make it part of your family life. It has so blessed us. We would never miss doing it unless we are away. We always do it.
How do we go about it? Well, when I have our Shabbat meal, I want to make it different from every other night of the week. Every night of the week, I love to make the table special. I don’t want to make any meal just some boring thing; just throw some food on the table. No, I want every meal to be special.
In fact, I may have shared this with you before, but years ago, when I was watching that movie, “Babette’s Feast,” there was a line that I picked up from that movie. This man was speaking. He was speaking about a woman who was a famous chef in Paris. He had been to her restaurant. But now he was away from Paris, away, way out in some sort of land, way up in the snow. Here he was, amongst this little wee group of people. But the food he was eating reminded him of this amazing restaurant. Actually, it was the same woman, and she was behind the scenes, cooking it, but nobody knew who she was. It’s a movie worth watching.
But he got up, and he was giving a speech. He said, “There was a woman who knew how to make every meal into a love affair.” Wow! I heard those lines. I have never forgotten them to this day. They are part of me. It’s what I want to do. I want to make every meal into a love affair.
You can take up that phrase too. It will change your whole life.
Every meal, don’t think, “Goodness, got to cook another meal!” No, never think like that, ever! Think, “How exciting! I have the opportunity to make another love affair for my family!” You’re thinking of how you can make it special and even how you can make the table inviting.
I always love to use a tablecloth. I think you know that about me by now. Sometimes I have folks who will be here, and they say, “Oh, can I set the table for you?” I say, “Yes.” Then they’ll go get the knives and forks and begin to put them down on my table. I’ll say, “Oops! Just a minute! We don’t eat on a naked table. We like to use a tablecloth.”
So many people today just use a naked table! Well, my table is naked during the day, except I do have a runner and a vase of flowers upon it. But in the evening, I don’t want to put down food on a naked table. I want to put a tablecloth. I love tablecloths. I love all different colors and designs, so I can change them.
Some of you are in the throes of little ones all around you, and you can’t bear the thought of a tablecloth! “Oh, goodness me, with children dropping stuff on it, and you’ve got to wash it every day!” You just couldn’t even imagine it. But you can still do it, because you can buy a beautiful tablecloth. You can put clear plastic over it which just has to be wiped down. You’ve got to wipe your table, whatever. Even if you have a naked table, you’ve got to wipe it down.
Or you can got to Joann’s or somewhere like that. These days you can go look for all these rolls of plastic of the most beautiful designs, even lace. Oh! They’re all so glorious you don’t know which one to choose. You just cut it off the length for your table. There, you’ve got a beautiful tablecloth. You don’t have to wash it. You just wipe it down after the meal. You do that every night.
So, what am I going to do on Shabbat? Well, I always keep Shabbat, mostly . . . Sometimes I have a change, but mostly I will use a white tablecloth, and white dishes, and everything white, because the Jewish people think of the Shabbat meal as the bride, just entering into the Sabbath day. So, I love to use white.
If you have best china, you can get out your best china. I don’t really have best china, so I get out some nice china. Or I will use white plates to match my white tablecloth. I set it nicely.
THE MOTHER LIGHTS THE CANDLES
Then we begin the meal with my lighting the candles. They usually have two candles which I will light. That is traditional for Shabbat. There are some people who say, “One candle means “observe,” and the others say, “remember” because the Scripture does use both those words. It says we are to “observe” the Sabbath day and we are to “remember” the Sabbath day. Some say the two candles represent “creation” and “redemption.” I love that.
In fact, this is what I usually do when I light the candles. I will start off with the normal Jewish prayer, “Blessed art Thou, Oh Lord God, King of the universe, who hath given us the privilege to light the Shabbat candles.”
Then I will pray my own prayer: “And, Lord, we thank You so much, that You are the Creator of light. You brought light into the world. Oh, we thank You for Jesus, who is the Light of the world, and we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have brought light into our hearts.
“Oh, Lord, we ask that You will fill each one of us around this table with Your Light. We don’t want to be little lights. We want to be big lights, shining in this world, shining in the darkness, pushing back the darkness and deception of this world. And we ask this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
You can pray whatever you like. Just something like that. I usually pray something about the Light of God filling in our hearts and that we will be filled more and more with His Light to shine in this world. And also, the light of the revelation of His truth. We do that. And it is the privilege of the mother of the home to light the candles, because she has the responsibility to keep the Light of God burning in her home.
Sometimes I will also give everyone a little votive candle around the table, so everyone has a little light at their table place which they can all light after I have lit the candles. Children love that. They just love to have their own lights. If I have a little candle in glass, they can then hold it. We will hold our candles up, and we’ll all sing together, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” We are really getting them all to realize that we are lights in this world, shining for the Lord Jesus. You can also do that, and the children will love that.
FATHER READS PROVERBS 31:10-31
The next thing that happens is that the father of the home reads Proverbs 31 because Proverbs 31 is a blessing to the wife. The ultimate goal of this meal is to bless the wife and mother in the home. Isn’t that a good idea to have in your home? Wouldn’t you love to be blessed every week by your husband and your family? Well, that’s worth having.
That’s one of the biggest goals of this meal. Of course, that is something that does keep families together. When the children can see their father honor and bless their mother, that is something that is so wonderful for the children. He reads Proverbs 31, all about the virtuous woman. My husband reads from King James Version, but he actually has his own translation with all his little comments that he brings in.
THE CHILDREN STAND UP AND BLESS THEIR MOTHER
Then we get to Proverbs 31:28, where it says” “And her children arise up and call her blessed.” At that moment in the meal, he stops reading. He says, “OK, children, all the children stand up!”
Now, because all our children are grown, we often don’t have our children around our table. Every Shabbat, Colin and I never have it on our own. We have never had it on our own in our whole lives! We will always ask people. Sometimes we will ask some of our grandchildren. Usually, I’ll ask the granddaughters. And then another night I might have the grandsons. Or I might have some of the couples, or some of our immediate couples—our children and their spouses. Or then some of the grandchildren couples. I don’t have the whole family because our family is now so big, I would have to have this huge sit-down meal for over 100 people! That would just be too big every Friday night.
So, I just choose to ask different ones, or we’ll have visitors. We love having visitors! Friends, and even people we’ve just met, and people that we would love to introduce the Shabbat meal to them.
Now, if we have a family around the table, or if we have granddaughters, Colin will usually say, “OK, all the children stand up! Now, I want you to look at your mother in the eye, and say one little thing to her, like “I love you, Mom.” Or ‘Thank you for caring for me.” “Thank you for all you do for me.” So, each child will say just a little thing to their mother. Then they sit down. Oh, what a beautiful thing it is as Mother feels the appreciation of her children around her. It’s such a beautiful thing.
THE HUSBAND PRAISES AND BLESSES HIS WIFE
Then it goes on, at the end of the chapter, to talk about how the husband praises her too! That’s what it’s all about. He’s been praising her the whole chapter. In verse 28 the “children arise up and call her blessed.” Then her husband also. And he praises her. What does he say? “Many daughters have done excellently, but thou EXCELLEST them all.” When he finishes the next two verses, he’ll stop. The husband will then begin to honor his wife, and say all the good things he can think of about her, to her. Of course, we, as wives, get so blessed.
This last Friday night, Colin decided to read another translation, just for a little change. I got the Knox Translation which is an old translation. It says here, in this translation, “Her husband is loud in her praise.” Then what does he say? “Unrivaled art thou among all the women that have ENRICHE DTHEIR HOMES.”
I love that, because that was praising all the women who love to enrich their homes. I thought, “What a lovely phrase. ‘Enriching their homes.’” Dear wives, dear mothers, this is a wonderful vision that we can have in our home. This is what we’re to do, TO ENRICH OUR HOMES.
Every day is a new day to enrich—to enrich our husband by what we do for him, what we say to him. To enrich our children, encourage them, to enrich them by encouraging them and affirming them, and building them up, and of course, training them. And disciplining them, and preparing them for life.
Your home, everything you do, you really haven’t got time to have another career. A mother in the home does not have time for another career if she really, truly has the vision to enrich her home. Now, this Scripture was talking about all the women who love to enrich their homes. But then he says, “You, oh, you have, you’ve just outdone them all. You are unrivaled.” That was another beautiful thought.
Then my husband will begin to speak to me, and say all the things that he loves about me. Remember, ladies, we have been doing Shabbat for, I can’t remember (33 years we’ve been in the States, and we started in Australia, so it’s many, many years). I keep saying to my husband, “Darling, you can’t say the same things every Friday night. That is just too boring.” So, he has to try to think of something new every week! Wow, that’s a challenge for him, isn’t it?
Now, traditionally, the Jewish people will often just give the blessing. It’s a traditional blessing. “May you be like Leah and like Rachel,” and some of the beautiful women in the Bible. They bless their wives that way. But we do it very personally in our home. Colin speaks personally into my life. That is such a blessing.
When we have other couples or families around our table, Colin will say to the husband, “Now it’s your turn.” Wow! Sometimes the man is, wow! He’s never done this before! He’s never done this in front of his family. He’s never done this to his wife before! Maybe personally, on their own, but never in this setting. It’s quite amazing.
You see the wife. Wow. She’s looking up at her husband with BATED breath. What will he say? Her eyes are big. She’s just waiting for this encouragement, these words that she wants him to say. Oh, it is so amazing, how many times we see . . . the husband will begin to speak and maybe say things he’s never said before and the wife will begin to cry. Tears are just rolling down her face. It is the most incredible thing.
THE SHABBAT MEAL IS A MARRIAGE AND FAMILY STRENGTHENER
You know, the Shabbat meal is such a marriage strengthener, such a family strengthener. You can't have a marriage that is falling apart when every week your husband is speaking beautiful words into your life. It is so powerful. What are you going to do? You’ve had a quarrel during the week. Well, today you’d better get it right before Shabbat! Because you’ve got to speak into one another’s lives.
THE WIFE BLESSES HER HUSBAND
Then I will usually reply. I’ll read Psalm 112, which is about how the Lord blesses the man who fears the Lord, and so on. Then I speak into Colin’s life. Then, if there are other wives around the table, they will do the same thing. It is so wonderfully powerful. And not only for the husband and wife, but also for the children who are listening. They are hearing their father honor his wife. That is a powerful thing for children. It is very powerful.
Also, they know their turn is coming. Usually, OK, when you have little children, or even getting bigger children and they come to the table, if the food’s not there, they can’t start eating at once, they’re going to be groaning and grizzly, “Where’s the food? I’m hungry!”
But something happens on Shabbat. Somehow, this peace comes over them and they’re not screaming and yelling and grumbling and crying. There’s something about listening to what their dad is saying. Then they know their turn is coming. “What is Daddy going to say to me tonight?” Then, of course, he begins to bless the children.
FATHER BLESSES AND ENCOURAGES HIS CHILDREN
It can be done two ways. Usually, traditionally, in the Jewish family, the father will go and put his hand on each child and bless them, and give them a blessing. Or they will come to him, and he will bless them. That is beautiful and powerful.
Once again, we do it more personally in our home. Colin will speak into each individual life. He will speak into them, affirming the good things that he sees in their lives, what he sees about them, or what he’s been noticing. It’s very personal. I think that this is so wonderful for the children. They’re ready to wait for that. They love it. It is life-changing for them.
This is such a beautiful time. Although we still haven’t eaten yet, everybody is always so happy because it’s such a wonderful thing. Then there is another thing. We don’t always do this. We only do it every now and then. You don’t have to do it, but it is traditional to have the hand washing, where the mother has a bowl of water and a towel. She can go round each person, or just pass it around. Each one will dip their hands in the water and then wipe them.
It’s symbolic of our purifying ourselves, and having clean hands, and a pure heart. If anyone has anything or any quarrel or anything against one another, it is a beautiful time for them to say “Sorry.” This is a very special part of Shabbat that many families do make a priority because that way everyone in the family can be in the right spirit with one another. If they’re not, well, it’s time to say “Sorry.” If we’re doing that, we will usually sing that song, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God.”
THE BLESSING OF THE BREAD AND WINE
Then the next thing that happens is the blessing of the wine and the bread. We have the wine first. We usually have grape juice because we usually have lots of children around our table. In Israel they have wine, even for the children. But here we do grape juice. You can do whichever you prefer.
We pass around the wine, the grape juice. Then, in our home, Colin gets everybody to hold it up. We hold up our glass, and we all say together, “Blessed art Thou, oh Lord God, King of the universe, Who bringeth forth the fruit of the vine.” Then he will pray and thank the Lord for shedding His precious blood and so on. It becomes a time of communion in our home, another time to remember how Jesus gave His life, how He poured out His blood for us.
We do that, and then we have the bread. The bread on Shabbat is called the challah. It is a bread that is braided. Actually, I have to confess that often, sometimes, I just don’t get time to make my bread on that day. I make all our bread, and I make sourdough bread. It is, perhaps, a little denser than the normal bread. I make it with spelt and rye. It’s a very, very healthy bread, which I love.
But sometimes on Shabbat, I will forget to make challah. Challah is usually a bread that you use eggs, and it’s sweeter, and you braid it. It’s traditionally braided in three, or you can braid it in four. You can braid it in six, as long as it comes from a little lump of dough that makes into 12, to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. But you don’t have to worry about all that.
If you don’t have time to make challah, or even braid it, well, this is what I do. I always have in my freezer already, some raised round loaves, or sometimes oval loaves, that I have there, ready for Shabbat. So, if I have not had time, I get them out. They are ready.
You don’t have to think, “Oh, we can’t have Shabbat tonight, because I haven’t made the challah when I haven’t had time!” No, we can still do it. I will still use those loaves, but I will always heat them up. We always love to have hot bread. It’s beautiful.
When I set the table, of course we’re putting the grape juice on the table and the butter. And, of course, we always use butter knives. Well, I know, a lot of American families don’t even know what they are! But we grew up with butter knives.
You were never, ever, ever allowed to take butter off the butter plate with your own knife! That would be disgusting because who wants to have somebody who’s licked their knife? I hope nobody ever licks their knife, but sometimes I’ve seen people doing it! And then they put it in the butter! Then who want to touch the butter? So, we have butter knives. They’re just little wee knives, especially for that. That’s all ready to have it with our bread, our lovely hot bread. Hopefully challah, but if I haven’t had time to make it, well, it’s just bread I have in the freezer.
TWO CHALLAH LOAVES
But something special about it is that we always have two loaves. Two loaves remind us of the sixth day, because now we’re going into the seventh day, which is the day of rest, Sabbath, or Shabbat. But on the sixth day, you’ll remember that in the wilderness God sent a double portion of manna. The Lord sent to them in the wilderness, He sent manna every day. It was miraculous food! It was called “angel’s food.” It was miraculous! It just arrived there every day for them!
And they could cook it, and bake it, and do all kinds of things with it. They could make up loads of recipes. I’m sure if Serene had lived back then in the time of manna, she would have made a recipe book for recipes of manna, because she always does that. When she went on her extreme thing of seven years when she went raw, some of you may remember when she made this incredible recipe book of raw recipes, although eventually she realized that it was something that you shouldn’t do for a lifetime.
Raw is for times when people are maybe, in some way, very, very ill, with cancer or something. Going on juicing and raw food can really help them. But it’s not a lifestyle. She had to come to realize that, of course. But while she was doing that, oh did she ever imagine and dream up the most glorious recipes that you could ever think about! They were so amazing. In fact, one time, while she was on that roll, she put on this great evening. It was a feast, and it was for over 100 people, and every recipe was raw. Every recipe was so delectable!
But anyway, I’m getting off my subject! Yes, we have the two loaves because it’s a double portion. Because on the seventh day they went out to get their food for the seventh day, and there wasn’t any. They would starve. So, they had to have the double portion.
It is traditional for people to make enough, not only enough bread, but enough food for the next day so they don’t have to work and cook and do everything on the Sabbath day. It’s the day of rest.
We have the two loaves. I cover them with a little cloth, because that represents to the dew, the way manna came.
Then my husband will hold up the two loaves, and we’ll say the blessing together with him, “Blessed art Thou, oh Lord God, King of the universe, Who bringeth forth bread from the earth.” Then he will pray and thank the Lord for His body which was broken for us all. Then we will take the bread.
We don’t take it like a little, in communion, a little wee piece. We will say to everybody, “OK, just break off a hunk! Take as much as you want!” They will have it with butter and be enjoying this, because yes, it is communion, but it is more than that. Today we have communion in our churches which has become just a little token. But back there in early church, they were love feasts where they had the bread and the wine. They feasted, but it was all part of the meal.
NOW WE CAN EAT!
This now becomes part of the meal. They’re eating their bread and waiting for me to go and get all the food and bring it to the table. Now, at last, we’re ready to eat! But it is amazing. It took me a while to tell you all that, but it doesn’t have to take too long. Then we enjoy the meal together.
So, lovely ladies, that’s just a little bit about the Shabbat meal. You can also go to my webpage and look up “Shabbat meal” if you want to read up about it again. Another thing about it is that, and it’s so amazing, the Bible is so incredible. The day before Shabbat, I wonder if anybody knows what that is called? It has a name, too. Yes, and it has a capital.
In the King James Bible, it calls it the “preparation day” and in some translations it has a capital “P.” You actually can’t have a rest day without a preparation day, because if you don’t, you’ll be still working the next day. So, usually in my home, Friday is Preparation Day. We clean house from top to bottom. We prepare the meal, and we get everything beautiful, so the next day we can relax. We don’t have to do all the things that we do every other day of the week. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?
So, ladies, I’m sure you will love it. You may like to start bringing it into your family. You’ll be blessed. Your children will be blessed. As you get to enjoy it, you can ask others in to sit at your table to be blessed, too. OK?
“Dear Father, we thank You so much for all these beautiful ways that we can strengthen and build our families. Thank You for this beautiful meal which has come down the generations of Jewish people that we can also take hold of it, just as we have taken hold of salvation, just as we take hold every day of the Word, which has all come down through the Jewish people. We thank You for them, Father. We thank You for Your blessings.
“I pray for every mother and wife and family listening today that You will bless them, that You will inspire them, that, Lord, this goal of enriching their home will be upon them. And that they won’t be hankering after all the other things around, Lord, that are really so vain and shallow that are not building for eternity. But, Lord, everything we do to enrich our home, that is building for eternity. I pray that You will bless them with this vision. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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