Understanding Shabbos: Candle Lighting, Havdalah, and the Rhythm of the Week

Shabbos is the Jewish day of rest - twenty-five hours, Friday evening to Saturday night, when the work of the week stops and a different kind of time begins. It is the oldest weekly observance in human history and arguably the most consequential. The "weekend" itself, which the rest of the world inherited, started here.

If you're new to Shabbos, the practical question is usually the same: when does it begin, and what do I actually do?

Candle lighting: when Shabbos begins

Shabbos formally begins at plag haminchah - that is, eighteen minutes before sunset on Friday evening. In Jerusalem the custom is forty minutes before; in some communities, twenty or twenty-two. The exact time depends on your city's longitude and the time of year: early in winter Shabbos can begin before 4 p.m., and in summer not until 8 p.m. or later.

At the candle-lighting time, the woman of the house (or anyone making the home into a Shabbos home, where there is no woman doing so) lights at least two candles and recites:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם,
אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ
לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל שַׁבָּת.

Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Shabbos lights.

At that moment Shabbos has entered the house. Many keep the moment with a quiet personal prayer between the candle lighting and joining the table.

The meal, the songs, the rest

Three meals across Shabbos are traditional. The Friday-night dinner is preceded by Kiddush - the sanctification of the day over a cup of wine - and by the singing of Shalom Aleichem (welcoming the Shabbos angels) and Eishes Chayil (a song from Mishlei honoring the woman of the house). The challah is uncovered and blessed. The table is meant to be unhurried.

Shabbos forbids melachah - the thirty-nine categories of creative work the Sages derive from the verses describing the building of the Mishkan. In practice this means no electricity, no writing, no commerce, no driving, no cooking. The body rests; the mind reorients.

Saturday morning brings synagogue services and a second festive meal. The afternoon is for reading, walking, a nap, a third light meal (seudah shlishis) toward sunset. The day quiets as the sun goes down.

Havdalah: when Shabbos ends

Shabbos ends when three medium stars are visible in the sky on Saturday night - about forty-two to seventy-two minutes after sunset depending on community custom and time of year. Calendar sites and apps publish the exact local time.

At that moment, Havdalah is recited - "separation." A cup of wine, a braided candle of two or more wicks, and a small spice box. The candle's flame draws light through the spices. The blessing marks the line between holy and ordinary, Shabbos and the new week.

The week begins again. By the time you put away the Havdalah candle, Sunday morning's quiet readiness has already started.

Why it matters

The Torah introduces Shabbos twice - once at creation (Bereishis 2:1–3) and once at Sinai (Shemos 20:8). Once before there were any people at all to keep it, and once after. The Sages saw it as a divine gift built into the structure of time: a recurring island in the week where you are allowed to stop.

The poet of Yedid Nefesh calls Shabbos ״מָגֵן אַבְרָהָם״ - the shield of Avraham. In an economy that asks for your every hour, Shabbos is the weekly reminder that you are not what you produce. You are someone who is allowed to rest.

In Chassidic thought, Shabbos is the family meal in the house of the Holy One - which is part of why the word bayit means so much more than a building.

Bayit shows the local candle-lighting and Havdalah times for your city each week, with a gentle pre-Shabbos reminder so the afternoon doesn't sneak up on you.