Religious Ritual

Last Friday night I went to dinner at a friend's house and asked her to make me a real Sabbath dinner. I thought it would be a nice semi-formal dinner. Boy was I surprised. When I entered the home, my friend asked me to come over to the calender with her. It was a pretty calender, but I never realized the importance. I was told to look-this date and tell her the time below the date . This is the time of the start of the Sabbath. I observed the clock and was told we only had 10 minutes to get the table ready. I didn't understand this because all the plates and silverware were in place. From the kitchen a Chala was removed from a bag and put on a plate with an ornate cotton cover. This was placed in the middle of the table. A bottle of red wine was taken from the cabinet and a beautiful Silver Chalice was placed next to the bottle. I was corrected when I called it a Chalice, it's called a Kiddish Cup,that was filled with wine. Two Silver candle sticks were placed on the table and two small white candles were placed in them. My friend, her husband, myself, and my husband stood around the table. She proceeded to put a white shawl around her head, it looked so awesome. She told me a married person is expected to keep her head covered. With a match she lit the candles, her hands were motioning towards her(moving in circles) as if bringing the light directly to her. She started to sing a lovely melody. The candles are now lit. This is the blessing of the start of the Sabbath. Her Husband grabbed the Kiddish Cup and held it in the air for a few moments and also sang a song. It was similar, but different. I was told this is called the Kiddish. He then took a sip and tore a piece from the Chala and handed us all a piece. He ate his piece and drank some wine. Handing the cup to each of us to eat our Chala and take a sip of the wine. The dinner was quite good. Consisting of : Salad, Chicken Stew, Chicken Soup, and Dessert. I was told that this is a typical Jewish Friday night dinner. When the dinner was over my friend said another prayer and we all sat together and had a lovely evening with only the light of the candle sticks. I was told that religious Jews do not use electric from sundown Friday to when the sunsets on Saturday. I was so surprised to see the similarities between Judaism and Roman Catholicism. They do their communion type service every Friday night at home. We do it every Sunday at church. I guess this is why I felt so comfortable there. It truly was an enlightening and enjoyable evening.