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Shabbat Shalom & Weekend Blessings


AI (Wombo) Sabbath Candles Mix by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Real life means that even with the joyful activity of lighting Shabbat (Sabbath) candles on Friday evenings, the image you took to remember it may not be the best for sharing. A little camera shake, too much wax on the candlesticks, or a bit of clutter captured in the image, and you’re looking for some creative editing tricks to make your image look prettier. So I took my candle picture to Wombo Dream and described the table and background I wanted, and then I let it work its magic. After a number of creations, I couldn’t decide between the one from the botanical filter and the filter they call abyssal void for my favorite. So, I made a collage in the Photo Studio Pro app and framed the two together. Here are a few more from the same two filters plus a couple more filters…

AI (Wombo) My Shabbat Candles Reimagined by Crystal A Murray
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

So we’ve been lighting candles together on Friday nights for over 25 years now. I say the prayer as I first learned it in a brief Hebrew class I took with the sweet friend who opened up this world to me. Understanding some aspects of original Judaism has helped me to better understand both the Old Testament and my Jewish Messiah. When I first started to learn these things (1999), I wrote a poem called YahShua The Jew, and blogged it here in 2016 in a post also called “YahShua The Jew.”

The Hebrew prayer says …

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

Transliteration:

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Shabbat.

English Translation:


Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the light of the Sabbath.

And right after we light the candles, we sing two songs together. The first is “Shabbat Shalom” and the second is from Isaiah 28:16…

Isaiah 28:16 BSB
[16] So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.28.16.BSB

And here are the videos of those songs…

Shabbat Shalom by Jonathan Settel — Chorus (with lyrics)
I Lay in Zion, Isaiah 28, with lyrics

June 5, 2026 Posted by | Bible, Christianity, Collaged, memories, Nonfiction, Photo Editing & Manipulation, Photo Studio Pro app, Photography, Sabbath/Shabbat | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

   

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