Under the Sabbath Lamp
by Michael Herman
illustrated by Alida Massari
Kar-Ben Publishing, 2017. 32 pages.
Here’s a lovely story about inheritance and traditions. A group of neighbors has a tradition of hosting each other for Shabbat dinner. The first time Izzy and Olivia Bloom host, the children notice there are no Shabbat candles. Then Izzy shows them the Sabbath lamp that burns oil and has been in his family for one hundred fifty years.
There’s a story-within-a-story as Izzy tells about how his great-great-grandfather Isaac moved to America for a better life. But they couldn’t afford for his whole family to come.
As Isaac packed his belongings, Rachel handed him the drip pan from the Sabbath lamp.
“Take this with you,” she told him. “Just as this part is separated from the rest of the lamp, we will be separated from you. When we come to join you, we will bring the other parts, and the lamp will be whole again. Just like our family.”
One by one, the children and his wife joined Isaac in America, and when they were all together, they lit the Sabbath lamp.
When Izzy and Olivia got married, his father entrusted the lamp to them.
I like the way the book brings the tradition into the present with Izzy and Olivia enjoying the Sabbath lamp together with their friends.
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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