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What is Shabbat, really?
One day a week, everything stops. No work, no phone, no errands, no deadlines. Just food, family, friends, sleep, and quiet. It runs from sunset on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, and it has been kept, week after week, for more than three thousand years.
When it starts and ends
Shabbat begins about eighteen minutes before sunset on Friday, when candles are lit, and ends on Saturday night once three stars are visible — roughly forty to sixty minutes after sunset, depending where you are.
The exact times shift every week and change with your city. Any candle-lighting time site or app will give you yours.
What actually happens
Friday night
Candles are lit, kiddush is made over wine, and there's a long dinner with challah, real food, and people who aren't looking at their phones.
Saturday
Synagogue for some, sleeping in for others. Lunch, walking, reading, talking. The day is deliberately slow.
What's off
Work, money, phones, screens, driving, cooking, shopping. The point isn't the restrictions — it's what fills the space they leave.
Saturday night
Havdalah — wine, spices, and a braided candle — closes the day, and the week starts again.
How to keep your first one
Almost nobody goes from zero to a full Shabbat in one week, and you don't have to. Pick one thing and do it well:
- Put your phone in a drawer from candle lighting until Saturday night.
- Have Friday night dinner with other people — invite yourself somewhere if you need to.
- Don't work, don't shop, don't drive. See what the day feels like without them.
- Light candles. It takes thirty seconds and it changes the room.
If you want the full version, try going a whole day with no electricity or electronics at all. That's what most of our giveaway entrants take on — and a lot of them had never done it before.
Why it's worth trying once
People describe the same thing over and over: the first few hours are uncomfortable, and then something loosens. You sleep better. You talk longer. You remember what an unhurried day feels like.
You don't have to believe anything in particular to feel that. Try one and decide for yourself.
Keep one with us
We run giveaways one to two times a month for everyone who commits to keeping Shabbat. It's free, and it's open to every Jew.
See how the giveaways work