There’s no dearth of books on how to cel­e­brate Shab­bat. So being orig­i­nal was the first chal­lenge for this author, a for­mer pub­li­cist and moth­er of two. Her claims to fame are her web­site (www.modernjewishmom. com), news­pa­per col­umn, and series of Shab­bat work­shops for women’s groups on which this book is based. 

Jacobs draws on her tra­di­tion­al Jew­ish upbring­ing and cur­rent har­ried life to present myr­i­ad ideas for cel­e­brat­ing God’s day of rest. And some of her ideas are, indeed, orig­i­nal. They range from sim­ply light­ing can­dles before run­ning out on Fri­day night to ban­ning on Shab­bat all behav­ior that can poi­son the rest of the week. 

Jacobs’ approach is per­son­al, friend­ly, and for­giv­ing. Tips and insights are pre­sent­ed in shad­ed box­es through­out the book. Her chap­ter on crafts includes turn­ing an Altoid tin into a trav­el­ing Shab­bat box and mak­ing stamp-art kip­pot. Some oth­er chap­ters focus on cre­at­ing a Shab­bat mood in your home, recipes, and after-din­ner activ­i­ties. There are con­cise sum­maries of every Torah por­tion fol­lowed by dis­cus­sion ques­tions to spark engag­ing table talk. A glos­sary of Yid­dish and Hebrew words and a resource list are included. 

The book seems tar­get­ed most­ly toward moms of younger chil­dren but includes a chap­ter called ​“Oy, teens,” which sug­gests, among oth­er things, invit­ing your adolescent’s friends to your Shab­bat meal. Of course, I read this chap­ter and the one on cre­at­ing shalom bay­it (peace in the home) after my 14-year-old slammed her door in my face. Again. 

“What are you read­ing now?” said daugh­ter asked that evening, upon notic­ing my review copy of this book. ​“Is it any good?” 

“Yeah, it’s got some pret­ty good ideas.” 

“Like what?”

“It tells how to bake chal­lah. Wan­na give it a try?”

“Do we have to?”

“No. But it would be fun.”

“What­ev­er.”

Oy, teens.