Buying things for the Jewish Sabbath

[alias_sqbr]

My mother has recently been heading towards converting to Judaism, and for her upcoming birthday asked for candlesticks and a "nice tea towel" to act as Challah cover for the Sabbath.

But I am not Jewish and know VERY LITTLE about Judaism, plus there isn't exactly a Jewish Supplies Superstore I can easily browse. Closest I could find was the Perth Hebrew Congregation Bookstore, which I may contact and try to check out (assuming they are wheelchair accessible), Tempe David (the one she goes to) also have a shop. But I assume both are overpriced and low on variety.

So! Do any of my local and/or Jewish followers have suggestions? For local places with nice candle sticks, advice on what makes a good challah cover, whatever. I'm paranoid I am going to get something TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE through ignorance, and am rather distracted by the upcoming move and holiday.

Comments

[havocthecat]

Well, I mean, there's just not much demand in some areas for Judaica, so it gets expensive because of that. My suggestion is to email the local store contact at each temple (my guess is that they have information on the webpages, simply because all the U.S. synagogues I've checked out have very complete lists of contacts), ask about wheelchair accessibility - and if they don't, you could probably arrange a meeting with them someplace accessible to talk purchased goods instead.

By the way, the candlesticks you probably want (from the sounds of it) are going to be Shabbat candlesticks, as opposed to a menorah or a yahrzeit candle holder.

Alternately, if you have any sewing skills, you could hand-embroider a tea towel for a challah cover. And if you end up saying that Shabbat candlesticks cost way too much, you could get a mezuzah. There are some beautiful and reasonably priced mezuzot (I think that's the plural in Hebrew, but SO NOT an expert) out there.

(I often go through Judaica Mall when first looking, even though I have never actually purchased Judaica from them. It's nice to get a baseline. However, in case you're stuck, I checked out their shipping policies and they ship worldwide, and with a flat fee per order, with free shipping for orders over $25US. Which hopefully would make this a reasonable alternative for your location as well.)

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! I had assumed any US shops would be impossible with shipping but that doesn't sound so bad.

[havocthecat]

Honestly, I had made the same assumption myself, but I decided to check this one just in case. I hope you can find something, either there or locally!

[alias_sqbr]

I found some stuff at the local shopping centre in the end, but looking at those sorts of sites gave me a feel for what to look for.

[fred_mouse]

Do you know girlie jones? If so, she might be a good person to ask.

[alias_sqbr]

I do and am pondering it.

[yalovetz]

You could always buy online.

Any pair of candlesticks should do for shabbat candles. I've seen plenty in second-hand shops that would do the job perfectly well.

And at home we used to use some not-terribly-nice tea towels as a challah covers (that were also employed as actual tea towels when not covering challah). So as your mum said, a nice tea towel with a pretty pattern would work on that front too.

Hmm, I think the only thing you could get that would be totally inappropriate would be something like pig-shaped candlesticks (though, now I think about it, my family used to use a pig-shaped candlestick for shabbat candles, but we are not terribly good Jews... )

[alias_sqbr]

Hee. Thank you :)