This past Friday night, Jewish women on college campuses across America participated in an initiative to dispel some of the darkness experienced by events of the Virginia Tech shooting.
At 18 minutes before sundown, they lit Shabbat candles, a tradition that Mrs. Marilena Librescu, the widow of the slain professor, and the professor himself, held dear.
“Professor Librescu made a point of always reminding his wife to light the Shabbat candles,” Rabbi Shlomo Mayer, Chabad representative to UVA, told Lubavitch.com
Rabbi Ari Baitelman, Director of Chabad's FridayLight project, said that the impetus for this initiative came from students who wanted “to hold a memorial for all those killed in this terrible event, and to show their concern for their brothers and sisters at Virginia Tech."
Towards that end, FridayLight distributed thousands of free Shabbat candle kits for the April 20 event.
"There is a universal feeling of despair as these innocent young lives were cut short, but we can share the light of hope as the Shabbat candles chase away the darkness."
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