Shabbat Guidebook for Parents

This guide is an easy go-to for parents to learn how to care for infants, toddlers, and children on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Based on real-life situations and informed by the author’s shul and chaplaincy experiences as well as her life as a mom, this guidebook offers to-the-point halachic guidance paired with meaningful spiritual reflections. The content itself generally follows the timeline of Shabbat and holidays, with additional pastoral resources on self-care for parents and spirituality in parenting. In this thoughtful guidebook, Rabbanit Thomas-Newborn reviews a myriad of halakhic issues that observant Jewish parents face every Shabbat. Rather than simply providing directives that address the complications of parenting on Shabbat, Thomas-Newborn weaves erudite halakhic discussions with compassionate pastoral meditations that show how parenting can enrich one’s spiritual life. This guidebook is sure to become essential reading for young parents who will turn to it regularly for its insight, warm tone, and accessible style. – Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich, Director of JPS