As soon as the candles were placed in her hands, she couldn’t hold back the flood of emotions. Tears streamed down her face, not from sadness alone, but from the weight of everything she had been carrying inside.

She was engaged to a man who, though kind and loving, came from a world so different from her own. An Arab man who didn’t share her Jewish heritage. She felt torn, trapped between two paths—unsure of where she truly belonged.

That Friday night, she lit the Shabbos candles for the first time in what felt like forever. As the flames flickered, something inside her stirred. She didn’t know what it was, but she found herself crying out to Hashem, desperate for clarity, for direction.

Over the following weeks, her life began to shift. She found the courage to end her engagement, realizing it wasn’t the life her heart yearned for. And then, as if guided by a hand beyond her own, she met Gilad—a Jewish man who, like her, had found his way back to the faith they both thought they had lost.

Together, they began building a life—a Jewish home, a place filled with love, warmth, and the light of Shabbos each and every week. Those two small candles had lit the way to a future she could never have imagined.