Shared in “A Meal With A Feel,” Onward Israel’s educational pamphlet designed to transform Shabbat dinner into a meaningful experience for all, this post suggests preparing sweet, individual “Shabbat-O-Gram” blessings for each guest at your Shabbat table.
Shabbat-O-Gram
Prepare for each guest an individual blessing with a small candy on a greeting card or index card. Blessings could be passed around before the meal or during the meal.
Invite people who will be coming to the meal to write blessings to each other. What would you like to wish a friend for the upcoming week?
Put the blessings together as collections of meaningful quotations around a common theme – Shabbat, friendship, community, rest, etc. Each of the quotations could be passed out like a fortune cookie – wrapped inside a piece of candy or around a cookie or a date.
Feel free use any quotation – poetry, song lyric, or blessing – that you think will bring meaning to your table.
If you are not sure that everyone at the meal will know each other, you could also include place cards with names.
An example:
