Around the Family Table

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Around the Family Table: A Comprehensive "Bencher" and Companion for Shabbat and Festival Meals and other Family Occasions With insights and commentary.

Around the Family Table is a practical and inspiring book of devotion and prayer for the Jewish home. Many uplifting and ancient Jewish traditions are rooted in the home and celebrated with the family. This book of prayer and celebration is intended to serve as a guide for meaningful expressions of the Jewish experience at home. Inspiring stories and personal commentary by the author supplement the text throughout.

Blessings and songs celebrating the entire year of Jewish festivals and Sabbaths, in Hebrew, with English instructions and translations, make this work of fundamental value for the Jewish home.

From the blessings said on festivals and for Hannukah candle lighting to birth celebrations for boys as well as for girls, the marriage ceremony and blessings, prayers for inaugurating a new house, and other momentous life cycle occasions, all are marked with traditional praise and holy words. Rabbi Riskin's sensitivity and unique imprint is present throughout this comprehensive and handy companion.

Some of the special additions include the following:

• Blessings for the children on Yom Kippur eve
• Symbolic foods and ceremony for Rosh Hashana
• Ushpizin for sukkot meals (welcoming patriarchs and matriarchs)
• Songs for all festivals
• Hunnukah candle blessings
• Eve of Israel Independence Day meal celebration
• Tu b'shevat seder
• Shalom Zakhar, Shalom Bat
• Circumcision ceremony
• Redemption of the firstborn
• Simhat bat ceremony for baby girls
• Dedication of a new home