Around the Family Table (Hardcover)

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

With insights and commentary by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

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

Hardcover, 216 pages

About the Author:

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s contributions to Israel and world Jewry over the course of the past 35 years have been instrumental in shaping today's Modern Orthodox society. His vision of an authentic Judaism which is inclusive of every Jew and appreciative of universal human concerns has made him an outstanding figure and leading voice in today's Jewish world.

The founding rabbi of the famed Lincoln Square Synagogue of Manhattan, Rabbi Riskin is internationally renowned for his innovative educational and social action programs, as well as his personal outreach to Jews of all backgrounds. He is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs, a network of groundbreaking educational institutions including a rabbinical and communal leadership college for men, a college for advanced Jewish studies and the training of women advocates for the rabbinical courts, a women’s “hesder” program, and a Legal Aid Center for agunot.

The author of several books, monographs and articles on Jewish tradition and modern life, his weekly columns on the Biblical portion-of-the-week appear in The Jerusalem Post, as well as in over 30 Anglo-Jewish newspapers worldwide.

Rabbi Riskin received his rabbinical ordination from his mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, at Yeshiva University, and his Ph.D. from New York University. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rabbi Riskin serves as the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, where he resides with his extended family, traveling frequently around the world for speaking engagements.

Praise for Around the Family Table:

Around the Family Table is one of the most beautiful and useful “Benchers” created.

It contains every prayer, song and ceremony one could ask for — from Birkat HaMazon, candle lighting, zemirot,