Our Family Shabbat Journal

Around the world, and around your community, Jews celebrate Shabbat. Shabbat is coming together every week to set apart time from daily work for rest, appreciation, and gratitude. The common thread in these celebrations is that they’re family centered. How ever your family observes Shabbat, Our Family Shabbat Journal is the place to create and record how your family expresses this special time and to enhance everyone’s experience.

Judaism values the power of words. A journal is the perfect place to collect words of reflection, memories, and intentions. For the young and the creative, Our Family Shabbat Journal includes weekly space for visual expression: draw, collage, or add stickers.

If your Shabbat observance includes refraining from writing or drawing, use this journal as part of preparing for Shabbat (the first page) and then as part of marking its end (the second page).

There are numerous ways to use the weekly pages. Experiment:

Ask everyone to contribute to each prompt

Ask whoever feels inspired by a given prompt to contribute

Assign a single family member to a specific prompt

Take turns each week with one family member or group of family members responding to all the prompts

Any other options your family thinks up