Welcoming Guests: Ideas to Try at Home

The concept of hachnasat orchim, welcoming guests, which is highlighted in this week's torah portion, can be practiced every day of the year. You probably already model and teach this mitzvah to your children, but actually framing the actions as mitzvot helps your child understand the actions through Jewish eyes. 

• When you’ve invited guests to your home, encourage your children to speak with them before they run off to play.
• When you have houseguests for an overnight visit, encourage your children to participate in making your guests feel comfortable. They can set the table for dinner, they can help bake cookies for dessert, etc.
• When you are invited to someone’s house for a meal, model for and explain to your children the importance of bringing a small gift as a way of showing your appreciation.

• Seek out a family that has just joined your synagogue or is new to your community, and invite them over for a meal this week. Involve your children in the planning and organizing and execution of this mitzvah. Let them help you decide what food to serve. Ask them to make place cards for the table. Encourage them to help you with some of the cooking. By doing so, you will not only help them perform the mitzvah right alongside you, you will also give them the opportunity to experience the inner glow that helping others can provide.

These examples involve some sort of action: planning, cooking, decorating, serving and ultimately demonstrating a genuine concern for and care about others. Everyone loves being welcomed and made to feel special and comfortable in a strange place. In doing for others, we are doing what we would like to have done for ourselves. Be positive and enthusiastic, and watch your children exhibit the same behavior. As you demonstrate graciousness and kindness to others, your children will be learning to do the same.

From Got Shabbat of the Union for Reform Judaism

Welcoming Guests: This Week's Torah Portion Explained

The section of the torah read by Jews all over the world this week is Parashat Vayeira (Genesis 18:1–22:24).  It brings us one of our most important Jewish stories of kindness to strangers. The concept of hospitality, also called hachnasat orchim (literally the “bringing in of strangers”), being extended to others is a central value of Judaism. An act of g’milut chasadim (loving kindness), hachnasat orchim is considered a mitzvah, or commandment.

In Parashat Vayeira, we learn about our patriarch Abraham, whose kindness to guests was exemplary.  Abraham kept the sides of his tent open so that he could watch for the arrival of guests. On this particular occasion, Abraham was in his tent recovering from his circumcision. However, when he saw the strangers coming, he swiftly ran to offer the very best that he and Sarah could offer. The welcome he and Sarah provided included providing the guests water for washing their feet and bidding them to rest in the shade. The guests were also served a leisurely feast that consisted of cakes of fine meal and tender calf. Abraham was such a gracious host that when they left, he began "…walking with them to send them off.” Genesis 18:16

Abraham and Sarah went to extraordinary lengths to make their guests feel welcome. Both he and his wife Sarah worked very hard to ensure that their guests, though strangers, were comfortable, safe, attended to and sated. They made this their priority and spared nothing in this endeavor. Modeling more than the standard level of courtesy, Abraham taught ensuing generations the true meaning of hospitality. He didn’t just fulfill this commandment, he did it enthusiastically and whole heartedly, fully embracing the joyful mitzvah of hachnasat orchim.


From Got Shabbat, a newsletter of the Union for Reform Judaism