Using Kavanah Cards
How do you use your Kavanah Cards? I'd love to hear your Kavanah Card ideas, favorite rituals, and stories, so please email me.
Daily Practices for Families
- Pick a daily Kavanah Card with your children. Talk about the meaning of the word and tell stories and give examples of it. Put it on the refrigerator in its magnetic frame and refer to it. Over time, this practice will give your family a language of virtues and values to shape behavior. Eileen Sherman
- Use Kavanah Cards as a family dinner ritual. When seated, family members take turns picking the day’s Kavanah Card. Children will undoubtedly vie for this honor. Discuss the Kavanah Card, sharing how it’s relevant to personal, family, community or world events. Pre-readers (or anyone!) can also respond to the images. This will guide family discussion, reinforcing core Jewish values and ethics.
- Use the text side of the Kavanah Cards as an alternative HaMotzei (the prayer before the meal) or take a few and create an alternative Birkat Hamazon (the prayer after the meal.)
- Each family member can draw a card, or have one card for the whole family, and ask: Who is my role model for this quality? When did I experience this? How might I increase this in my life? How might I increase this in others’ life, adding more of it to the world?Rabbi Jeff Schein