Breaking Bread How to Practice Hospitality During a Pandemic

1. The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers.

2. An act that contains the purity of altruism and the essential nature of offering someone something they need.

3. The fine art of making a person feel at home.

4. The Jewish imperative of 'hachnasat orchim' (welcoming guests), with examples found in countless Biblical stories.

"Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Hospitality is more important even than welcoming the presence of the Shechinah (the Divine presence)" - Midrash Rabba, Bereshit 10:7

IF:

Hospitality is a home-based activity

IF:

Home is now our home, and our work, and our school, our shul, our restaurant, our gym

IF:

Pandemics limit how we can provide for the stranger or welcome a guest

THEN:

How can we be hospitable during Coronatimes?

Sometimes, we need a framework for how to put our ideals into action.

Take a look below at the Eight Levels of Hospitality, a hierarchical ladder for hosting based on Maimonides’ Eight Levels of 'Tzedakah' (charity).

Learning | 20 minutes

As you review each stage you'll see a blank space where you can list real-life examples for situations where those stages have played out in your experience.

Relive those gatherings that you long to return to as well as those you'd rather forget.

Click here to access the source sheet

How can this ladder be relevant today?

What does it mean to show hospitality when you have contactless deliveries and cannot invite people into your home?

-1-

To be a host starts from within. first and foremost, treat yourself as a guest.

Without caring for ourselves, we cannot be expected to care for others. What’s behind your green screen?

Game | 20 minutes

Just as you would pamper a guest in your home, play Hospitality Bingo to discover if you've been treating yourself as you would treat a guest.

Click here to play

-2-

The essence of hospitality is nourishing people, in physical or other ways.

Food is a constant in Jewish life. If we aren’t fasting, we are blessing and discussing and consuming food. But hospitality goes beyond eating; it conjures up the sensual nature of food, of being sustained and cherished.

And maybe this sensation of togetherness and support is what we’re craving most.

Let's start with tips for food-less hospitality.

In the video below, premier hostess Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering, describes gatherings as an opportunity to mark, to witness, to remember and to invent.

How can we take Priya Parker's advice and apply it to virtual hosting?

Reflection & Planning | 20 minutes

Up for the challenge to plan and host a virtual gathering?

To do so, we turn to the timeless tradition of the Hostess Diary, a leather-bound book where home hosts chronicled who was invited, what was served, what was discussed and what unique touches were added for guests. Take a look at a sample one here!

In this Hospitality Challenge you will have a chance to plan a gathering of your own by completing a page from our Host/ess Diary, according to Parker’s guidelines.

Follow these hosting guidelines to get the party started!

Looking for some tips and tricks from hospitality rockstars?

We've got you covered.

Given the new insights you may have discovered, take a shot at answering the Four Questions...

How is hospitality showing up for you?

How might you treat yourself as a guest going forward?

How do you plan to demonstrate hospitality through a screen?

How might we transform our relationships by applying a hospitality lens to our thinking and doing?

May the Compassionate One bless the master of the house and all that is theirs. - Birkat Hamazon

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Created with images by United Nations COVID-19 Response - "Hey! I miss you. Image created by Daniel Barreto. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives - help stop the spread of COVID-19." • Kate Macate - "https://creativemarket.com/KateMacate/shop/templates" • Eleonora Patricola - "Where Love Lives"