This week we have been learning about the Torah story of Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh and it was a wonderful opportunity to create a beautiful Blessing of the Children Handprint Poster with my kids. We say this blessing every Shabbat after we light the Shabbos candles so they are very familiar with it but it was fun to learn from which Torah story the blessing originated.
We used to do each child’s blessing with the traditional gender blessing of the children. Then last year I read a neat article by Everyday Jewish Mom about making these blessings gender neutral. I loved the idea and we started blessing all of our children, both our sons and our daughter, with the same blessing that speaks to both our forefathers and foremothers.
The blessing of our children is a really special experience in our house. After we light the Shabbos candles, each child looks up expectantly, waiting for hands on their heads, the blessing to be said and then we share kisses all around. It’s one of my absolute favorite parts of Shabbat.
Creating this Blessing of the Children Handprint Poster was another beautiful experience–I love handprint crafts because they capture the moment in time with the size of our kiddos’ hands. We plan to hang these in the kids’ rooms so they can always remember they are loved and blessed. And hopefully they’ll remember the Torah story too 😉
What You’ll Need
- Blessing of the Children Handprint Poster free printable
- Cardstock
- Paint
- Paintbrush
Putting It Together
- Print the Blessing of the Children Handprint Poster on cardstock.
- Paint the inside/palm-side of your children’s hands (we did one hand at a time) and press carefully onto the cardstock within the heart outline to create a handprint stamp.
- Let dry and hang where can be viewed, remembered, and enjoyed!
Finished & Loving It!
This was such a simple and easy craft. The hardest part with handprint crafts is always trying to help get the hands on the paper before they go everywhere else! But the kids were very patient and each waited their turn.
My daughter wanted to paint her own hands. Love that initiative (and her creative color choices)!
We talked about the Torah story, Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, as we did the craft. They are very familiar with the actual blessing since we do it every Friday night but they liked knowing where it came from.
I can’t wait to hang these in the children’s rooms. Blessings and sweet handprints are such a sweet, beautiful combination!
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