A Blessing for Shabbat

* If you are looking for the blessings for Shabbat, I did write an entry on Our Family Prayers and Blessings. This entry is about Shabbat dishes.

For quite some time I have wanted some special dishes for Shabbat. I have combed through various places, looking for a set of nice china that maybe someone had given to a thrift store. Of course, I couldn’t ever find any. Besides, we have a family of 7 and often have guests on Shabbat so we would require more sets than would likely be available. Still, I have always kept my eye out.

Last weekend my mother-in-law called asking to borrow my china. I said that I don’t have any. She distinctly remembered giving me china with blue on it and was very upset that I must have given it away. I dismissed it as a forgetful moment, thinking that she must have intended to give us this china but hadn’t actually done it yet. When they moved in with us a few years ago there were quite a few things that we ‘acquired’ that are still in the basement and we have never dug into those boxes. I assumed that the china must have been in there. But DH didn’t have any idea what china she was talking about so I put it out of my mind. I remember telling him that if we had china, particularly with blue in the pattern (my favorite) that we would surely be using them on Shabbat. We glanced at the boxes in the basement that haven’t yet been moved to my in-laws new garage and didn’t see anything labeled china or blue dishes.

Well this past Friday afternoon our big freezer conked out. I walked out to get something from the freezer and noticed a lake running from the freezer to the wood bin. *sigh* Needless to say I spent the last hour of Preparation Day transferring everything from the big freezer to the little one. Most things were salvagable but some things weren’t. At least we had the little one and could fit everything in it. We will have to replace it before we have more meat to put in the freezer come November. But HaShem knows and He will provide if that is in His will.

Today DH is taking the old freezer out and cleaning up the nasty mess (at least it was just water and fruit juice! The meat didn’t thaw enough to drain.). As he began to remove the items that had been stored on top of the freezer – guess what he found!

This was a photo from e-bay because our camera broke this summer. I don’t know if you can see the pattern on it very well so I’ll post another photo.

I have 18 full place settings – large dishes, smaller ones, cups and saucers, dessert dishes, coffee cups, a serving bowl like the one pictured and a serving dish.

They have sentimental value in that they are from my mother-in-law and DH gasped upon seeing them “Oh! I remember those. I liked those!” But more than that, they are silver and blue – colors that I would choose if I had the opportunity. They are a nice pattern too. I set them out on our Shabbat table cloth and placemats and they match. Then I set the silver/pewter challah plates we use near them and it really brought out the fine silver lining in the china. I am very pleased!!

So now I need to write my dear mother-in-law a note and thank her for the china that we forgot she had, indeed, given to us. DH thinks that they must have brought them out to us when we were moving into our house because he cannot figure out why on earth he would have stuck the box on top of the freezer and simply forgotten. I can’t either. So – guess who are the forgetful ones and need to eat a little humble pie? My in-laws are visiting family in Pennsylvania right now so when they return we’ll have them over for Shabbat dinner and thank them properly.

Even the children were thanking the Father for this blessing – a blessing that has been in our garage for at least 3 years while we occasionally searched thrift stores looking for a blessing there. It’s been under our own roof the entire time. What a lesson….

—
* Edited 9/23/07 due to several visitors searching for Shabbat Blessings and not finding the information they were looking for.