Who would you invite to your Shabbat table?

2014, we have asked our readers to voice their reflections on what certain prayers mean to them for our Shavuot edition: “To you, G-d, silence is praise”; the Shema; the mourner’s Kaddish; the prayer for healing. This year we asked something that stimulates imagination, longing, gravitas, even curiosity and humor — but it’s not about a prayer. It’s a hypothetical question, tantalizing and revealing: “If you could invite three guests you’ve never met, living or deceased, to your Shabbat table, who would they be, and why?” Guests could include Jews or non-Jews. Compared to the people whose lives have crossed ours, those we’ve never met comprise the vast majority. Biblical figures. Historical personages. Artists. Writers. Philosophers. Athletes. They are whispers we’ve tried to encounter through […]