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Welcoming & Raising Children

We greet each child with affection and joy. Every baby comes to us full of promise and potential. As parents, we are privileged to welcome them into our families, our communities and the embrace of the Jewish people. Raising children to adulthood, we encounter many milestones along the way. Children are weaned, lose their teeth, and start school. Some get their driver’s licenses and eventually leave home for good. Here are rituals for welcoming children and for celebrating the milestones on their paths to adulthood.

A Welcoming Ritual

Awakening a child's senses by anointing with oil and sharing inspirational verses [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant, welcoming

Elijah Comes Tonight

A fun rendition for welcoming Elijah into your home [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals, Ending Shabbat: Havdalah, Songs at the Seder Table

Tags: Elijah

Prayer for Making First Decisions About Gender for a Child

Prayer for Jewish parents as they name, welcome, and make first decisions about gender for their child [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals, Gender & Sexual Identity

Tags: LGBTIQ, naming, welcoming

Brit Otiyot - Covenant of Letters

Welcoming a baby girl while marking her with the letters of "Shadai" as a sign of the covenant [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: naming, welcoming

From our Forefathers

A blessing for a son, drawing inspiration from our forefathers [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah, Covenant & Naming Rituals, Childhood Milestones

Tags: torah

Hinay Ma Tov (Psalm 133)

An upbeat and funky melody for this popular song from Pslam 133 [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals, Friday Evening, Saturday, Daily Prayer & Mindfulness

Simkhat Bat - A Welcoming Ceremony For a New Daughter

Invoking the prophetess Devorah and symbolically wrapping tzitzit to welcome a baby girl [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant, Debbie Friedman, mi sheberakh, shehekheyanu , tzitzit, welcoming

Upshirin Ceremony

The ceremonial first haircut for a child at the age of three. [more]

Found In: Childhood Milestones

Tags: shehekheyanu , upshirin

Belly Buttons and the Torah

Capturing the Tree of Life pattern by creating a placenta print [more]

Found In: Childbirth

Tags: placenta

A Grandparent's Prayer for a New Grandchild

A prayer to be said upon holding a grandchild for the first time [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals, Grandparenting