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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.

Photo by Jordan Cassway

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) [MP3]

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

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

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

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

Seven Blessings

Recalls the concept of the Sheva Brachot which follow a wedding ceremony [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant, shehekheyanu , yotzer

Excerpted from Seder Brit Eloheha

Excerpt from an original babynaming ceremony in which the baby is welcomed into the covenant by perfuming her ears with myrtle. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant

Mikveh

Some families immerse the newborn in a small mikveh, symbolic of the covenant. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant, mikveh

A Ner Nishamah

Lighting a candle, symbolic of the new soul born into the world. Can also be used like a yahrzeit candle to recall the departed soul for whom the baby is named. Also a covenantal symbol. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: candle lighting, covenant