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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

New Brit Milah (excerpts)

A brit milah incorporating readings and personal touches [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision, covenant, Martin Buber, shehekheyanu

Creative Brit Milah

Three ceremonies for a boy's brit milah, with readings and explanations. Includes options for circumcision at the ceremony or not. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision, Elijah, naming

Simchat Ben

Phrases from the Bible are used to form an acrostic of the child's name - a tradition in ceremony and prayer - in this welcoming ceremony for an adopted son who has not yet undergone conversion. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: naming, welcoming

A Mother’s Prayer at Her Son's Circumcision

Celebrating the gift of life through faith, love, and courage [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision

A Grandparent's Prayer

A blessing of gratitude [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: grandparents

A Letter to God

A mother expresses her ambivalence about circumcision in this powerful letter [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision

Struggling with Circumcision

A letter from a father to his son about his conflicted decision to circumcise him [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision

Jewish Feminist Ritual and Brit Milah

How Jewish feminism is influencing this boys' ritual and enlarging meaning [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision

Reflection on an Interfaith Brit Milah

An intermarried mother reflects on her son's bris (circumcision) [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: circumcision, interfaith

Zeved Habat Origin

The biblical foundation of the centuries-old Sephardic tradition for welcoming a newborn girl [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: Sephardi, welcoming