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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

Traditional Blessing for Naming a Daughter

With Hebrew, a traditional blessing for a girl [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: naming

Deuteronomy 29:9-13

God incorporates all future generations into the covenant at Mt. Sinai. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant

Every Person Born into This World

Readings celebrating the uniqueness of each child [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: Martin Buber

Traditional Sephardic Mishebeirach for Naming a Daughter

With Hebrew, a traditional Sephardic blessing for a girl [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: naming, Sephardi

Naming Formula – Mishebeirach

From a traditional Zeved Habat, with slight modifications [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: naming

From Our Foremothers

Modern prayer invoking the foremothers [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals, Choosing & Affirming a Jewish Life

Genesis 17:1-16

God makes a covenant with Abraham, commands Abraham to circumcise himself and his descendants, and changes Abraham and Sarah’s names. [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: covenant

The Naming

Giving the first gift, the gift of a name [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: naming

May the One Who Blessed Our Mothers

Modern prayer in Hebrew and English invoking the matriarchs [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals

Tags: mi sheberakh, naming