Becoming a Jewish Adult

The path to adulthood is full of twists and turns. From celebrating a bar/bat mitzvah to leaving home for the first time, this is a journey fraught with new freedom, new responsibilities, and an abundance of complex emotions. We offer blessings, prayers and rituals that help parents and children use a Jewish vocabulary to describe this journey—and to experience it as richly as possible.

Photo by Jordan Cassway

What Does "Today I Am a Man" Mean Today?

By Rabbi Daniel Brenner | Blog

As part of bar mitzvah training, boys should brush up against some of the “traditional” values that have defined Jewish men—a love of communal learning and debate, an understanding of the powerful role that comedy plays in coping with oppression, a responsibility to bury one another and to mourn together. Even in egalitarian communities, there are times when men benefit specifically from the support of other men. [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Learning to Drive

Shared by Loren Amdursky | Ritual Component

Blessings and meditations for the new driver and his/her teacher [more]

Found In: Driver's License

Tags: shehekheyanu

Blessing for My Daughter at Her Bat Mitzvah

Shared by Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik | Prayer

A mother's blessing for her daughter's journey into adulthood [more]

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

Tags: tallit, tzitzit

From our Forefathers

Rachel Gruenberg | Prayer

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

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

Tags: torah

Blessing the Graduate

From Kolot | Prayer

Modern blessings for a daughter or son [more]

Found In: Covenant & Naming Rituals, Friday Evening, Graduation

Tags: Marcia Falk

Blessing for Adult Milestones

By Rabbi Elliot Rose Kukla | Prayer

A Jewish way to mark life’s passages [more]

Found In: Becoming a Jewish Adult, Retirement, Gender & Sexual Identity, Choosing & Affirming a Jewish Life, Growing Older

Tags: mi sheberakh

Talmud Berachot 17a

By Lawrence Kushner, Translator | Reading

"May your eyes sparkle with the light of Torah and your ears hear the music of its words" — a prayer for our children based on a talmudic passage [more]