Becoming a Jewish Adult

A young person reads from a Torah scroll with two adults by their side, in a ceremonial setting.

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.

 

Latest Rituals

A range of ideas to help a mother create a ritual for her child’s first period
A crescent moon in a soft, pastel sky with pink and orange clouds at dusk or dawn.
A reading for passing the Torah through intergenerational family members.
A group of women in a temple gather for a ceremony, one holding a baby wrapped in a green blanket.
Our family, so shattered, so seemingly broken, was given new life today.
a person in a purple tallit gathers the four tzit-tzit in their hands
“Today you stand before us and make us proud…”
an oak tree with a brown trunk and green leaves stands in foreground
A beautiful wedding day prayer from parent to child.
a bride steps out of a car
An interpretive version of the Threefold Benediction.
a table with kippot
This ritual is designed for an adult B’nei Mitzvah cohort in advance of their service.
woman with long hair underwater
“I, my child, / will never tire / of bringing you / morning worm…”
a birds nest
“Today, as I affix mezuzot, as I say the shehekhayanu, / As I step into a new chapter of my life, / I take this moment to acknowledge / That my life is about to change.”
woman approaching colorful door
“I’m proud of you, my child, for the courage to step away from family and  familiarity / For venturing out to meet new people, try new things, discover a new You.”
teen jumping into a lake

The Reconstructionist Network

Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement

Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues

Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

Discover how Jewish folklore and personal memory can spark new poetry—join this creative immersion with poet Susan Comninos. 

Give voice to your own stories through the timeless power of myth and writing.

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The Reconstructionist Network