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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.

Latest Rituals

Invoking the prophetess Devorah and symbolically wrapping tzitzit to welcome a baby girl

baby girl in white headband and red dress
The ceremonial first haircut for a child at the age of three.
toddler boy with curly hair running

Recalls the concept of the Sheva Berakhot used in a wedding ceremony

newborn girl

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

face of newborn baby

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.

single-small-white-candle-on-table

Some couples wrap the baby in a tallit, perhaps the one used as their huppah, as a symbol of covenant or welcome

two hands holding tallit fringes

A symbol of life, love, and renewal at a baby naming ceremony

cinnamon and star anise

With Hebrew, a traditional blessing

newborn baby with dark hair

Excerpted from an original babynaming ceremony in which the baby is welcomed into the covenant by anointing her with breast milk

womans hands touching baby

The Reconstructionist Network

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Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

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Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

Join the Ritualwell community to explore rituals that will bring a sense of sacred awareness to your Thanksgiving table and into your everyday life!

Jewish practices provide us with valuable frameworks to foster awareness and joy through gratitude.

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