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.
Encouraging those in attendance of the bris to be present in feeling and accompanying the baby through his pain
A poem for the baby naming of a girl focusing on matrilineal connection across generations
A reading for a baby naming on Hanukkah
Shifting the focus away from the circumcision and toward welcoming
A prayer in English and Yiddish to be recited on the occasion of a son’s bris
Awakening a child’s senses by anointing with oil and sharing inspirational verses
Prayer for Jewish parents as they name, welcome, and make first decisions about gender for their child
Welcoming a baby girl while marking her with the letters of “Shadai” as a sign of the covenant
A blessing for a son, drawing inspiration from our forefathers
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
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