This Ritual Life Archive

Welcome to This Ritual Life.

Here you will find out about ways to enhance your holiday experience, to celebrate or mark a meaningful life cycle event, and to deepen your experience of the everyday. Our authors are especially interested in hearing your responses to what they have written. So after reading, visit the Ritual Life discussion forum where you can join in conversation with CLAL faculty and other readers.

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BLESSING CHILDREN ON SHABBAT

Our dependent and delicious newborns, our self-assured and adventurous youngsters, our rebellious yet loving teenagers… As our children keep changing, growing from infancy to adulthood, our relationship to them keeps changing, too. But our wishes for them stay the same always: We want them to be blessed with health and happiness; we want them to know how much they are loved. While in our hearts, we wish the very best for our children every moment of every day; an ancient Jewish practice of setting aside a special time each week to bless our children encourages us to express our wishes for them aloud.

MEDITATION

May I have the wisdom to know what blessing my child truly needs.

May my child be able to receive my blessing and to know my love is deep and unconditional.

RITUAL

Choose a special time each week, such as Friday night, at the start of the Sabbath, to give each child a personal blessing. You might want to use the ancient words, or you may want to combine them with your own words that express just what you feel. In Jewish tradition, parents place their hands on their children's heads as they bless them, but hugs also work, and so do just plain words. And if you're away from your children at your regular blessing time, you can still "keep the appointment" by phoning or e-mailing during the day. One father even photo-copies his hands and faxes them!

BLESSING

(For sons)

Yesimkha elohim k'efraim u'k'menasheh May God make you like Ephraim and Menasheh

(For daughters)

Yesimekh elohim k'sarah, rivkah, rachel, v'leah May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah

(For sons and daughters)

May God bless you and protect you May God's presence shine on you and be good to you, May God reach out to you tenderly and give you peace.

(Silently, or in a whisper, offer your personal blessing for this week.)

TEACHING

Noticing Joseph's sons, Israel asked, "Who are these?" And Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." "Bring them to me," he said, "that I may bless them." Now Israel's eyes were dim with age; he could not see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them…(and he blessed them saying,) "May the angel who redeemed me from all harm bless these lads; in them may my name be recalled. (Genesis 48: 8-10, 16) I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Eternal. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents…(Malachi 3:23-24)

Yevarekhekha Adonai v'yishmarekha May God bless you and protect you

(CLAL faculty)

CLAL's National Jewish Resource Center develops and publishes rituals that help to bridge the gap between our contemporary lives and the ancient wisdom of the Jewish tradition.