Simchat Bat ~ Naming our Daughter

In Judaism the Torah states that a baby boy will be circumcised on the 8th day of life. There is no specific timeline or requirement for a baby girl.

Yiftach and I had previously discussed how we wanted to handle this ritual for our children and had decided that we wanted our childrent to enter this covenant on equal ground no matter what their gender; so we had always planned to hold a Brit Milah for a boy and a Simchat Bat for a girl on the 8th day of his/her life. But as we have discovered, life does not always cooperate!

Our beautiful daughter was born on a Sunday and her Simcaht Bat would have taken place the following Sunday in ordinary circumstances. But her arrival and subsequent need to be in the hospital for 10 days of antibiotics was anything but ordinary. So plan B for her naming went into effect.

Using a Sephardic tradition we were honored with an aliyah the Shabbat morning following Hadarya's birth. Usualy this is just the father, as the mother is with the baby often still in the hospital. We were called to the torah, prayers were said, and our daughter was given her name to the community present. Very dear, wonderful friends sponsored a lunch at the shul following the service. This allowed us to share her name, add her to the community healing list, and ineveitably gave the Grandparents more time to plan a bigger party with her in attendance.

Hadarya Tali's Simchat Bat was held November 24, 2006, the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was held at the synagogue downtown that is now a historical building and where I sit on the Board of Directors. It also is the same building in which her namesake, Grandma Helen, worked for many years as the religious school secretary. A special place with special memories for a special event in our lives.

The ceremony was held in the sanctuary where we incorporated many aspects from our wedding ceremony and a host of new things found from lots of different sources. Our daughter was carried into the sanctuary by her Auntie Kimber (my ) and then handed through a group of friends and family who represented a strong line of leadership, caring, kindness, love, compassion, and friendship. She went from Marcia to Kara to Elissa to Kim to Jennifer to Tamar to Jeanne to Karen to Auntie Shlomit to Nana to Savta to Grandma to me.

We used a chuppah that was held by Grandpa, Saba, Uncle Dave, and friend Igor. The "roof" was a tallit that Yiftach and I made before our wedding from a favorite blanket. At our wedding this chuppah represented the home we would make together and now represented our home that we would bring our daughter into. We lit 2 candles that had been part of our adoption preparation classes through the county and added a 3rd candle for our daughter that was lit from those two lights.

We wrapped our daughter in my tallit that has the 4 matriarchs names in the corners--Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah and then we shared our hopes, dreams, and explained her name to the almost 100 people sharing our ceremony. Hadarya Tali was named for my maternal Grandma Helen. We hope she will exhibit Grandma's sense of compassion and humanity as well as her involvement in the Jewish Community. We also blessed her with Sheva Brachot (7 Blessings) as was done for us at our wedding. We were honored that our families all shared a blessing of love, hope, traditions, and thoughts for her.

We blessed our daughter with the priestly blessing:
"May the Lord bless and keep you. "
"May the Lord cause her spirit to shine upon you and be gracious unto you."
"May the Lord turn her spirit unto you and grant you peace."

The Grandparents provided a delicious lunch with adorable decorations and centerpieces. Our daughter slept through the whole affair and we got to spend time with amazing friends and family.

It was a day that is burned into our memories as we welcomed our daugter publicly into our community and shared our love for her with our friends and family. It was a day that separated our lives from before we were paernts into now we are parents as we took our place among the crowd as a couple with a child. A place we've longed to be for quite some time.