Ok, so, as mentioned elsewhere on this board I converted to Orthodox Judaism a while back and Judaism is a very important part of my life. My views, however, have evolved (or devolved perhaps) over the years and my Judaism now resembles something more like Reform Judaism. Second, as also mentioned elsewhere on this board, my (non-Jewish*) wife is pregnant and we’re very excited. However, my wife is not keen on having our potential baby boy circumcised and, frankly, I’m not really fond of the idea, either. Also, we live in an area with a practically non-existent Jewish population: no synagogue, no rabbis, no mohel, and none that I know of in nearby areas, either (so no official ceremonies for a daughter or son are possible). But we do want to have a nice ceremony/party/ritual of some kind to celebrate the baby’s birth with family and friends and I’d like to solicit ideas from my fellow Jewish dopers. It should be suitably Jewish in content, definitely have a religious aspect to it, and…y’know…be nice and happy and fun and all that.
So please throw some ideas my way! Hebrew name ceremonies, songs that you think would be suitable, passages from siddur, Judaica that would be nice to use or display, modifications of traditional rituals, etc etc. Anything would be helpful.
*it need not be pointed out that my child, who will neither be born to a Jewish mother nor be officially converted to Judaism at the time of birth, wont officially be “Jewish.” We’re certainly a Jewish family & my kid will be raised with a Jewish identity…that’s good enough for me at this point.
Wait, there’re ceremonies and crap we’re supposed to do?
Crap, I didn’t get that memo.
That’s all beyond me, in my life the only “Jewish ceremonies” I’ve been to were a Bar and Bat Mitzvah (for two different individuals, unsurprisingly), I may have attended others and not remembered… but that’s not really valid, 'eh?
You can always rent a Rabbi, just pay for travel expenses…
Well, you don’t have to, I just think it would be nice to do. And I’d like to have at least something substantial for my kid… and in my neck of the woods we’re not going to be able to get a brit milah or anything like that. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are also impossible. I live in a country where upon telling someone that you’re a Jew the response usually is, "What’s a Jew?’ So I takes whatever I can gets. I guess that means thinking up something myself (with ideas from you guys) or doing without.
Nope, there’s no Jewish community at all in this part of the country. Ironic really, considering how many there used to be in the last century. I guess they all either passed away or moved to Israel. Of the small expat community, I think I maybe have met, like, one other Jew. It really is tough to be an observant Jew out here unless you live in Beijing or Shanghai, I guess.
Then, really, since he won’t be Jewish in that sense there is no need to circumcise him. If he wants to convert later and be completely official he can get “trimmed” at that point.
Probably not really helpful… It has become customary in Israel to have a “welcome to the world” party when a child is born – sort of taking the notion of a *Brit *and keeping just the party part (it’s done for girls, too… call, appropriately, a *“Brita” *:)) – The actual circumcision will normally be performed separately (for a boy), usually in a small family setting.
The “not helpful” part is in the fact that there’s nothing especially “Jewish” about all of it – it’s just a pretty much generic reception and lunch. And the boy or girl is passed around for all to adore. (Jeez, now I say it that way, it almost sounds Christian… :eek: :D)
On the whole, a lot of events that would be “uniquely Jewish” in the diaspora lose their “specialness” here in Israel, I guess. I guess you could just play some Jewish/Hebrew/Israeli music through the AP system, and serve hummus and falafel or something like that…?
I dunno…as some who has gone through a hatafat dam brit myself, I would prefer it to have been done when I was too young to know what the hell was going on. It’s pretty embarrassing (or was for me) to do when you’re older.
Also, I should mention that he/she wont be converted to Judaism at birth simply by grace of there not being anyone nearby who could do it. I would like my son/daughter to become a religious Jew, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for a rabbi who could help.
You’re also going to miss out on the mitzvah of the pidyon haben, required for a firstborn if male.
I would point out, though, that there is no requirement for a ceremony of any kind for bar mitzvah. When a Jewish boy turns 13, he IS bar mitzvah. Traditionally, a ceremony marks this occasion, but the ceremony itself is not a mitzvah.
