Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, The Cycle of Life, Zeved HaBat
Can copy this into an AI, or connect the whole library to your assistant. For deeper learning, you can directly use the original seforim, sites, and apps.
ZEVED HABAT There has long been a custom among Sephardim – increasingly adopted by Ashkenazim – to mark the birth of a daughter with a special ceremony known as Zeved HaBat (“the gift of a daughter”), during which the baby is named and blessed. We give expression to our thanks to God for the miracle of a new life, and pray that His blessings should accompany her through the course of her life. If food is served at the ceremony, the meal has religious significance (seudat mitzva), and should be accompanied by words of Torah.
יוֹנָתִי My dove in the clefts of the rock: Song of Songs 2:14.
אַחַת הִיא There is one alone: Song of Songs 6:9.
יְשִׂמֵךְ May God make you like: the traditional blessing given by parents to daughters. יְבָרֶכְךָ יהוה May the LORD the Priestly Blessing (Num. 6:24–26).
וִיהִי רָצוֹן May it be the will: Taken from a traditional blessing given by parents to children on the eve of Yom Kippur.
הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר הִתְהַלְּכוּ אֲבֹתַי לְפָנָיו May God before whom my fathers: the blessing given by Jacob to the children of Joseph (Gen. 48:15–16), the only instance in the Torah of a grandparent blessing grandchildren.
אֲחֹתֵֽנוּ Our sister: the blessing given to Rebecca by her family (Gen. 24:60).