Zeved habat

The tradition & historical record

Zeved habat (Hebrew: זֶבֶד הַבָּת - Gift of the Daughter) or Simchat Bat (Hebrew: שמחת בת - Celebration of the Daughter) is the Jewish naming ceremony for newborn girls. The details of the celebration varies somewhat by Jewish community and will typically feature the recitation of specific biblical verses and a prayer to announce the name of the newborn child. The ceremony is also known by other names including Fadas, Brit Bat (Hebrew: ברית בת - "Covenant of the Daughter") or Brit Kedusha (Hebrew: ברית קדושה - "Covenant of Holiness"). A medieval naming ceremony for girls, according to the custom of some medieval Ashkenazi communities, was known as a Hollekreisch (Yiddish: חול־קרייש), or Shabbat Hayoledet ("Sabbath of the Birth Mother"). ¹

The practice of Zeved Habat is recorded as a custom of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in various communities including Moroccan Jews, Syrian Jews, the Sephardic community in England and of Cochin Jews of India. The ceremony is listed in a book of prayers published in 1687 associated with the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam. In the mid-20th century, following the development of the Havurah movement and the rise of Jewish feminism, American Jews took a renewed interest in both new and traditional ceremonies for welcoming baby girls. For American Jews who did not previously maintain the tradition of a naming ceremony for newborn girls, one strategy has been to recover older Jewish traditions to meet the present ritual needs of the community. It is likely that the first such ceremony to be formulated for Jews outside of the Sephardi and Mizrahi communities was a ceremony developed by rabbis in Reconstructionist Judaism in the 1970s. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, other American Jews from various denominations, including individual Orthodox families, also formulated various ceremonies often referred to as a Simchat Bat. At the same time, some Orthodox scholars, including Moshe Meiselman and Judith Bleich, raised opposition to new ceremonies, while Rabbi Shlomo Riskin at the Lincoln Square Synagogue supported the incorporation of the ceremony as Orthodox custom. In the case of Anglo-speaking Orthodox communities, a modified version of the Zeved Habat ceremony has been added to established Orthodox prayerbooks (alongside the standard Ashkenazi mi sheberach) since the early 2000s with the support of UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. ¹

In Jewish legal literature, the Zeved Habat event is cited as either taking place in the synagogue during the Torah reading of the Shabbat service, when the father receives an aliya, or the ceremony may take place at the home in the course of a festive meal. Some Jewish communities have the custom of waiting until the mother has recovered and can enter the synagogue for the ceremony to take place. The event is also treated as an appropriate occasion for the mother of the newborn to recite the traditional blessing of thanksgiving, known as Hagomel. Some Jews have the custom to hold the Zeved Habat ceremony on the first Shabbat from the birth. The Hebrew word zeved is understood to be a somewhat rare word and appears just once in the Pentateuch in Genesis 30:20 where Leah offers thanks to God for the birth of Zebulon. The Hebrew word used in the verse may mean "gift" or "dwelling". The custom is for a verse from Song of Songs 2:14 to be recited. And if the newborn is also the firstborn child, the custom is for an added verse of Song of Songs 6:9 to be recited. Following this recitation, a Mi sheberakh blessing is recited (see text below) which includes the namegiving prayer. Some communities maintain the custom that the rabbi holds the newborn while reciting the verse(s) from Song of Songs. ¹

In this ceremony, a Mi sheberakh prayer (below) is used to announce the name of the child. The wording to the prayer varies somewhat by Jewish community. For some, the prayer begins with Mi sheberakh imoteinu hakedoshot ("The one Who blesses our Holy Mothers"). Additionally, the prayer ends with added verses relating to the matriarch Rebekah. Other versions include the phrase v'kol hakehilot hakedushot v'hatehorot ("and all the holy and pure congregations") following the mention of the prophetesses. Additionally, some editions specify that the child be named with mention of her mother's name ([name of the newborn] bat [name of the mother]). In some versions, the words imoteinu ("our mothers") and beYisrael ("in Israel") are omitted. In other versions, such as those from the Moroccan Jewish community, they are included. ¹

In the Sephardi community, the Zeved habat is usually celebrated within the first month of the birth. It is held privately in the synagogue or at a party at home. It is often led by the ḥakhám (rabbinic sage) or hazzan (cantor). One custom is for the following to be recited: ¹

One custom is for the father of the newborn to recite a Hebrew poem which begins with Ayuma marayich hareini. ¹

A common element of the ceremony is the birth mother's thanksgiving for following the birth. The blesing recited is known as Birkat HaGomel ("Blessing of Deliverance"). ¹

Others include a recitation of Psalm 128, and the Priestly Blessing (Birkat kohanim). ¹

The original Ashkenazi practice does not include a Zeved Habat ceremony and instead involves a minor prayer for name giving. However, in the 20th Century, the Zeved Habat ceremony, often renamed as a Simchat Bat ceremony has become accepted in various Ashkenazi communities. Many Ashkenazi communities use a prayer for the health of a mother and newborn, recited by someone called up to read from the Torah scroll, as an opportunity to name a baby girl. According to the Chabad Hasidic custom, it is preferable for the newborn girl to be named at the earliest possible Torah reading in the synagogue (whether on Monday, Thursday, Shabbat or other day which include a public Torah reading), however, other customs are also cited such as those who wait until the Shabbat when a greater celebration may occur and the Sephardi custom of Zeved Habat. According to Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (1804-1886), in terms of the aliyah for the father of a newborn girl, preference is given to the one whose wife (the mother of the newborn) comes to the synagogue. The Ashkenz mi sheberach includes the following: ¹

The contemporary Simchat Bat ceremony has become an accepted custom among modern-Orthodox Jews of Ashkenazi background as an adaptation of the Zeved Habat ritual. The uniqueness of the ceremony is that it may be presented as non-traditional and female-focused, in which women play a role alongside men. One possibility for this acceptance of the Simchat Bat in modern Orthodox Judaism is that it is a ceremony with no major Jewish legalistic (halakhic) implications and which does not intrude upon male ritual space. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Zeved habat”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Zeved habat is Jewish naming ceremony for newborn girls, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²