Zeved habat
[1][3] 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.
[1] 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.
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.
[2] 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.
[19] Some Jewish communities have the custom of waiting until the mother has recovered and can enter the synagogue for the ceremony to take place.
[14] 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.
[3] Other versions include the phrase v'kol hakehilot hakedushot v'hatehorot ("and all the holy and pure congregations") following the mention of the prophetesses.
One custom is for the father of the newborn to recite a Hebrew poem which begins with Ayuma marayich hareini.
[citation needed] The original Ashkenzai practice does not include a Zeved Habat ceremony and instead involves a minor prayer for name giving.
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.
[26] The Ashkenz mi sheberach includes the following: 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.
In the modern Orthodox ceremony, a number of additional elements are added to the traditional Zeved Habat ceremony including the public sharing of a Torah lesson (dvar Torah) often by the parent or a friend, readings about female biblical figures, and an explanation of the name chosen for the newborn.
[18] A Simchat Bat celebration may consist of a communal welcoming, a naming done over a cup of wine with the quotation of appropriate Biblical verses, and traditional blessings.
[citation needed] In the Ashkenazi community, name ceremonies for newborn girls were not widespread[citation needed] and often limited to the father announcing the baby's name in the synagogue on the Shabbat, Monday, Thursday or other occasion when the Torah would be read following the birth.
[clarification needed] In early German Jewish communities, a baby naming ceremony was developed for both girls and boys called a Hollekreisch[27] (possibly meaning 'secular shout',[28] or relating to the mythical Frau Holle[8]), in which the infant's crib was raised and the newborn received their secular names.
