Naming Ceremony

Tonight was a very special night for our neices Sara and Sophie Ellis. They received their Jewish names during the children's service called "Tot Shabbat" at Temple Beth Israel. For those who are not familiar with the ceremony, below is an excerpt from my paper I wrote Fall Term 2004 called The Rites of Passage in Jewish and Christian Life:

....Judaism now has a naming ceremony called Berit Hachayim for the female baby....With the mother, father and godparents present, the female baby is given her Hebrew name along with some prayers usually from the book of Psalms....

It was a wonderful service with lots of guitar music and a story told by the Rabbi who acted out the story with puppets. It was quite entertaining because there were multiple puppets (characters) he had to juggle while telling the story.