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C just turned 6 months, and we are getting ready to finalize (just waiting on the court date). My rabbi didn't want to do his conversion until we finalized, so now I'm getting ready for that as well (and very excited, by the way). We did his bris when he was placed (without the naming part), and are already scheduled for the mikveh, so it feels a little bit choppy. The rabbi offered me a couple of options, the first set being do I want to do his naming as part of a regular service or as a separate event, probably on a Saturday afternoon. I'm really torn about what I want to do; on the one hand, including it with a service could be really special, especially since we go regularly anyway. On the other, I have a lot of non-Jewish folks who I would also like to have come, and asking them to sit through a full Torah service seems maybe a little unfair, especially when I think about how uncomfortable I have been when I am at a special ceremony for a Christian friend that happens during a regular service. I had originally intended to do it during a service, but now I'm having second thoughts. I'm just wondering what other people have done and what it was like for you? Any thoughts? We're Reform, by the way, if that makes any difference in the matter.
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Mazal Tov! I think if you can't decide you should do both :clap: We had two namings for our older DD -- the first was in FL the first Friday night she was with us, but it was spontaneous so we couldn't invite family. The 2nd waqs part of a service at our home congregation about a year later, after her conversion. We did a separate service for our younger DD's naming because we wanted a personal friend who is a Rabbi and since it was mid-Oct we wanted to do it in a Sukkah. Both were great, but I think the separate one was extra special. Good luck,
I'd go for the synagogue service. In the synagogue to which I belonged when Becca came home, namings were held on Friday night. The Torah is normally read during the day on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, so unless your congregation is very Reform or does not have services on Saturday, for some reason, there will not be a "full Torah service". When I named my daughter, we had both Jews and non-Jews as guests. The non-Jews seemed to enjoy the service, especially since we had an excellent female cantor with a beautiful voice. Some just sat respectfully, while others joined the Jewish congregants in reading those passages that were familiar because they came from what Jews call the Tanach (Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim) and Christians call the Old Testament. In most Reform congregations, the family arranges with the Sisterhood to sponsor the Oneg Shabbat reception after the service. Coffee, tea, and punch are served, there are usually different varieties of pastries/cookies, and there may be fresh fruits or other goodies. You pay a fee, which is fairly modest, but the synagogue staffers do the setup and cleanup, and Sisterhood women do the actual pouring. I did not send out invitations or do anything formal to prepare for the naming. I just called or emailed people I knew and told them where and when the naming ceremony would occur. I had already sent out adoption announcements, so I saw no reason to run up more bills, just for letting people know that we were going to do a naming ceremony. It was summer, so the ceremony was normally held in the synagogue's small sanctuary, called the Bet Am (the people's house) instead of the main sanctuary -- and that was a perfect size for the small number of regular congregants, plus those of my relatives and friends who could attend. The room in which the reception was held was quite large, and the children who attended had the opportunity to work off a little energy there. A girl who was in my daughter's orphanage took her first unassisted steps that evening, which made me very pleased. I had told people I spoke to about the occasion that we did NOT see the naming as a "gift" occasion -- that we just wanted them to come and share the event with us. Despite that fact, so many people brought gifts that we had to borrow a trash bag from the kitchen staff to tote them all home in. Sharon
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