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The ceremonies marking the birth of a child, especially the birth of a daughter and her entry into the covenant of the Jewish people, reflect the encounter between ideological interpretation and liberal cultural and radical feminism. The classic sources of Jewish tradition viewed the birth of a daughter with at best limited joy, according to the dictum, “Happy is he whose children are males; alas for him whose children are females” (BT Bava Batra 16b). Therefore, the blessing which according to halakhah is recited by the father upon learning of the birth of a son— “Blessed be You, our Lord and God, Ruler of the Universe, who is good and who does good”—is not recited upon the birth of a daughter, though the blessing of She-Heheyanu is recited. Neither is there any ceremony mandated by halakhah that expresses the community’s joy upon the birth of a daughter. The only congregational expression for the birth of a girl in the pre-modern period was the honoring of her father with an aliyah to the Torah, which took place in only some congregations. In Descendants of the Jews who lived in Spain and Portugal before the explusion of 1492; primarily Jews of N. Africa, Italy, the Middle East and the Balkans.Sephardic synagogues, the cantor also sings verses from the Song of Songs in honor of the birth. In various ethnic groups the baby is welcomed with local folk ceremonies such as the hollekreisch, a ceremony customary in medieval Ashkenaz in which baby boys and girls were given their non-Hebrew names. Children would surround the baby’s cradle, raising and waving it from side to side while shouting “Holle! Holle!”

Simhat bat ceremonies that were feminist-inspired revived some of these folk traditions and added parts of various Jewish ceremonies (Lit. "distinction, division." The blessing recited at the close of the Sabbath and Festivals to indicate the distinction between holy and ordinary days.havdalah, immersion in the mikveh, ritual hand-washing, circumcision), as well as of Biblical, midrashic, and halakhic ceremonies. All these created a “weave of ceremony” of which no specific ceremony has so far emerged as definitive. On the contrary: most ceremonies include elements from various others.

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As with immersion, Jewish feminism has also given significance to several dates on the Hebrew calendar that have a midrashic connection with feminine motifs. These dates have become opportunities for ceremonial gatherings, the empowerment of Jewish feminists, and the creation of commentary and liturgy. First among them is Rosh Hodesh. According to the midrash (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer 45), the first day of the month was given to women as a reward for their refusal to surrender their jewelry to create the Golden Calf. The midrash maintains that because of this tradition women were more meticulous in celebrating Rosh Hodesh and even abstained from work on that day. Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac; b. Troyes, France, 1040Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040–1105) quotes this midrash in his commentary on the Talmud (Megillah 22b). With time, the custom fell into desuetude, though in some communities women customarily lit candles without a blessing on the eve of Rosh Hodesh. The original custom inspired groups of contemporary feminist women to meet at the beginning of every Hebrew month. As with simhat bat ceremonies, Rosh Hodesh has no fixed liturgical format. Orthodox feminists meet to study Torah and read from the Torah scroll on Rosh Hodesh morning, while others meet for study and discussion of a subject pertaining to the month that begins that evening. Still other groups emphasize ritual, including drama, artistic and creative activity and singing.

A similar interpretive process led to the creation of feminist A seven-day festival to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt (eight days outside Israel) beginning on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. Also called the "Festival of Mazzot"; the "Festival of Spring"; Pesah.Passover The "guide" to the Passover seder containing the Biblical and Talmudic texts read at the seder, as well as its traditional regimen of ritual performances.Haggadot and the holding of feminist seders for women, mostly during the intermediate days of the festival rather than instead of the family Lit. "order." The regimen of rituals, songs and textual readings performed in a specific order on the first two nights (in Israel, on the first night) of Passover.seder. Here, too, a traditional foundation inspired the feminist ceremony, in this case the midrash that “the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt thanks to righteous women” (BT Suspected adulteressSotah 11b). These midrashim stand in jarring contrast with the total absence of women from the traditional The "guide" to the Passover seder containing the Biblical and Talmudic texts read at the seder, as well as its traditional regimen of ritual performances.Haggadah and the patriarchal construction of the Passover seder. Despite the fact that the entire nation was redeemed from Egypt, the men, led by the male head of the family, recite the story of the Exodus while the women—who have cleaned and prepared the house for Passover for weeks before—serve the food they cooked during the previous days and wash the dishes.

The Haggadot recited by the women at the communal feminist seders stress both women’s contribution to Israel’s redemption from slavery and their own continued enslavement. Unlike the Passover Haggadah’s ideological intent, which emphasizes the freedom of the children of Israel even during times of subjugation and persecution, the object of feminist seders is to raise awareness of the hidden oppression of women, which they themselves tend to repress and internalize in various ways. Thus, some feminist Haggadot depict the Ten Plagues as ten kinds of subjugation of women, the Four Daughters as four types of women who respond to subjugation in four different ways, and so on. Such seders take place all over the world, attracting a growing number of women who see these events as an expression of women’s empowerment.

All the aforementioned ceremonies bestow feminist significance on events and dates in the Hebrew calendar and the human life cycle, as well as Jewish significance on events in a woman’s life. However, unlike these ceremonies, the “Mishkan Ceremony” developed by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of the Jewish Renewal Movement is based on a Native American tradition with which she became acquainted while serving as a rabbi in New Mexico. In this ceremony, a kind of “mishkan” is built for prayer that includes drumming, singing, dance, and immersion in a spring of living water, a mikveh. Its object is to strengthen those who participate in it, sometimes a single participant, via the group of women celebrating the ceremony. Like other women’s ceremonies in pre-modern Jewish communities (such as the North African shehur) that closely resembled ceremonies held by women in the surrounding community, here too the liturgy includes Biblical verses and passages of Hebrew poetry that emphasize the appeal to a “female Deity,” the Shekhinah.

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