Bat Mitzvah Prayer
The ways we are
May the Compassionate One grant
PEACE, if not love;
acceptance, if not friendship,
between the children of Hagar and the children of Sarah.
May women accept one another for who they are
and leave off “despising” the other [Genesis 16:4].
May men allow their children to claim their own identities;
neither expelling them [Genesis 21:14],
nor sacrificing them on the altar of their own vision
[Genesis 22:10].
May we all relinquish the need to
“be built up” through our children [Genesis 16:2].
In doing so, may we be freed to enjoy
the incomparable radiance they shed upon our lives.
AMEN.
A blessing composed by Menorah Lebowitz Rotenberg and inserted
into the Grace After Meals on the occasion of the bat mitzvah of her
daughter, Elizabeth Michal Rotenberg.
Though the references in this particular prayer are not from the bat
mitzvah girl’s specific Torah portion, the author suggests that prayers
deriving from the week’s parsha are beautiful additions to birthday
celebrations, retirement rituals, weddings, Rosh Hodesh ceremonies,
anniversary and graduation parties, baby namings and the like.
