There have been a lot of questions about how to say the baby’s name, so I will do my best to make that one easy for everyone.
For those of you who know Hebrew, the name is חַיהַ. In English, we are spelling it “Chaya”. It is pronounced “Chai’-uh”:
Still having trouble? Hear me say it!
This was our fourth pregnancy; we lost the first three babies in miscarriages between the 8th and 12th weeks. We chose the name Chaya for this baby because we feel that G-d has given her to us as a blessing of life (if Chaya had been a boy he would have been named Chaim - “life”). The amazing thing is that G-d has used the specifics of the birth to show us beyond a shadow of a doubt that He has blessed us with life.
First, the Gregorian calendar day on which Chaya was born bears some significance. The root word for “life” in Hebrew is chai, “חַי” (pronounced like the first part of our daughter’s name). In Hebrew, the letters of the alphabet all represent a number. This word’s two letters add up to the number 18.
Second, the week in which Chaya was born is significant for a very similar reason. We were not expecting her to be born until sometime in November, so her early arrival was a complete surprise! The cool thing is that she arrived in the 36th week—double chai!
The third connection is the one that really stands out the most to me. In Judaism we read portions of the Torah (Pentateuch) every week throughout the year. The cycle starts over with Genesis right after the festival of Sukkot in the Fall. The portion that we studied the week Chaya was born, is called Lech Lecha [Genesis 12-17], which literally means “go forth” or “get yourself out” (that’s pretty fitting, huh?). The passage introduces us to Abraham and sets the stage for his dealings with G-d. G-d tells Abraham that He will bless him with a son, and that that son’s descendants will inherit the land that G-d was giving to Abraham, the land later called Israel. In this portion, we also see G-d telling Sarah that she would birth a son, even though she is barren.
Those of you who know me well know that I am not big on super-spiritualizing the writings in the Scriptures; therefore I will not go into a discussion on how Lech Lecha really applies only to our little Chaya. However, I will say that it blesses me immensely that G-d saw it fitting to bring Chaya to us on this particular day, in this particular week of our pregnancy, and in the week for this particular parsha. Plus, Chaya is 18 inches long. :)
Chaya’s birth was a beautiful, wonderful event. We saw G-d working throughout the entire process, bringing Lindsey and me the emotional and physical support that we needed, right when we needed it.
Thank you all for your support and your prayers. We have been blessed by your love, and we hope that we can be a blessing to you in return.
One of the foundational elements of Judaism is the circumcision of male children (called brit milah, or bris), thus the celebrations related to a bris have been around for centuries. While female children did not originally have a specific celebration associated with their births, the need for such a celebration was felt by many over the centuries.
In Sephardic communities (Jews of Spanish, Middle Eastern, or North African heritage) a special ceremony for baby girls arose in the 14th to 16th centuries. The celebration is called zeved habat, or “gift of the daughter.” The name for the ceremony derives from Genesis 30:20, in which the matriarch Leah states following the birth of her son Zevulun, “Zevedani Elokim oti zeved tov,” or “G-d has granted me a good gift.”
Rambam explains that the word zeved is comprised of two words: zeh bad. The meaning of the words zeved tov would thus be zeh bad tov, “this is good material.” The conventional interpretation (according to Onkelos as well) is “a good portion.” According to Ibn Ezra, Zevulun and Dinah were twins. This might be the original connection between the zeved ceremony and the birth of a girl.
While other celebrations have arisen in the Jewish community, we chose to follow the Sephardic tradition because we are much more connected to it through our rabbi, who is Sephardic.
We have two items available here that come from Chaya's Zeved HaBat. One is the Order of Service, which you should feel free to draw from if you like. Be aware that the Hebrew portions are all copyrighted by other sources. We also have available Joshua's Devar Torah (Torah teaching) that he gave at the ceremony.