How to Bless Your Kids on Shabbat

Hi there,

When I launched GOLDA a few months ago, it was to solve a three-pronged problem: 

When it comes to being Jewish right now, a lot of us want to learn more, do more, and buy more—but there’s no one place to go for all that. I wanted to create something that felt smart, fun, and accessible.  

Something like GOLDA. 

In the past few months, we’ve introduced you to interesting people, given you books to read and movies to see—and shared lots of things to buy from Jewish artists and businesses. And we’re just getting started.

Today we’re turning to ritual, and a tradition that has grounded and comforted Jews for generations. 

I think a lot of us with small children have hugged them especially hard recently. As Shabbat nears, I realized there was one thing I wanted to do this week that I have never done before: I wanted to bless my daughter.

Blessing your children on Shabbat is a tradition that goes all the way back to the Torah, says Diana Fersko, senior rabbi at The Village Temple in Manhattan and co-host of the podcast How to Be a Jew. (I like to call her with all my rabbinic questions—or just show up at her apartment.)

Rabbi Fersko points out that there are a number of scenes in Torah of parents blessing children: Isaac with his sons Jacob and Esau near the end of his life, Jacob with his own sons as well as his grandsons Ephraim and Menashe.

I have friends who bless their children at the Shabbat table (hi, Reuben and Julianna!), and it’s an incredibly beautiful thing to watch. It’s also something that’s actually pretty easy to add into your Friday evening, regardless of what your Shabbat observance looks like. And if you miss it on Friday, there’s always Saturday.  

Some people even bless their pets on Shabbat. Here’s a good guide for your little lions of Judah—and an entertaining Reddit thread about it.  

Rabbi Fersko agrees that this is a meaningful moment to pick up the tradition. 

“I think the preciousness of our children is deeply salient this week, and it makes sense to me to add a ritual where we show appreciation and hope for blessing for our children,” she says.  

I asked Rabbi Fersko if there was anything else that we might be able to add into our daily lives to better appreciate our loved ones. She pointed out a mitzvah called Hakarat Hatov, or noticing the good.

“It’s an opportunity to fulfill a mitzvah that happens in our everyday lives,” she explains.
“It can be small things: When a child is willing to share with another child, or when a child works really hard and achieves something, or when a child feels proud of themselves.” 

“There are all kinds of these moments where we can notice the good in our family.” 

I love this idea. I think you might, too.

How to Bless Children on Shabbat

The first blessing for girls is for them to be like the matriarchs, and for boys to be like Ephraim and Menashe. Then there is a (very short!) priestly benediction from the Book of Numbers. 

There’s a great kids video from BimBam about these blessings, and I’m reproducing screenshots from it with the permission of Jewish educational genius Sarah Lefton. 

After these blessings, parents often add something they’re proud of their child for that week. 

Doing these blessings by phone or FaceTime counts, too. And there’s no age limit for being blessed. Mom, call me. 

For girls:

For boys:

Then, the Yevarechecha: 

I’d love to hear from you about this tradition. Do you have memories of being blessed as a child? Do you bless your kids—or pets!—every week? Did you try it out for the first time?

I’m all ears. And blessings.

Stay GOLDA,

Stephanie