Bookstore Glossary Library Links News Publications Timeline Virtual Israel Experience
Anti-Semitism Biography History Holocaust Israel Israel Education Myths & Facts Politics Religion Travel US & Israel Vital Stats Women
donate subscribe Contact About Home

Birthday

The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual. A comparatively late exception, however, is the *bar mitzvah and the bat mitzvah. The only reference to a birthday in the Bible is that celebrated by Pharaoh (Gen. 40:20). In Reform and Conservative synagogues, special prayers of thanksgiving are recited on the occasion of significant birthdays (e.g., 50th, 70th, 80th, etc.) and at silver and golden wedding anniversaries.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Rabbi's Manual (1928–19622), 45–49, CCAR (Reform); J. Harlow (ed.), Likkutei Tefillah, A Rabbi's Manual (1965), Conservative, 51–55.


Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.