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Bar & Bat Mitzvah · Parent Speech Guide · Genesis

The Parent Speech for Parashat Bereshit

If your child is reading Bereshit, the speech you give that morning shouldn't be a book report on the portion — it should be about them, with the parsha giving your words weight. Bereshit hands a parent three honest ways in: creating something new, being your sibling's keeper, the power of words.

What happens in Parashat Bereshit

Creation, the first humans, Cain and Abel — beginnings and the first questions of responsibility.

1. Creating something new

The world is spoken into being step by step — creation is deliberate, and each day's work is called good.

The story to findWhen has your child built or started something from nothing — and stuck with it step by step?

2. Being your sibling's keeper

After Cain asks 'Am I my brother's keeper?', the Torah's implicit answer is yes — we are responsible for each other.

The story to findHow does your child look out for a sibling, cousin, or friend without being asked?

3. The power of words

Adam names every living creature — words define and dignify the world.

The story to findWhen has your child used words to make something or someone better — encouraging, explaining, standing up?

How a real parent speech comes together

The speeches that make a room go quiet aren't essays about the parsha — they're two or three true stories about your kid, with one Torah moment placed where it lands hardest. Pick the single theme above that made you think of a specific dinner-table moment, answer its question honestly, and resist the urge to attach a moral to every story. End with a blessing in your own words — that's the part everyone remembers.

Nachas writes it with you.

A ten-minute interview about your child, and you get a speech plan that pairs their real stories with Bereshit — then three complete drafts in different voices, for every speaker in the family.

Start with Bereshit — see your speech plan
The interview and speech plan are free. No signup.