Endings & Beginnings

Our lives are shaped by a series of stories, each with its own narrative arc. We leave home and welcome people to our home; we enter our reproductive years and leave them; we end one piece of our life’s work and begin another. Endings and beginnings are bittersweet—we celebrate each with the awareness of the other.

Latest Rituals

A Blessing for Making Aliyah

“May your journey be one of peace, equanimity, love, justice, compassion, understanding, and a deep sense of home and community.”

When Hope is Crushed

When hope is crushed, // Is it like clods of earth ground to mud, sticking in foulness to my boots as I walk?

change, despair, empathy, hope

A Prayer of Thanks After Your Child’s B’nei Mitzvah When You’re Divorced

Our family, so shattered, so seemingly broken, was given new life today.

B Mitzvah, divorce, gratitude, joy, miracle

A Blessing for Transitioning a Beloved Pet Across the Rainbow Bridge

A beautiful prayer for when you say goodbye to a beloved animal companion.

Animal companions, grief, pets, prayer, rainbow bridge

Prayer on the Commencement of a Pilgrimage

“May every footstep and contemplation reveal the divine within, in whose image we are made”.

Salvage

What was the artist’s aim? / To say … Here I am

angels, change, impermanence, time

A Prayer for Returning to Sleepaway Camp

“Holy One of Blessings, I’m returning to my sleep away camp; / my happy place; my holy ground…”

community, summer camp, welcoming

A Jewish Ritual For Menopause

This ritual is intended for marking the end of the 12-month absence of menstrual bleeding after which a woman is considered officially menopausal.

menopause, menstruation

Ritual Template for the Closing of a Jewish Education Experience

This lovely ritual can be used across educational settings

graduation, Jewish education

Blessing for Goodbyes

“To you, oh God of change, passage, flux, upheaval, and progress / be with us as the seasons turn…”