Prayer to be Said When Preparing to End a Pregnancy
Prayer to be recited when pregnancy must be ended therapeutically
Prayer After Miscarriage or Stillbirth
A prayer combining contemporary words and Hebrew selections from the High Holy Day Amidah (standing silent prayer)
A Prayer of Comfort Following a Miscarriage
A prayer to be said in synagogue for a couple who has experienced a miscarriage
Renew Me Like the Moon: Toward Healing after Miscarriage
Selections and adaptations from a larger ceremony
Creating a Ritual when None Exists
How one woman infused the tashlikh ritual with a dimension for coping with her loss
Havdalah after Losing a Baby
Havdalah ceremony after a miscarriage or abortion
Life in the Womb
A fanciful account, based on the Zohar, a mystical text, describing a baby’s life in the womb, during which time, a candle burns over the baby’s head enabling her to see from one end of the universe to the other and the angels teach her all of Torah.
Blessing for a Mother-to-Be
A prayer to be said by a group of friends or family for a woman close to giving birth using the symbolic red thread from Rachel’s Tomb
Celebrating Pregnancy
Describes the customs of Sephardic Jews who celebrated a woman’s first pregnancy by cutting the swaddling clothes at a festive gathering of women
M’ugelet
It is customary for pregnant women and women seeking to become pregnant to offer prayers to Rachel, Judaism’s mater dolorosa. Specifically, women visit Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem, wrap a red cord around the tomb, then cut it into smaller pieces which they tie around their own wrists. This ritual for a pregnant woman is based on this custom.
