Type: Complete Ceremony

A Rosh Chodesh ritual that draws on Tu B’Av’s traditional association with the celebration of women and love to honor communally the love and losses that shape so much of our experiences of any given year

This ceremony uses the occasion of havdalah, the service separating Shabbat from the week, to mourn a miscarriage

A mourning ceremony for twins who died before birth

Selections and adaptations from a larger ceremony

Havdalah ceremony after a miscarriage or abortion

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

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.

A ritual to be performed in a women’s group focusing on the new mother

A ceremony for a woman about to give birth, based on the Navajo custom of the blessingway

The couple uses the metaphor of tashlich (casting bread upon the water) as renewal to transform their suffering