Becoming an Elder

It is a great privilege to become an elder—to grow in wisdom and have the capacity to share it with others. We celebrate this gift with prayers, blessings, and rituals to mark our passage into the next phase of adulthood.

Latest Rituals

Source sheet pairing verses from Eicha with voices of immigrant parents separated from their children

Third Age Ritual
Elders’ Prayer

“God lives inside my walker…”

black and white photo of walker zimmer
A poem acknowledging we each have divine gifts.
For Sharing Divine Gifts

Four Questions to interview Jewish women at Passover

adult grandchild and grandmother at dinner table

A ceremony which adapts traditional texts and facilitates an individualized ceremony to honor those whose memory we wish to perpetuate

Kavod Ha’em – Honoring a Foremother
How Rosh Chodesh ceremonies enable nursing-home residents to live in a cycle of significant moments
older woman face in profile

Questions for an intergenerational Thanksgiving conversation

Appreciating Our Elders

The Reconstructionist Network

Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement

Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues

Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

Jewish Spiritual Autobiography

 Writing a spiritual autobiography helps you to discover how teachers, touchstones, symbols and stories have led you to make meaning and understand the sacred in your personal story. In this immersion, join Ritualwell’s Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, a writer and spiritual director, to map out and narrate your most sacred life experiences. Four sessions starting May 16, 2024. 

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The Reconstructionist Network