Leaving Home

When children leave home, both parents and children experience mixed emotions. Parents may feel satisfaction that their children have attained the maturity and competence to venture out, even as they regret the emptiness they feel. Children may feel excitement and trepidation about embarking independently and also sadness as they leave their childhood home. Rituals such as those offered here can help everyone through this complex experience.

Latest Rituals

A poem about the wisdom in female friendship and laughter

Jewish Women & Laughter
A poem acknowledging we each have divine gifts.
For Sharing Divine Gifts

A ritual for saying goodbye to a sacred text or person

Goodbye Ritual

A poem for embracing chosen family

In Embrace of Ruth

How do we decide to be who we are meant to be?

A New Traveler’s Prayer

A prayer to be said upon a child leaving for college

two college women studying at a picnic table

From mezzuzahs to interfaith sharing, this is a fun and short introduction to the world of dedicating your new home.

How to Bring Judaism into your Home

Creating separation and offering blessings moves from their family home to their new college home

A Ritual for Parents and Students Upon Entering College

A midrash and personal story about how our children teach us the lessons that we refuse to learn as adults

man putting a box of clothes on top of a bed with striped sheets
A ritual for parents and children involving a havdalah service before leaving for college and the hanging of a mezuzah upon arrival
hand touching mulitcolored mezuzah

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

Presence and Absence: Images of the Divine in Kabbalah

In this study of the Zohar, Rabbi Margie Jacobs will guide you in exploring the Shekhinah, the feminine, immanent, indwelling Sacred Presence, through the use of art materials and reflective writing. Four sessions starting May 7, 2024. 

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The Reconstructionist Network