Sanctifying Relationships

A couple embraces joyfully in a sunlit forest with golden autumn leaves around them.

Relationships bring people together in a unique connection. This is something to celebrate, whether through the public festivity of a wedding, or in the private reflection of immersion in the mikveh. Sanctifying our relationships elevates these unions and gives them a context of meaning and joy.

Latest Rituals

The text of the sheva brakhot in Hebrew and translation, an explantion, feminist considerations, two alternative same-sex texts, and an additional prayer for heterosexual couples to add for same-sex partners whose love is not yet sanctified and recognized in the same way

two simple gold wedding bands

This beautiful Covenant of Love ceremony begins with havdalah and is filled with personal expressions of love and well-chosen readings. This ceremony is both a good example of how a lesbian couple reckoned with tradition and also how to make a ceremony extremely personal.

two women holding hands

A new legal formulation for kinyan as acceptance, rather than purchase

wedding band on a piece of wood

Seven wedding blessings adapted for two men

two men in suits with bow ties

Written for two men; adaptable for any two partners

two wedding rings

A look at the sociological and demographic implications of intermarriage in the Jewish community along with things a prospective interfaith couple should know about Jewish attitudes, family, rabbinic officiation, the ceremony, negotiating the Jewish community after the wedding, and conversion

bride and groom hands

A certificate by which a non-Jew joins his/her fate to the Jewish people without formally converting and a marriage contract for a Jew and a ger toshav (resident stranger)

man in yarmulkah

Sue and Ben wrote a “verbose but helpful guide” to their wedding which is both traditional and egalitarian (incorporating both kiddushin and shutafut)

bride and groom on the beach

An informative wedding booklet which walks the reader through all the traditional elements of a Jewish wedding ceremony

bride and groom in field

A wedding booklet describing one couple’s choices for a traditional-egalitarian Jewish wedding

bride and groom in field

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

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The Reconstructionist Network