A Ceremonies Sampler
A CEREMONIES SAMPLER edited by Elizabeth Resnick Levine (Woman’s Institute for Continuing Jewish Education. 1991. $9.95) brings together twenty-two innovative rituals for Jewish women. Included are pregnancy, birth, and mothering; healing and leave-taking: maturation and milestones; and holiday celebrations. There is a Chanukah ritual that emphasizes the role of women; an invitation to women to visit the sukkah [ushipizin]; and rituals for losses including separation from close friends, hysterectomy, divorce, and death. Some of the ideas may seem awfully esoteric (e.g. a ceremony for becoming a vegetarian), others may help women generate their own personal rituals.