Lifecycles

Most mothers regard their pregnancies and the births of their children as high points of their lives. Similarly, the drama of infertility or miscarriage can overtake the lives of those suffering these tribulations. Despite the importance Judaism attaches to raising children, conception, pregnancy and childbirth receive almost no attention in the traditional Jewish liturgy. We are fortunate to have the techinot, prayers of supplication, of some of our female ancestors who prayed to God to conceive healthy children, to carry them safely through nine months of pregnancy, to birth healthy children and to sustain them to adulthood, and some of these techinot have, in recent years, been translated into English. However, insofar as the vast majority of our liturgy was codified by men, these events, so central to women's lives, did not figure actively in their imaginations. Perhaps these events mattered deeply to Jewish men but they lacked the personal experience from which words and prayers could arise.

This section of ritualwell seeks to correct this historic neglect. Here you will find prayers to conceive, prayers for childbirth, ceremonies for women about to become mothers, mourning ceremonies for miscarriages, and much more.