Jewish Lifecycle

Confronting the issue of agunot, or "chained" wives.

It's important for the non-Jewish spouse to support the Jewish partner's religious identity, live in a Jewish home, and bring up Jewish children.

The celebration of an infant's weaning goes back to the feast Abraham held for his son Isaac.

A ritual in recognition of the author's miscarriage emerged from a year of studying about the infertile Hannah, who eventually had a child.

The Kaddish responds to three questions: Is there a God? Why do people die? What is the meaning of life?

The evolution of attitudes towards physicians, beliefs connecting illness and sin, prayers for healing, and the use of folk healing traditions.

The author adapts biblical texts to create a ritual that expresses the anguish of terminating a pregnancy

Through prayer and ritual during the month after the termination, the parents work through lingering feelings of guilt and sorrow.

Study in honor of dead; women reciting Kaddish; Kaddish integrating mourners into communities; and hiring someone to say Kaddish.

Shoveling dirt onto the coffin is the family's final ritual act of honoring the dead.