Living Torah
Rituals & Simchas
Lifecycle events tailored to you and your loved ones.
From beginning to end, I will be with you every step of the way. The planning and preparation is an important part of the journey. We'll get to know each other and connect with the intentions for the process and ritual. I will go through the basic details and options and we will learn where some of the options stem from in our tradition. I love seeing how we can renew traditions to fit into our lives while keeping us connected to their roots and wisdom.
Living Torah is fully inclusive and I work with families from all branches of Judaism, LGBTQ, converted Jews, and mixed-religion households etc. All are welcome!
Services
Please click the image of the service for more information.
Welcome to the World
Baby Naming
Upsherin
Coming of Age
B-Mitzvah
(Bar/Bat/Beit/B’nai/B’not)
You & Your Bashert
Tenaiim (engagement ceremony) Wedding
Renewal
Naming For All Ages
Mikvah (ritual immersion)
Celebration of Life
Funeral
Shiva Minyan
Unveiling
Welcome to the World
Baby Naming
Mazel tov on welcoming a new baby into this world! Rebbe Nachman said, “The day you were born was the day God decided the world could not exist without you.” Giving this precious new gift a name and a place in this world is magical. While you might have an English name picked out already, we can work together to give your child a Hebrew name and ritualize their welcoming to the Jewish community. Hebrew names are used when a child is called to the Torah and act as a way to tie them to family roots. There are endless beautiful ways to create a public or private ritual for a naming. It can be connected to a traditional Brit Milah or a ritual all on its own for any gender baby.
Upsherin
This is a ceremony that most people outside of the Orthodox world are not familiar with! I am personally very excited to renew this ritual for all families. As a licensed cosmetologist, I have always been interested in how important our hair is to our identity. It turns out that Jewish tradition shares this passion! There is a custom to wait to cut a child’s hair until they are three years old. When you get this haircut it is called an “upsherin”. This relates to the Torah laws of not picking fruit from a tree until it is three. We learn from this that the start of life is for taking in and strengthening. At the age of three both tree and child are ready to share their fruits with the world. It is a beautiful ceremony of marking this big milestone as a child begins to transform from a baby to a school age child. This ceremony can be a meaningful and fun part of a birthday party! (It is not a requirement that you have left their hair uncut since birth to participate in this ritual.)
Coming of Age
B-Mitzvah (Bar/Bat/Beit/B’nai/B’not)
Once your child turns thirteen they are automatically a “child of the age of mitzvot (commandments).” This means they are now responsible for how Judaism plays a role in giving their life structure and meaning. This of course doesn’t mean that parental figures totally step back! It does mean though that children should begin to learn what kind of adult they want to be in this world. In order to get to a point where they have the tools to take this big step we have the B-Mitzvah preparation and ceremony. By learning about a Torah portion, prayers, community service, and more, they also begin to see where their passions in life connect to their Jewish identity. They gain the tools to stand, as a leader, in front of a community and feel like their words and opinions are important parts of the living Torah.
Types of B-Mitzvah: Bar mitzvah for boys, Bat for girls, and Beit for gender neutral. B’nai for multiple boys (or a boy and a girl) and B’not for multiple girls.
There are many options for what this ceremony can look like. Here are a few examples:
1. Saturday morning Shabbat service with Torah, Haftorah and Dvar Torah (speech)
2 Saturday afternoon service with Torah and Dvar Torah
3. Saturday or Sunday Evening service with Havdala ritual marking transition Haftorah
and Dvar Torah
4.Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Haftorah and Dvar Torah
You & Your Bashert
Tenaiim (Engagement Ceremony)
There is an old Jewish tradition of having a ceremony for the engagement of the couple. Many people now just put this as part of the wedding. Recently, I have found that couples want to bring ritual to their engagement parties and participate in a Tenaiim ceremony. This is also a beautiful way to include family and friends who may not be able to be at the wedding. The ceremony can look like many things! Traditionally a plate is brought from either household and broken. The pieces then can be put together representing the uniting of the households. There are many other beautiful ways we can ritualize the start of this exciting journey for you!
Wedding
So much goes into planning a wedding. Our preparation together helps you ground into the magic of getting married and making a life with someone as well as prepares you for what is beyond the wedding ceremony. We will meet a minimum of three times before your wedding so I can tailor the ceremony perfectly for you and your families. We will learn about the Jewish traditions as well as include any other traditions your family brings. I am more than happy to work in partnership with religious leaders of other faiths to bring together all dimensions of your connecting families.
*I have a chuppah that you are welcome to rent that I can bring with me.
Renewal
Naming For All Ages
There is a tradition of choosing an additional Hebrew name or changing your name as a way to change your course in life. Many people choose to do this when in or coming out of a very hard time whether it be sickness or a difficult event.
People may need a new Hebrew name to match a change in gender.
Sometimes people are not given a Hebrew name at birth and get to choose it on their own later in life!
There are so many reasons you may want to be welcomed into the Jewish world through a new name. We can work together to create the ritual around this important moment in your life.
Mikvah (Ritual Immersion)
A mikvah is a ritual immersion in natural waters. This can be done in any natural body of water or by connecting with your local mikvah. (I am able to be a guide in the Upper West Side through Immerse NYC.) This ritual can be used for traditional reasons of monthly renewal after a menstrual cycle. It also now has become a tool to help people feel reborn and refreshed. I have felt its power of helping people let go and be held. It is a powerful way to walk through the gates of any big transition in life. After a death, a divorce, any life change, trauma, sickness, etc. We can work together to create a ritual immersion that feels comfortable and meaningful for you. There are also options that don’t have to involve a complete immersion into water if that is holding you back.
Celebration of Life
Funeral
Everyone is connected by the fact that at one point we leave our physical bodies here on earth. Though it is the most common ordeal in our human experience, it can also be the most painful one. It is important to ritualize this departure by remembering who the person was and thinking about how they will remain in our lives in a different capacity now. We can work together to see how the Jewish traditions of mourning can embrace you and your community during this time.
Shiva Minyan
Unveiling
A year after burial it is traditional to revisit the grave and reveal the stone. This is an important moment in your grief. Time and space shifts the texture of grief, and it can be an important part of healing to revisit it and give into the feeling for closure. This is an opportunity to support the mourning process as well as bring honor and recognition to the one who has departed.
It is traditional to hold a service and welcome visitors to the mourner’s home. This can be done in many different ways, depending on who the mourner is and what they will find comforting. We can work together to create an atmosphere that meets your needs at this sorrowful time.