Product Description

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in personal ritual and spirituality, as well as an exciting expansion of womens participation and leadership in Jewish life. This unique three-volume collaboration brings together over fifty women writers, rabbis, and scholars to create the first comprehensive work on Jewish life cycle that fully includes womens perspectives.

Lifecycles, V.1 covers the entire spectrum of lifes passages and presents the best and latest thinking on ritual, life cycle, and the way Jewish women see the world, in a style that is intelligent and insightful, passionate and personal.

Topics Covered:
Childbirth
Infertility & Early Losses
Welcoming Children into Name & Covenant
Adolescence
Invisible Life Passages
Coming Out
Marriage
Divorce
Intermarriage
Choosing Judaism
Parenting
Mid-life
Aging
Death and Mourning

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1846725 in Books
• Published on: 1994-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Few rabbis two millennia ago, or even two decades ago, would have cited childbirth, menstruation, coming out or menopause as life passages to be marked by prayer and ceremony. As this powerful compendium illustrates, however, feminism has transformed the definition of Jewish lifecycle events, imbuing ritual with innovation and creativity. The 50 Jewish women-scholars, rabbis, thinkers and poets-who have contributed provocative essays and moving ceremonies to this rich collection do so with a passion for molding Judaism and feminism. Every possiblity within feminine lifecycles is explored with openness. The contributors' sincerity, coupled with depth of knowledge, moves this volume past faddishness to resonance with the women of all ages.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
While traditional Judaism has special ceremonies to commemorate some of the personal milestones people experience-e.g., coming of age, marriage, and death-many life passages, particularly those affecting women, remain unheralded-e.g., menstruation, miscarriage, childbirth, menopause, and divorce. This book, a result of conferences that brought together (mostly women) rabbis, scholars, writers, and others, provides suggested prayers, rituals, poems, and other readings for these and other experiences. Together with Rabbi Orenstein's thoughtful introductory essays, they make a unique compendium of helpful, meaningful, and certainly thought-provoking material useful to all Jewish women and the libraries that serve them. This is the first in a projected three-volume set that will cover life themes and Jewish holidays and festivals. Highly recommended.
Marcia Welsh, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American
A unique compendium of helpful, meaningful, and certainly thought-provoking material....Highly recommended.

Customer Reviews

Absorbing, fresh approach. Required reading!
Rabbi Orenstein's book is a gem. She has looked at ritual with a fresh light, and collected essays that are fascinating and useful for those of us who want to integrate Jewishness into the pivotal moments of our lives. The essays are down-to-eath and not pedantic. It's hard to put the book down! The best book on the topic ever!

Fresh and inspiring
A treasure. Rabbi Orenstein has not only put together a wonderful, informative, and inspiring book, she has opened up a fresh dialogue within Judaic studies. Surely, this volume of learned women's voices will effect a new and inexhaustable discipline of study. I find myself refering to "Lifecycle's" often.