Marking Sacred Transitions

Designing and/or Renewing Ritual to Welcome Change, Assist in Release, and Recognize Transition

Our lives are enriched when we take the time and attention to recognize moments of profound change. We are familiar with elevating certain significant moments of transition with lifecycle rituals such as weddings and b’nei mitzvah, or celebrations for anniversaries and birthdays. However, some moments of profound transition may not receive the attention they call for or the care that allows us to fully process them. Judaism has a rich history of marking transitions through ritual. The fertile growing edge of 21st century Judaism provides opportunity for spiritual creativity.

Rabbi Shimberg is adept at identifying ways to animate and renew traditional ritual and creatively shaping new rituals that address poignant moments of change in our lives. She has worked with individuals facing a variety of situations who have found it empowering, liberating, or otherwise meaningful to mark these transitions with a ritual. Some examples include marking:

• the end of a relationship, marital separation or divorce;
• the death of a pet or welcoming a new pet;
• retirement from work;
• a new career;
• the end of one’s menopausal journey;
• reaching a new decade;
• cancer diagnosis or in remission;
• a surgery to remove a part of one’s body to reduce risk of disease;
• a new home or leaving a long-inhabited house.

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