This Ritual Life Archive

Welcome to This Ritual Life.

Here you will find out about ways to enhance your holiday experience, to celebrate or mark a meaningful life cycle event, and to deepen your experience of the everyday. Our authors are especially interested in hearing your responses to what they have written. So after reading, visit the Ritual Life discussion forum where you can join in conversation with CLAL faculty and other readers.

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SAYING GOODBYE TO A BELOVED PET

When we must say goodbye to a beloved pet, the loss feels so painful. Although we know that losing a pet is not the same as losing a human being, it is still a real loss, and we do need to mourn. Finding a loving way to say goodbye to a pet is a sensitive way to reaffirm the infinite value of life and of love.

MEDITATION

You blessed our days with love and companionship.

We will never forget you.

RITUAL

Find an appropriate place to bury the pet- in the yard, in the countryside or a place set aside for burying animals. If the pet is small, find an appropriate sized box and place it inside. Find a stone or make a marker for the place where your pet will be buried. As the burial takes place, anyone who wishes can tell stories and share special memories of the pet.

If it is not practical for you to bury your pet, you can still set aside a time for telling stories and sharing memories. You might want to do this at the place, inside or out, that your pet loved best.

BLESSING

(After you have told your stories and shared your memories)

Barukh atah she'lo chisar b'olamo davar.

Blessed are You in whose world nothing is lacking; it is filled with wonderful animals that bring joy and companionship to human beings.

TEACHING

And God made all kinds of animals, wild beasts and animals of every kind, and all kinds of crawling animals that are on the earth. And God saw that this was good. (Genesis 1:25) But God paid attention to Noah and all the living things, all the animals that were with them in the ark, and God brought a wind across the earth, and the waters abated. (Genesis 8:1) Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself in which to set her young near your altar, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. (Psalms 84:4)

Lekh l'shalom.

May you go in peace.

CLAL's National Jewish Resource Center develops and publishes rituals that help to bridge the gap between our contemporary lives and the ancient wisdom of the Jewish tradition.