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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Finishing an Important Book

You have just completed a book that has made a huge impression on you. It might be a novel, a collection of poetry, or a scholarly study; it might be a book of Torah, rabbinic commentary or Jewish history. One thing you know for sure: this book has changed your life. Maybe it's helped you understand something you never understood before; maybe it's given you access to feelings you didn't know were possible. This is the kind of book you will return to, for you know that it has more to teach you. But you can't stop there-you want to share the book with people you care about-because this book could change their lives as well.

Meditation:

I've got to share this book with others! Help me to communicate how important this book has been to me and, hopefully, how important it could be for them.

Ritual:

The urge to share a book that's changed your life is so great-so give in to it! It's no wonder that the Jewish ceremony held to celebrate finishing the study of a sacred book, a siyyum, involves inviting friends and family to come together to hear a section of the work read aloud. So if the book that's meant so much to you is a paperback, purchase a few copies of it and share it with people whom it will touch. Or photocopy a few passages, enough to intrigue them to read the rest. Inscribe the books or copies, explaining why this book has meant so much to you, how it's changed your life, and why you think it could have special meaning for the people you're sending it to. You might even want to mark a particular place that struck you.

Blessing:

(As you send off your books or copies)

I bless the Source of wisdom who grants me the ability to read and understand. I am grateful for this great book and for being able to grow through its teachings. May I return to this beloved book, and may I return to it in the company of those who will share it with me.

Teaching:

May good come to me, because whenever I see a scholar complete a tractate, I declare it a holiday for all who learn. (Babylonian Talmud: Shabbat 118b-119a)

Torah which is studied for its own merit (Torah lishmah) is a Torah of loving kindness, whereas Torah which is studied for an ulterior motive is not a Torah of loving kindness. And some say that Torah which is studied in order to teach is a Torah of loving kindness….(Babylonian Talmud: Sukkah 49b)

Hadran alakh.

We shall return to you.

(CLAL faculty)

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.