Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss by Nina Beth Cardin (Editor) Purchase at:  Amazon.com  Format: Hardcover, 172pp.  ISBN: 1580230172 Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing  Pub. Date: November 1998

Description from Amazon.com

Reviews

Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh, Ph.D., Executive Director, Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues
"It is a moving and uplifting text that considers the loss involved in the inability to conceive as well as failed pregnancies. But Tears of Sorrow is also about healing, reconciliation, and making the months of pregnancy a spiritual journey. In all of these endeavours, this excellent book succeeds, and I only wish I had it available when I was a congregational rabbi. . . . one of the strengths of Rabbi Cardin's work is her acknowledgement that these issues and traumas affect men as well as women, and that true healing can only come when both parties face them together."

Rabbi Nancy Flam, Co-founder of the Jewish Healing Center
"Gathers together an array of sources that provide wisdom, comfort, and hope at times of great fear, sorrow, and pain... An exquisite resource for building spiritual strength."

Jewish Book World, Fall 1999
"This book is a deep and provocative collection of rituals, prayers and petitions that modern people have developed to help themselves and others grapple with some of life's curves. It is a blending of ancient texts and traditions with all of the infusion life can offer at the end of the 20th century."

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Executive Vice President, The Board of Rabbis of Southern California
"To those who have struggled with issues of infertility and with the ardent desire for children....this book offers guidance and consolation in the form of prayer; poetry, and reflections which will enrich the lives of any seeking soul, and will offer comfort to those in pain."

Anne Brener, L.C.S.W, author of Mourning & Mitzvah: A Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner's Path Through Grief to Healing
"A compassionate and action-oriented spiritual resource to share with those who come for help at one of life's most common yet most invisible passages."

Book Description

Many people who endure the emotional suffering of infertility, pregnancy loss, or stillbirth bear this sorrow alone. Pregnancies that end too early are hidden; failed attempts at conception are barely mentioned.

Many women and men long to find solace in religious ritual and tradition to ease the emptiness felt from a loss that is without a face, a name, or a grave. At last, there is a source that acknowledges and encourages expressions of their grief, and offers comfort in the moments of their pain.

Providing companionship and strength for healing from others who also have grieved, Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope is a spiritual companion that enables the reader to mourn within the words and ways of Judaism. Drawing deeply on the wellspring of comfort found in traditional Jewish texts and prayer; it also offers readings and rituals created especially for parents struggling with the uncertainty and sorrow of pregnancy loss and infertility, providing a source of compassion, healing, and hope.

About the Author

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is widely recognized as an inspiring and innovative leader in bringing healing spiritual resources to us from Jewish tradition, and in making those resources relevant to our lives. She is past associate director of the National Center for Jewish Healing and was editor of Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility.

She translated and edited Out of the Depths I Called to You: A Book of Prayers for the Married Jewish Woman, an eighteenth-century book of Hebrew prayers. Rabbi Cardin writes from the perspective of her own experience, and lives in New Jersey with her husband and children.