Pride Month is a powerful time to celebrate the diversity, resilience, and sacredness of LGBTQ+ lives. In Jewish tradition, ritual has always been a way to mark time, express identity, and build community. Whether you’re deeply spiritual, culturally connected, or exploring your Jewishness on your own terms, these five rituals offer meaningful ways to honor Pride Month through a Jewish lens.
1. Host a Queer Shabbat Dinner
Shabbat is a weekly invitation to pause, connect, and reflect. This Pride Month, use our Queer Shabbat Dinner ritual book to build your own inclusive and affirming Shabbat ritual. Rejoice in the multiplicity of love in our communities with blessings, poetry, and conversation starters that center queer joy and spirituality. Once you open the book, click the yellow "customize this book" button in the top right corner to personalize it and make it your own.
2. Create a Personal Havdalah Ceremony for Pride
Havdalah marks the end of Shabbat and the beginning of a new week. This month, try crafting your own Pride Havdalah ritual, perhaps using a rainbow braided candle, sweet spices that evoke joy, and blessings that affirm LGBTQ+ resilience and beauty. Let it be a sacred send-off into the week ahead.
To create your own Havdalah ritual, start with our traditional Havdalah booklet. Click on "Customize This Book" and then add your own blessings and rituals, or search for clips from our ritual library to add into the booklet.
3. Recite a Shehecheyanu for Coming Out or Living Authentically
The Shehecheyanu blessing thanks the Divine for bringing us to this moment. It’s a powerful ritual to mark coming out, starting hormone therapy, embracing your identity, or supporting a loved one on their journey. Speak it aloud or whisper it privately to honor the holiness of becoming yourself. Use this Shehecheyanu Blessing for Milestones book to get started, and to create your own Shehecheyanu.
4. Add a Rainbow Ritual Object to Your Jewish Practice
Infuse your Jewish ritual life with symbols of Pride. A rainbow kippah, Shabbat candle, or kiddush cup can visually represent your identity or allyship. Using them during prayer, reflection, or holidays is a gentle but powerful way to integrate LGBTQ+ visibility into sacred space.
5. Honor LGBTQ+ Ancestors in a Personal Yizkor Ritual
Yizkor, the memorial prayer traditionally recited on holidays, can be adapted to honor queer ancestors and trailblazers who paved the way. Light a candle, speak their names, or read a queer poem or midrash in their memory. Use this Yizkor ritual booklet and customize it to make it your own. Their courage lives on through us.
