Cleveland Jewish News.com -- Features

A new collection of interviews by Chana Weisberg, Expecting Miracles: Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Pregnancy through Judaism, comes to illustrate how pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood are all, indeed, opportunities for spirituality and personal growth through the eyes of Judaism.

Its U.S. release just before the Jewish New Year is appropriate, considering that Rosh Hashana is the day humankind was born. We even refer to this in the Rosh Hashana prayer service, where it is called Yom Hora'at, or the day of the birth of the world.

Weisberg's book offers about 50 interviews with a diverse group of mothers within the religious Jewish community of Jerusalem.

Interspersed among the interviews is a kabbala-inspired birthing meditation, assorted teachings on pregnancy and birth from the cannon of classic Jewish literature, as well as a spiritual teaching about birth from the Breslov hasidic tradition.

This collection investigates how Judaism serves as a spiritual tool during pregnancy; it also is intended to empower women by broadening their understanding of motherhood.

The mothers of Expecting Miracles range from a modern Orthodox graduate of Columbia University who is still reeling from her first birth by emergency Caesarean section, to a fervently Orthodox Iraqi mikvah attendant and mother of 10 who proudly boasts that she has never undergone a prenatal checkup.

Even before Expecting Miracles hit the shelves, Weisberg was known as the "Jewish pregnancy lady" to the 300,000 annual visitors to her Web site, http://www.jewishpregnancy.org/.

There, her fans find Jewish traditions and prayers for pregnancy, clips from the book, as well as personal comments from the author.

Both the Web site and the book are outgrowths of the drastic change that Weisberg, now a mother of three young girls, has undergone through her own child-rearing experiences.

Before the 32-year-old Weisberg became pregnant with her first child, Hadas, now 6, she loathed the constant chatter of mothers who spoke of nothing but pregnancy and children.

"I always used to think, 'Married people with children are so boring. They are the last people in the world that I would like to talk to,'" says Weisberg. "I was much more interested in my career."

"Then I got pregnant, and in a moment everything changed," Weisberg continued. "While I was finishing my master's at Hebrew U., I felt such physical pain sitting in the classes, because I felt like they had so little to do with me. All I wanted to do was lie in bed, read pregnancy books, and think about babies."

For Weisberg, as well as for several of the other interviewees in her book, the transition from being an independent woman into motherhood became a path of spiritual and emotional growth. To cope with this 180-degree internal shift, she turned to the bookstore.

"When I went searching for a book on what it means to be Jewish and pregnant, I shockingly came up empty-handed," says Weisberg. "I couldn't believe there had been nothing written on the subject."

Still, Expecting Miracles wasn't born until Weisberg became pregnant with her second child, Hallel, now 4. Then she began writing the book that she had endlessly been searching for throughout her first pregnancy.

"I had no credentials to be doing something like this," she says. "I just dusted off my old tape recorder, bought a notebook, and started setting up interviews with my favorite local mothers," Weisberg added. "It was the only experience I've had in my life of pure inspiration. I felt as though I was just a messenger for this task that was coming from a higher place."

The book is chock-full of stories that show the intersection of Jewish spirituality and pregnancy.

One woman was a former hippie who related to natural childbirth like an 11th commandment. Another focuses on praying and performing more commandments during pregnancy so that she will have a God-fearing child.

Other women, who had grown up thinking that career would be their life's focus, are now struggling with their new identities as mothers.

One of Weisberg's most touching interviews came from a woman she calls "Nili," who is a genetic carrier of a rare and deadly illness. Two of Nili's four sons suffer from the disease and constantly are sick from the symptoms. Still, Nili sees her life as a tremendous blessing.

"I feel so much love for Jewish women, for what we do and the wisdom that these woman have," says Weisberg, "and I feel like that spirit infuses the book."

"Expecting Miracles" is available at Frank's Hebrew Book Store, Jacob's Judaic, and Merkaz Judaica.