Life-cycle events exist in those special moments of transition from stage to stage in the life-cycle – birth, adolescence, marriage, childbearing and death. The ceremony gives the private and personal change that we go through to a social dimension, in which the entire society takes part in the change, validates it, and takes us in, in our new state. The great power of life-cycle events arises from the combination that exists between a returning to the tradition and to what is familiar, and our spontaneity and personal expression.

For many Israelis, becoming a bar-mitzvah, getting married, giving birth, or mourning, give rise to a desire for a ceremony that is at once personal and yet connected to Jewish tradition. The Center for Life-cycle Events at Elul answers this need with group study seminars in which the participants discover the Jewish and personal significance of the upcoming transition ceremony. The participants develop and shape ceremonies, activities or memorials, based on the learning process.