Tradition, Tradition
Jewish wedding customs are rooted
in past cultures.
BY BETH S. BUXBAUM
loyal garlands have been
strung through the chuppah.
The bride and groom are
meeting with the rabbi for
the signing of the ketubah. All the
guests are anxiously awaiting a glimpse
of the bride and groom. The wedding
can start.
Weddings are the most festive, and
most sacred, of life's events. Kedusha ,
meaning holiness, is the term
associated with marriage, and the wed-
ding ceremony reflects that holiness.
Although it may take a year to
prepare for a wedding, to hire the band
and choose the menu, it takes years
to prepare for marriage. Many of the
rituals followed both before and dur-
ing the wedding — going to the
mikvah, circling the groom under the
chuppah, breaking the glass — are
symbolic of this spiritual readiness.
The elements of today's Jewish
wedding have been borrowed
throughout the centuries from other
Jewish cultures and customs. The
traditional Jewish wedding ceremony
consists of two parts. The eirusin is the
betrothal during which the groom
places a ring upon the bride's finger
76 Brides 1990
and recites: "Be sanctified to me with
this ring in accordance with the law
of Moses and Israel." Following the
betrothal is the nisu'in or wedding
ceremony, which is the consummation
of the betrothal. The bride and groom
stand beneath the chuppah and the
sheva brakhot (seven benedictions) are
recited over a cup of wine from which
the couple drink.
The ceremony ends with the groom
breaking the glass. Some say this is
a symbolic rite performed as an ex-
pression of sorrow or mourning over
the destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem. Another explanation is that
the noise is a warning to temper
moods.
According to one Orthodox rabbi,
the origins of this custom are taken
from a passage in the Talmud. He ex-
plains that at the height of merriment
at a wedding reception, the rabbi shat-
tered a glass. "His purpose was to re-
mind everyone that we can't become
too self-enamored and must be sen-
sitized to the fact that the world is not
yet redeemed and the Temple not yet
rebuilt': he says.
Another explanation, having roots
in superstition, is that the noise of the
breaking glass wards off evil spirits and