Love, Marriage, and Family in Jewish Law and Tradition

Plot

I found this book while my wife and I were planning for our wedding. It provided a wealth of information that we were able to incorporate into our wedding ceremony, celebration and program, much of which you will never find in any book on planning for a Jewish wedding.

For example, the author told of the Jewish tradition that if a funeral procession and a wedding procession should cross paths, the wedding procession has "the right of way." For me, personally, this proved extremely insightful when the family squabbles and infighting that commonly occurs in preparation for wedding ceremonies (and maybe particularly Jewish ceremonies) began; I realized that these relatives who had axes to grind were actually placing their individual funeral procession before our wedding celebration, contrary to Jewish tradition.

After our wedding, my wife an I attended another Jewish wedding, where we watched the bride and the bride's mother (herself a onservative\orthodox Jew, who one might expect to have a deeper knowledge of Jewish tradtions), circle the groom. My wife and I found the scene hilarious, having learned from this book (and others) that the symbolism of circling the groom is that the groom (who will soon become the husband) is the center of the wife's life. At this wedding, the bride's mother was making a symbolic commitment to make her daughter's new husband the center of all of their lives.

Many wedding guests (both Jews and non-Jews) told us how helpful our wedding program was in coming to an understanding of the many symbolic traditions of the Jewish marriage ceremony, and much of that background in our program came from this book.

Beyond the Jewish wedding, this book is a true lifelong keeper that provides a depth of understanding of the Jewish perspective on marriage, and our roles, as Jews, within the realm of marriage.