Sheva Brachot - (Part 1)
A husband and wife are one soul, separated only through their descent to this world. When they are married, they are reunited again.
Zohar HaKadosh*
Introduction
An authentic Jewish wedding encapsulates Judaism’s whole approach to life:
The chuppah, on the one hand, is solemn and sacred. The enormity of the moment is palpable, as all those in attendance watch the Chatan and Kallah take their very first steps together, beginning their journey through life side by side. And each guest offers up a personal Tefillah to Hashem that the couple be blessed, that their marriage be imbued with reciprocal love, respect, harmony and continued growth. Many tears are shed, by the immediate family and by the many friends and acquaintances as well.
But, on the other hand, pure happiness and elation abounds.
This seeming dichotomy is reflected within the Sheva Brachot recited under the chuppah and throughout the week of celebration following the wedding, as we will explore.
But it isn’t really a dichotomy. Jewish life embraces different emotions, often conflicting ones, at exactly the same time. In Judaism, life is not defined as “one or the other” – either solemnity or joy. We embrace the opportunity to live both simultaneously. And nowhere is this combination more discernable than at a wedding. The thrill of watching a new home being built on the foundations of Torah, mitzvot and Yirat Hashem is truly electrifying; at exactly the same time, the gravity of the moment is equally moving.
I once read in Yad Vashem the most astonishing statistic, one which, in a certain way, captures the vitality and eternity of the Jewish People:
Immediately after the Holocaust a DP [Displaced-Persons] camp was established next to the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. It was vast, housing up to 12,000 Jewish survivors. In the first year alone 1,070 weddings took place! Despite the horrors and tragedies that each individual had experienced; despite the loss of everything dear to them – their families, their homes, their friends, their communities, and often their very identities; despite their pre-Holocaust lives having been destroyed never to be reconstructed; and despite the myriad uncertainties about what will be, so many of the survivors wanted nothing more than to find someone with whom to build a home and a future together.
Which is exactly what they did. Standing under the chuppah each Chattan and Kallah began the process of establishing a Jewish home. Each couple, together, created a timeless testament, built from the ashes of destruction. Brand new homes that defied the natural course of history and declared the Jewish People’s allegiance to the King of Kings. As they answered “amen” to the beautifully expressive Sheva Brachot together with their “guests”, they linked themselves to the generations of the past and, by doing so, they allowed the generations that followed them – and still follow them – to become part of the eternal chain that is the Chosen Nation.
As Nachmanides so presciently and poignantly described approximately seven hundred years earlier in his Igeret Hakodesh, equally applicable to each and every new home established in the aftermath of Holocaust: “Know that this union is a holy and pure thing.”
B’Ezrat Hashem, over the coming weeks we will explore the Sheva Brachot together in the hope of reaching new levels of appreciation for their beauty and their depth.
*עיין זוהר ח"א דף פה ע"ב
To be continued…
