Wedding

Association of the sexes was much restricted among the Jews, and the see BETROTHAL was generally brought about by a third person, often a professional match-maker ("shadkan"). The latter received a brokerage-fee fixed by law, as a rule a small percentage of the dowry, the sum being doubled when the contracting parties came from a distance. It was paid by either of the parties, or each paid one-half, at the betrothal or after the wedding. The rabbi, as a person enjoying special confidence, was also often employed as intermediary; it is well known that Jacob Levi of Mayence lived upon fees thus derived, while he devoted his income as rabbi to assisting his pupils. Although the marriage preliminaries were exclusively the concern of the parents and their agents, yet the young people were in nowise forced into the contract.

Early marriages were frequent; apart from moral considerations, they were often due to political conditions; in Russia, for example, the Jews were subject to conscription, but those who were married men were excused from military service. Social conditions also had some influence: a father, possessing the dowry for his child, urged the marriage so as to secure the dowry to her before one of the numberless persecutions robbed him of it. The betrothal was concluded, conditionally or definitely, as soon as the amount of the "ḳenas" (the penalty for breaking the contract) was fixed; however, it had, generally, no religious or legal significance, since the Talmudic custom of immediately connecting the betrothal ("ḳiddushin") and the nuptial ceremony ("erusin"), and of having the marriage proper follow later ("nissu'in"), fell more and more into disuse in the Middle Ages. At the betrothal the stipulations made by each party were fixed ("tena'im rishonim"), and a glass was thrown upon the floor, the broken pieces of which were saved to be laid upon the eyes of the espoused pair after death.

Preliminaries.

In Poland, even to-day, the bridegroom receives pastry ("chosenbrod") when he visits his betrothed. During the week before the wedding-day the betrothed pair was allowed to leave the house only when accompanied. On Friday evening, or sometimes two Sabbaths, before the wedding, a feast was given in honor of the parents; this feast was commonly called "spinnholz" ("sponsalia" or "spindel"), or, in Poland, "vorspiel." On the day before the wedding the most prominent members of the community carried the presents of the groom to the bride with special ceremonies; as was customary also in non-Jewish circles, the presents consisted generally of a girdle, veil ("covering" before the ceremony still obtains, in conformity with Rebekah's example), mantle ("kursen"), and wreath, subsequently also of a "siflones tefillah," a prayer-book with the inscription

Day of Wedding.

Two weddings on one day, especially of brothers or sisters, were avoided, and it was considered unlucky if the father-in-law and the son-in-law had the same name. In Talmudic times virgins were married preferably on Wednesday, and widows on Thursday (later, on Friday afternoon), a custom that still obtains in the East. A wedding in Mayence at the end of the fourteenth century took the following course: Early in the morning the "schulklopfer" invited the whole community to the ceremony. The leaders took the bridegroom, with music and candles, to the court of the synagogue; then the musicians and candle-bearers brought the bride with her friends and an escort of women. At the door of the synagogue the groom took the bride's hand, while the two were showered with wheat and coins (given afterward to the poor), and Psalms 147:14, and later Genesis 1:28 ("Be fruitful, and multiply"), were recited as a greeting; after this they sat for a short time, hand in hand, on the bench in front of the synagogue. Then the bride was escorted home, where she put on the festive robe of the married, and under it the shroud ("sargenes"). The groom also modified his festive appearance by drawing the hood ("gugel") over his head, which he strewed with ashes; even to-day the groom ineastern Europe wears the sargenes. With this sign of mourning for Zion even at the height of human felicity, belonged in Talmudic times another—the breaking of a glass, the pieces of which were gathered up by girls "for luck," while the "shammas" cried out "Zeh ha-ot" (= "This is the sign"), and all present responded "Mazzal ṭob." The grief at Zion's loss appeared likewise in the mournful strains of the wedding-songs in the Talmud, as also in the poems of Judah ha-Levi, who first composed individual "carmina" on the model of Psalms 45 and the "kallah" songs down to the eighteenth century.

The Ḥuppah.

As soon as the groom had sat down beside the Ark of the Law, the morning prayer began, after which the bride was led with music to the door of the synagogue; thence she was escorted by the rabbi and the elders of the community to the bemah (ALMEMAR), taking her place at the right of the groom (comp. Psalms 45:10 [A. V. 9], in which the last letters of the words

Marriage Ceremony.(From a Passover Haggadah, Amsterdam, 1695.)

Wedding-Feast.

The bridal procession (mentioned in Biblical writings) was headed, among the Spanish Jews, by mimes, fiddlers, and armed riders. In Egypt the bride was decked with helmet and sword, while the groom and his escort wore feminine garments and colored their finger-nails with henna, as women did. The women played the cymbals and danced. Even the most dignified scholars, also, danced in Talmudic times. Later, music was regarded as an essential part of the wedding, non-Jews being engaged to play on the Sabbath, while on the other hand Jewish musicians played at the festivities of Christians. The garlanding of the bridal pair, a custom of Biblical origin that was carried to an extreme of extravagance, ceased with the destruction of the Temple; yet the myrtle-wreath of the bride has been retained. Even in New Testament times young girls with torches escorted the pair (Matthew 25); in Arabia a pole to the top of which a light has been fastened in carried at the head of the procession. In Bagdad the groom is accompanied to the house of the bride by poor people carrying lamps, and he distributes for this service coins among them. On the way the poor thrust live sheep in front of him, and whenever he steps on the head of one he gives a certain amount to its owner. The bride is usually led seven times (or at least once) around the groom; or both sit while the people, old and young, dance around them. According to an ancient Persian custom in Talmudic times, nuts and flowers were strewn in the path of the pair, and they were showered with barley which had been planted in a pot shortly before the wedding (on the use of hops in this connection see Hehn, "Kulturpflanzen," p. 488; and on the use of rice among the Indians, whose wedding-customs are very similar to those of the Jews, see Dorville, "Gesch. der Verschiedenen Völker des Erdbodens"). On the birth of a boy a cedar was planted; on that of a girl, an acacia; and when the girl became a bride her litter was made from the branches of that acacia. In Germany the young couple's first meal consisted of milk and honey, and salt was sprinkled in the house (comp. Numbers 18:19). In Ṭur Malka two hens are carried before the couple, and after the wedding chicken is placed before them ("chosenhühndel"). In the East they jump over a vessel containing a fish, and in Germany fish was formerly eaten on the second day of the wedding-week; all these customs are symbols of fertility.

The fasting of the bridal pair dates back to the Talmud; it is either due to the fact that their sins are forgiven or is intended to remind them of the duty of temperance. The wedding-songs were often in the form of riddles, following Biblical precedent (Samson's wedding), and were improvised especially by the jester ("marschalik"), who, however, at times moved his hearers to tears by serious speech, as he still does in eastern Europe. Plays also were given, a practise which prevailed otherwise only at Purim.

Before the fourteenth century the presence of the rabbi was not required; nor did he speak at the ceremony,though he did at the feast, when the groom likewise delivered a "derashah" (Talmudic discourse; hence the use of the word "derashah" for wedding-gifts). Weddings were occasionally celebrated in the open air in the Middle Ages, although the Talmud protested against the custom; it was done probably because of the limited space in the synagogue or in the bride's house; later the custom was interpreted symbolically (comp. Genesis 15:5). At the synagogue service on the Sabbath after the wedding the congregation read to the groom the chapter on Isaac's marriage, a custom that ceased in Europe with the seventeenth century. In the East the Arabic translation is read in addition to the Hebrew.

During the seven blessings at the ceremony the bride and the groom, in accordance with a widespread superstition, each tried to secure the mastery in the household by putting one of the feet on the foot of the other. At the time of the Geonim (as occasionally to-day in the East) these seven blessings were uttered twice—once in the house of a relative of the bride, whither the latter had been taken from her father's house on the evening before the day of the wedding, and once in the house of the groom.

The "Ketubah."

The ring, without stone or inscription, is put on the first finger of the bride's right hand. The marriage certificate, the wording of which varies a