Whenever a couple joins together to express their love to one another, it is a sacred moment. I welcome couples under the wedding canopy (chuppah) and bless them with the seven fold blessings. I seek to create an atmosphere that is both spiritual for the couple and meaningful for the entire family. Often, family members are included in the service by helping to bestow the blessing on the couple. We wrap the couple in a Tallit (prayer shawl) that has been a part of the family or even the same tallit that was used in the couple’s bar/bat mitzvah.
Together we craft the ceremony. I seek to express the personality of each person in the couple by creatively including different readings and rituals in the wedding ceremony. In a unique way I work with the couple for a few sessions so that I too will reflect the blessings of your hearts.
We break the glass at the end of the wedding service and often both partners break a glass to symbolize the work that will be done in the marriage. Being partners with each other and partners in creation, symbolically that glass will be made whole once again.
A marriage to me is akin to hanging a Mezuzah on your doorpost. In our sacred texts the rabbis question which way a Mezuzzah should be hung. If it is hung horizontally the blessings should flow into the home. Some of the rabbis debate that the Mezuzzah should be hung vertically, so that the blessings here on earth can reach the heavens above. After long debate the rabbis agree that compromise is the best answer. Today when we hang a Mezuzah on our doorpost we hang it on a slant with the top of the mezuzah pointed into the home. Why? So that the blessings will flow into the home and the blessing will reach from heaven to earth. A compromise! As we stand under the chuppah we realize that certain times as a couple we agree and sometimes on our journey as a couple it is good to disagree. Often times I hang a Mezuzzah on the doorpost of a couple right before they get married. It is a sacred moment in which we recognize that as a couple, life is filled with blessings in the home. We also pray that these blessings will reach the heavens above.