Attending a Jewish Wedding (10th March, 2009).

It was my first experience attending a Jewish marriage. A Jewish wedding and I always remember the scene from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof". I just can't resist putting the link to that beautiful song (do see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLLEBAQLZ3Q). The event was organized at Nir Eliyyahu, a kibbutz 30 km north of Tel Aviv. In Israel, only marriages performed by the religious authority (The Chief Rabbinate) are legal. Civil marriages conducted in Israel are not recognized. However, civilian marriages done abroad are acceptable. As a result, many couples who cannot follow the strict orthodox religious standards go abroad like Cyprus and get married.

Unlike in Christianity, where celibacy is considered better than married way of life, in Judaism, a man who does not marry is not a complete person. Jewish wedding is full of meaningful rituals, symbolizing the beauty of the relationship of husband and wife. I don’t think it is possible to explain all the rituals and their significance here. If interested, you can get a wealth of information from internet. Yet for the sake of understanding, I have added a brief description along with the photographs taken. All details appended with snaps below are adapted from an online article available on the site www.aish.com viz. "Guide to the Jewish Wedding". It's brief but much informative:
(see the link http://www.aish.com/literacy/lifecycle/Guide_to_the_Jewish_Wedding.asp).

Just for those who are not used to the terms Ashkenazi and Sephardi in this article; Since the formation of Israel, Jews from different parts of world arrived the country. They are broadly classified into the Ashkenazi who come from European (Christian) countries; Sephardic who lived in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain), African and Middle Eastern (Moslem) countries and Mizrachi from the Oriental or Asian countries.