I had a long conversation with a friend who is learning Hebrew. She thanked me for putting her in touch with the website Duolingo.
Hebrew is handy for watching Jewish wedding ceremonies of all kinds. I watched several fun documentary videos on YouTube of strangers' wedding featuring bottle dances (dancers with bottles on their heads). Later I had a chance to re-watch a wedding I had attended. You might watch the live stream of a wedding of a friend, or relative, or colleague, which you cannot attend.
The first thing you will notice or remember is people saying mazel tov (good luck, literally luck good - Hebrew placing the adjective after the noun).
Blessings
Blessings start with the word baruch, bless. Baruch utuh is bless you. Adonai is our God. Melech is King. Ha olum of the universe.
At the wedding I attended, we were given a small booklet with the names of the bride and groom printed on the cover and inside was a prayer book with the blessings for before and after meals and various occasions.
The reception, breakfast, lunch, tea, or dinner, will start and end with a blessing of the wine and food, usually by the rabbi. You might have been given a glass of Prosecco on the way in. But don't start the bread until after grace has been said!
Watching Weddings on Video
My friend 'Jeanie' who is learning Hebrew told me: "You know the saying that buses come in threes. Well, we had months of no weddings - then two on the same day. First we watched the one in Israel, which is two hours ahead of London, then the one in London."
That is a useful reminder about time zones. It can taken four to five hours to fly to Israel from London, but on the internet the time difference is only two hours, during British daylight saving time in summer which lasts until the last Sunday in October.
The Wedding In Israel
The wedding was held in a car park below a block of flats so that the sister of the groom, in isolation from Coronavirus-19, could watch from a balcony.
I don't know how much she could see.
Israel is a tiny country and "many people live in blocks of flats".
The reception was held elsewhere in the garden of a relative.
The London Wedding Ceremony
Afterwards 'Jeanie' watched the video in the UK. Indoors. The marriage ceremony was under what looked like a four-poster bed, drapes on four poles, decorated with flowers.
Angela wearing an Ann Balon blue lace dress with matching jacket, and red fascinator hat by Marks & Spencer.
Dress Code
I was forwarded a note on the dress code from the venue. It said that married women should cover their hair with a hat. A fascinator, which is basically a headband with a fancy imitation flower or other decoration, is not sufficient. However, the bride's mother assured me that a fascinator was fine.
I was not at a public event, but a private wedding ceremony, with numbers limited by Covid-19. In effect you have to obey the rules of the building, which has to obey the rules of the local authority, on numbers, wearing of masks. I am not wearing a mask here, in the photo, with only a photographer, a member of my household, at a distance, but I had a mask to wear at other times.
You can see the chairs are widely spaced out because of Covid-19.
Canopy - chuppa
Various theories say the chuppah, posts with a canopy, represents the new home, the tent of the old days, or the sky.
A four-poster bed had a fabric roof to keep the insects from falling out of the thatch onto the occupants of the bed.
To my surprise the wedding dais in London was open-topped and under a skylight. (Spellings dais and dias are both listed in online dictionaries.)
Useful Websites
duolingo
Duolingo Hebrew
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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