Kashrut and the Wedding Celebration

Congratulations!

Mazel Tov - you are planning a wedding! This will be a time for personal joy and celebration. It is more. It is a time to link yourselves to the Jewish people and God.

It is God, as the source of joy, about whom we sing in the wedding ceremony itself in the last of the Seven Wedding Blessings, sheva b'rakhot: Blessed are You… who created joy and gladness, bride and groom, pleasure, song, delight and happiness, love and harmony, peace and companionship.

These blessings go on to link the joy of the bride and groom to that of the Jewish people: May there always be heard in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem voices of joy and gladness, voices of bride and groom, the jubilant voices of those joined in marriage under the bridal canopy.

Your wedding is an occasion for joy for the entire Jewish community, since it marks the beginning of a new Jewish home.  It is a promise for our future. Thus, it marks your commitment to the Jewish people.

A Jewish wedding adds additional dimensions of meaning to a most significant personal event. It is a public statement that recognizes that the step you are taking has within it an element of sanctity. The ceremony evokes God's presence.

Kosher Makes a Difference

Kashrut - The Jewish Way of Eating

For millennia, Jews have sought to sanctify every aspect of life. Everyday activities such as how we speak to each other, how we do business, and how we eat can be performed in a holy way. The commandments have ethical and spiritual significance. Their observance is an opportunity to live Jewishly in relationship to others, the world, and God.

Eating is appetite in both symbol and fact. It fills a basic human need, but like any human appetite, it can be taken to the extremes of excess or self-deprivation. In Judaism, we strive to raise eating and other physical appetites symbolized by eating to a higher level, to make it more than the expression of desire and need. Eating can be a way to celebrate and enjoy life without excess. It can be a way to relate to God, others, and the world around us. Through the observance of the laws of kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws, we sanctify ourselves through what and how we eat. It is the Jewish way of eating.

Your First Meal as a Married Couple

A marriage marks the beginning not only of the coming together of two Jewish individuals but, hopefully, the creation of a Jewish home. It is certainly a time to take seriously the possibility of "keeping kosher." However, regardless of whether you are currently planning on keeping a kosher home, you should seriously consider making your first meal together, the seudat mitzvah, the special meal celebrating your marriage "according to the laws of Moses and Israel," a kosher one.

It is not "hypocritical" for the wedding meal to be kosher if you do not keep kosher. It is fitting that a Jewish wedding celebration incorporate this Jewish dimension - that it be kosher.

The extra effort and concern you invest will add to the significance of your wedding.

The Wedding is More Than a Part - The Meal is More Than a Meal

Whether the wedding reception is lavish or simple, for 300 or for 30, we tend to put a great amount of time, energy and expense into it. Fish or fowl, wine, appetizers, desserts - we want the meal to reflect our tastes and values and to allow for true celebration.

Interestingly, the wedding meal is also significant in Jewish tradition. Indeed, you may not be aware that in Judaism, the wedding meal is actually considered an integral part of the wedding! It is called seudat mitzvah, a meal ordained to accompany and enhance the sacredness of the occasion.

This fact offers an opportunity to add meaning to your wedding celebration. Discuss with your rabbi the ways that Jewish tradition can enhance your wedding reception. Among these is making the wedding meal a kosher meal.

Why?

• A kosher wedding meal enables any Jewish guest to comfortably partake of it.
• A kosher wedding meal means that you have chosen to link yourselves to generations of Jews in the past and to Jews throughout the world. It demonstrates your commitment to the perpetuation of Judaism.
• A kosher wedding meals shows that you respect Jews, Judaism, and Jewish law and tradition.
• A kosher wedding meal says that you want to celebrate in a meaningful Jewish way. You want the wedding and the accompanying celebratory meal to be an event filled with joy and deep significance.