The Jews Wedding

Jews in India have imbibed a few rituals from neighbouring communities.  The mehendi ceremony happens a day before the wedding where the bride applies mehendi on her hands and feet while the groom applies mehendi on her hands and feet while the groom applies it on the index finger of his right hand.

The wedding takes place at the synagogue where the groom first enters and goes to the Tebah (podium).  He waits for the bride who is escorted by her father to the Tebah.

As the bride enters the synagogue, the groom sings a love song alone, by poet, Israel Ben Moses Najara.  This is only common to the Bene Israeli community.  The Hazan (cantor) administers the oaths and conducts the ceremony where the prayers are sung in Hebrew.  After this, the bride and groom, along with two witnesses sign the Jewish Ketuba (marriage contract).

The bride’s ring is connected to a thread and kept in a glass of wine, of which the groom drinks three fourths and the bride sips the remaining wine.  Once the wine is over the groom slips the ring into the bride’s finger.  The wine glass is wrapped with a white cloth and broken in a corner of the Tebah symbolizing a tribute to Jerusalem.