Breaking The Glass Wedding Ceremony

At a wedding broken glass cuts the covenant.

Breaking the glass wedding ceremony.

The breaking of the glass is one of the most beloved traditions of a jewish wedding ceremony. As the story goes a father hosted a wedding feast for his son and during the course of the event noticed that the rabbis appeared exceedingly joyful. This goblet was created especially for the treasured moment when the bride and groom sanctify their marriage. One interpretation of this ceremony states that once the glass is shattered it can never return to its former condition thus symbolizing the couples wish to never return to the time before they shared their lives.

The breaking of the glass at a wedding is one of my all time favorite traditions. There are many interpretations of the meaning of this jewish tradition but the one i like this best and the one i use in many of my ceremonies is this. Breaking the glass also has sexual connotations as it prefigures the release of sexual union which is not only permitted to married couples but also required of them. Some people say that the breaking of the glass symbolizes the irrevocable change in the lives of the couple standing before us.

Breaking the glass ceremony the breaking of glass at the end of the wedding comes from jewish tradition and harks back to the destruction of the second temple in jerusalem at 70 ce. It is a jewish custom to end the wedding ceremony with the breaking of a glass. The end of the public wedding ceremony is marked by the breaking of a glass usually a thin glass wrapped in a napkin to contain the fragments. There are many reasons that jewish grooms break a glass at the end of their ceremony sealing the marriage to their bride.

Marriage is a covenant which in judaism is made by breaking or cutting something. The first being in keeping with the song that had just been sung to commemorate the destruction faced by jewish people over the past two thousand years a nod to the suffering that had come before. It is smashed under foot by the groom after the seven benedictions or after the rabbi s address if it follows the benedictions. This ancient practice has been interpreted in many ways.

At sinai tablets were broken. The breaking of the glass although this ceremony is traditionally of jewish origin many couples choose to incorporate it into traditional and non traditional ceremonies. I just love the symbolism of this tradition. I am sharing it like this to make it easier for anyone to use when writing a wedding ceremony.

Privacy yichud c coby engelhart.