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Engagements & Weddings

This is an archive of prayers written for, or relevant to, the Jewish life cycle celebration of engagements and wedding days.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written for an engagement or wedding day.

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

כְּהַיּוֹם הַזֶּה בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם | k’Hayom HaZeh Birushalayim (This day in Jerusalem), a wedding prayer from the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 9th c.)

A well-wishing prayer for couples on their wedding day found in the Seder Rav Amram Gaon. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 47th century A.M., 9th century C.E., Geonic prayers, Needing Vocalization, wedding blessings

Contributor(s): Gabriel Kretzmer Seed (translation), Jeffrey Saks (translation), Amram Ben Rav Sheshna and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

תחינה פאר א אִשָּׁה פאר דעד חוּפָּה פון איר זון ארער איר טאָכטער | Tkhine for a mother to say before the wedding of her daughter (19th c.)

A tkhine (supplication) for a mother to say before her daughter’s wedding, transcribed and translated from the Siddur Qorban Minḥah (1897). . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Prayers on behalf of children, תחינות teḥinot, תחינות tkhines, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s): Mendel Spalter (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תחנה פיר אין כלה פאר דער חופה | Prayer for a Bride before her Wedding (19th c.)

A tkhine (supplication) for a bride to say before their wedding, transcribed and translated from the Siddur Qorban Minḥah (1897). . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Needing Transcription, תחינות teḥinot, תחינות tkhines, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s): Mendel Spalter (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

א תחנה פאר א כלה קודם החופה | A Tkhine for a Bride [to say] before the Khupe [wedding canopy ceremony]

“A Tkhine for a Kaleh before the Khupe” by an unknown author is a faithful transcription of the version published in Rokhl m’vakoh al boneho (Rokhel Weeps for her Children), Vilna, 1910. I have transcribed it without any changes from The Merit of Our Mothers בזכות אמהות A Bilingual Anthology of Jewish Women’s Prayers, compiled by Rabbi Tracy Guren Klirs, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992. shgiyot mi yavin, ministarot nakeni. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., gender roles, Jewish Women's Prayers, Needing Attribution, Needing Source Images, תחינות tkhines, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s): Baruch Jean Thaler (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer on the Day of Marriage (previous to the Nuptial Ceremony), by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

“Prayer on the Day of Marriage, previous to the Nuptial Ceremony” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 56. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer on the Day of Betrothal, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

“Prayer on the Day of Betrothal” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 55. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., engagement, English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Gebet einer Mutter am Hochzeitstage ihres Sohnes | Prayer of a mother on her son’s wedding day, by Fanny Neuda (1855)

A prayer of a mother on her son’s wedding day. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Bohemian Jewry, German vernacular prayer, תחינות teḥinot, Teḥinot in German, wedding

Contributor(s): Fanny Schmiedl-Neuda and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Gebet einer Mutter am Hochzeitstage ihrer Tochter | Prayer of a mother on her daughter’s wedding day, by Fanny Neuda (1855)

A prayer of a mother on her daughter’s wedding day. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Bohemian Jewry, German vernacular prayer, תחינות teḥinot, Teḥinot in German, wedding

Contributor(s): Fanny Schmiedl-Neuda and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

[Prayer] on Becoming Engaged, by Lilian Helen Montagu (1895)

“On Becoming Engaged” was written by Lilian Helen Montagu and published in Prayers for Jewish Working Girls (1895), pp. 30-31. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, teḥinot in English, תחינות teḥinot, West Central Girls' Club

Contributor(s): Lilian Helen Montagu and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

דיא ערשטע טבילה | Die erste Twile | The First Bath of Ablution, a prayer-poem by Morris Rosenfeld (before 1898)

This is the poem “דיא זרשטע טבילה” by Morris Rosenfeld (1862-1923) written sometime before 1898. We have transcribed the poem as it was published in Rosenfeld’s collection of poems Gezamelṭe lieder (1906) pp. 167-168. The poem was romanized and translated into English by Leo Wiener and published under the title, “Die erste Twile (The First Bath of Ablution)” in Songs from the Ghetto (1898), pp. 52-55. A rhyming translation by Rose Pastor Stokes & Helena Frank under the title, “The First Bath of Ablution” was published in Songs of Labor and Other Poems (1914), pp. 72-73. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings, Immersion (Purification)

Tags: מקווה miqveh, 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Prayers as poems, predatory gaze, rhyming translation, שמירת הגוף shmirat haguf, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s): Helena Frank (translation), Rose Pastor Stokes (translation), Leo Wiener (translation), Morris Rosenfeld and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

מַה נָּאווּ עֲלֵי | Mah Navu Alei, a piyyut by Rabbi Shimon bar Nissim (ca. 20th c.)

The piyyut, Ma Navu Alei, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., פיוטים piyyutim, wedding, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Sara Lapidot (translation) and Shimon bar Nissim

Gebet einer Mutter am Hochzeitstage ihrer Tochter | Prayer of a mother on the wedding day of her daughter, by Lise Tarlau (1907)

“Gebet einer Mutter am Hochzeitstage ihrer Tochter” by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), pages 441-444. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., German vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחינות teḥinot, Teḥinot in German

Contributor(s): Lise Tarlau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לפני קידושין | Prayer before Kiddushin for Couples, by Sarah Groner

This prayer is based on the personal prayer said on holidays before Torah reading. The grammar has been adapted as plural rather than singular, so that the couple says the prayer together before their ritual of Kiddushin (betrothal). . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Gratitude, kiddushin, Needing Translation (into English)

Contributor(s): Sarah Groner

שבע ברכות | The Seven Blessings over a Wedding (interpretive translation by Aharon Varady)

A translation of the Seven Blessings shared just in time for Shavuot, and in honor of several of my friend’s weddings. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English Translation, eros, interpretive translation, love, marriage, שבועות Shavuot, שבע ברכות sheva brakhot, יחוד yiḥud

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

שבע ברכות לנפשות קשורות | Seven Blessings For Interlinking Souls, by Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss and Rabbi Jonah Rank

When Jonah Rank and Raysh Weiss intended to finalize the words of the “Seven Blessings” (Sheva Berakhot, שֶֽׁבַע בְּרָכוֹת) that their friends and family members would offer them on their big day, they attempted to preserve the most widespread Ashkenazic version of these seven nuptial blessings with which their Jewish marital status would be effected. However, they attempted to avoid phrases that would limit the gender or sex of the blessings’ referents. Additionally, they sought to ensure that their blessings focused on the happiness of the occasion at hand. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., gender inclusive, North America, שבע ברכות sheva brakhot

Contributor(s): Raysh Weiss and Jonah Rank

הברכה שמח תשמח | Blessing for Joy: A Poetic Rendering of Sheva Brakhah no. 6 (Same’aḥ T’samaḥ), by Daniel Kieval

This is a poetic rendering of the sixth blessing (of the Sheva Brakhot/7 Blessings) for a wedding. It riffs off of themes and language in the Hebrew text of joy, love, and companionship, and invocations of the Garden of Eden, creation, and eternity. Written originally for the wedding of friends; I hope you’ll feel free to adapt and rework it however suits your needs! . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., blessings, ברכות brakhot, devotional interpretation, English vernacular prayer, interpretive translation, North America, שבע ברכות sheva brakhot, תחינות teḥinot, wedding blessings

Contributor(s): Daniel Kieval

שבע ברכות | Sheva Brakhot, the seven blessings following the Birkat Mazon at a wedding meal

The text of the Sheva Brakhot from the birkon of Honi Sanders and Simona Dalin. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: blessings, ברכות brakhot, eros, nisuin, Prayers in the Babylonian Talmud, wedding blessings

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תְּפִלָה לְאִשָׁה לְאָמְרָהּ לִפְנֵי שֶׁמְגַלַּחַת אֶת שַׁעֲרוֹת רֹאשָׁהּ | Prayer for a woman to say before her hair is shorn

A supplication of a woman cutting her hair as an act of tsanua, per a contemporary custom in many Ḥaredi communities. . . .

Categories: Engagements & Weddings

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., hair, hair-cutting, Jewish Women's Prayers, Needing citation references, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Yahnatan Lasko (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

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