The Week of Sheva Brachot

For the week after the wedding there is a telling tradition of nightly celebration with the young couple.

• The origin of this weeklong celebration is considered to be the mention of the “week” – understood as the week of wedding celebration - that followed the wedding of Jacob with Leah (Bereishit 29:27).

• However, the sociological significance of the week of wedding celebrations is very clearly the confirmation of the community’s acceptance of the newly married couple.

• Contrast the week of celebration with the usual modern western habit of the honeymoon where the whole idea is for the newly-weds to get away from it all and everybody else immediately after the wedding ceremony, where, the idea is isolation.
• No one would deny that a chance to isolate oneself and gain some privacy with your new partner is an important idea for any relationship. In traditional Judaism, however, this need is subordinated to a higher need: the merging of the new couple into the community experience, and the acceptance of their new status in a formal manner by the Jewish community.

• Judaism has always had a very strong community dimension and it constantly stresses the relationship of the individual within the group. The sheva brachot – so called because of the nightly reciting of the seven blessings from the wedding – is an excellent illustration of the importance of community in Judaism.

• The idea of the totality of community is stressed by the traditional demand that there should be a few new faces every night of the celebration. Indeed, without at least one person present who was not at the wedding – and incidentally, without the presence of a minyan, of which the new guest should be a part – the blessings themselves cannot be recited.

It is, in other words, the idea of the extension of the couple into community acceptance that lies beneath the whole idea of the extra week of celebration.

Close this window

The Department for Jewish Zionist Education
The Pedagogic Center
Director: Dr. Motti Friedman
Web Site Manager: Esther Carciente