A Wedding like You have Never seen Before!
Credit to Daily Mail Online – “The bride with 25,000 guests: Holding a sash, newlywed, 19, waits for relative to perform a 'Mitzvah dance' as she marries into Ultra Orthodox Jewish family” – May 22, 2013
The Daily Mail Online – “The bride with 25,000 guests: Holding a sash, newlywed, 19, waits for relative to perform a ‘Mitzvah dance’ as she marries into Ultra Orthodox Jewish family. Thousands attended the wedding of the grandson of the leader of the Hasidic dynasty Belz Rebbe yesterday. 18-year-old Shalom Rokeach will be the future leader of the Jewish sect – one of the largest in the world. He married 19-year-old bride Hannah Batya Penet in the traditional ceremony which lasted several hours until dawn
Weddings are always a big occasion, but with a guest-list of more than 25,000 this traditional Jewish ceremony dwarfs even the most lavish of nuptials. Jewish well-wishers from around the world attended the Ultra Orthodox Jewish wedding to witness the marriage of the grandson of the leader of the Hasidic dynasty Belz Rebbe yesterday. Steeped in tradition, these amazing images show the ceremony of 18-year-old Shalom Rokeach and his 19-year-old bride Hannah Batya Penet in Jerusalem, Israel.
The bride with 25,000 guests: Holding a sash, newlywed, 19, waits for relative to perform a 'Mitzvah dance' as she marries into Ultra Orthodox Jewish family.
- Thousands attended the wedding of the grandson of the leader of the Hasidic dynasty Belz Rebbe yesterday
- 18-year-old Shalom Rokeach will be the future leader of the Jewish sect - one of the largest in the world
- He married 19-year-old bride Hannah Batya Penet in the traditional ceremony which lasted several hours until dawn
Weddings are always a big occasion, but with a guest-list of more than 25,000, this traditional Jewish ceremony dwarfs even the most lavish of nuptials.
Jewish well-wishers from
around the world attended the Ultra Orthodox Jewish wedding to witness the
marriage of the grandson of the leader of the Hasidic dynasty Belz Rebbe
yesterday. Steeped in tradition, these amazing images show the ceremony of
18-year-old Shalom Rokeach and his 19-year-old bride Hannah Batya Penet in
Jerusalem, Israel.
Centre of
attention: The bride Hannah Batya Penet during the ceremony which lasts several
hours
Shalom Rokeach is the eldest and only male grandchild of the Belz Rebbe, who heads one of the largest Hasidic communities in the world. Being the only male, the newlywed is assumed to be the Rebbe's future heir in leading the community.
Belz Rebbe is an ancient Polish-Jewish dynasty which has its roots in the 14th Century in the Polish town of the same name. The marriage of one of its descendants, who is considered aristocracy among Orthodox Jews, is big occasion and all members of the sect from all over the world are invited.
The wedding is a rare meet-and-greet opportunity for leaders of various Hasidic sects. Thousands of Belz Hasids from the United States and Europe attended the celebration, which lasted until dawn. A number of Jerusalem streets were shut down because of the size of the celebrations.
Traditional Jewish weddings consist of two separate parts, the betrothal ceremony, known as erusin or kiddushin, and the actual wedding ceremony, known as nisuin.
The first betrothal ceremony sees the groom give a wedding ring to the bride. During this part of the service, the bride is prohibited from talking to all other men.
The wedding ceremony then takes place underneath a large four-poled stand with a canopy overhead known as a chuppah so the groom and his veiled bride can be married underneath the sky.
The bride's wedding veil takes various forms among the different Jewish communities. Some Hasidic brides wear a heavy cloth veil that, Hasidic Jews believe, protect the bride's modesty by allowing her to avoid guests' gazes while she stands under the wedding canopy.
Mesmerised: An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man uses a pair of binoculars during the wedding ceremony of Shalom Rokeach, the grandson of the Chief Rabbi of Belz, and his bride Hannah Batya Penet
The veil also recalls the Matriarch Leah, whose face was covered so heavily that Jacob did not know she was not Rachel at the wedding ceremony. The bride only has to wear the veil during the ceremony.
After the ceremony the bride and groom spend an hour together before the bride re-enters the chuppah and, after gaining her permission, the groom joins her. The couple are then blessed over a cup of wine at the conclusion of the ceremony.
All the male guests
dressed in black and wore traditional shtreimel hats for the occasion, which
traditionally separates the men from the women.
Under the
stars: Bride Hannah Batya Penet is led by female relatives to the chuppah, a
large supported canopy, where the wedding vows took place
Daunting: Around 25,000 guests from around the world descending on Jerusalem to watch the ceremony
Orthodox
aristocracy: The Belz Hasidic dynasty is one of the largest Hasidic sects in
the world
THE ULTRA ORTHODOX JEWISH WEDDING
Traditional Jewish weddings consist of two separate parts, the betrothal ceremony, known as erusin or kiddushin, and the actual wedding ceremony, known as nisuin. The first betrothal ceremony sees the groom give a wedding ring to the bride. During this part of the service, the bride is prohibited from talking to all other men. The wedding ceremony then takes place underneath a canopy known as a chuppah so the couple may get married beneath the sky.
After the ceremony the bride and groom spend an hour together before the bride enters the chuppah and, after gaining her permission, the groom joins her. The couple is then blessed over a cup of wine at the conclusion of the ceremony. All the male guests dressed in black and wore traditional shtreimel hats for the occasion, which traditionally separates the men from the women.
The bride and members of the family then take part in Mitzvah tantz ritual - where members of the family and honoured rabbis dance in front of her and then with the groom. The bride stands perfectly still, holding one end of a long sash while rabbis, the groom’s father, her own father or her grandfather holds the other end and dances with her. The guests then enjoy a traditional wedding meal which lasts until dawn.
It was so full that some guests were forced to use binoculars to catch a glimpse of the service. After the wedding ceremony, the bride took part in the Mitzvah tantz ritual - where members of the family and honoured rabbis dance in front of her and then with the groom.
According to the Talmud, it’s considered a great honor to entertain a new bride and to dance for her during her wedding. Only a few women take part in this section of the celebrations. Members of the congregation held hands and danced during the ceremony and sweets were handed out to children before the wedding party enjoyed a traditional meal.
Hasidic Jews wear clothes similar to that worn by their ancestors in 18th and 19th century Europe - and this style of attire also helps them to focus on their sense of tradition and spirituality. The biggest Hasidic communities are found in Israel and the U.S. There also smaller groups in Canada, England, Belgium and Australia.
Their lives revolve around religious study, prayer and family - and theirs is a world without television, films, the internet or secular publications. The men generally have beards and sidelocks (peyot). Women tend to wear long skirts and shirts with long sleeves and high necklines as they adhere to strict guidelines of modesty. After the women get married, they cover their heads with either scarves, hats or wigs (known as 'sheitels').
THE ORTHODOX ARISTOCRACY: HOW THE BELZ DYNASTY WAS FOUNDED
The founder of the dynasty was Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, also known as the Sar Shalom, who was inducted as the rabbi of Belz in 1817. He personally helped build the city's large and imposing synagogue which stood until the Nazis invaded Belz in late 1939. When Rabbi Shalom died in 1855, his youngest son, Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach, became the next Rebbe. The Belzer Hasidism sect grew in size during Rebbe Yehoshua's tenure and the tenure of his son and successor, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach.
Unlike other groups
which formed yeshivas in pre-war Poland, Belz maintained a unique yoshvim
program, developed by Rabbi Yissachar Dov, which produced many outstanding
Torah scholars. The yoshvim were married and unmarried men who remained in the
synagogue all day to study the Talmud, pray, and derive inspiration from their
Rebbe.
With the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, the town of Belz was thrown into turmoil. From 1939 to 1944 it was occupied by Nazi Germany as a part of the General Government. Though the Germans attempted to destroy the Belz synagogue first by fire and then by dynamite, they were unsuccessful. Finally they conscripted Jewish men to take the building apart, brick by brick.
The Belz leader Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, known as the 'Wonder Rebbe' was at the top of the Gestapo's 'wanted list' of rabbis targeted for extradition and extermination during the Nazi occupation of Poland. With cash inflow from Belzer Hasidim in Palestine, England and the United States, the Rebbe and his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray, managed to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in one miraculous escape attempt after another. The brothers were driven out of occupied Poland and into Hungary by a Hungarian counter-intelligence agent who was friendly to Jews.
Although he had lost his entire
family—including his wife, children, grandchildren and in-laws and their
families—to the Nazis, Rebbe Aharon re-established his Hasidic court in Tel
Aviv, where there was a small Hasidic community.
Both he and Rabbi Mordechai (who had lost his wife and daughter) remarried, but only Rabbi Mordechai had a child, Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II), in 1948. Rabbi Mordechai suddenly died a year later at the age of 47. Rebbe Aharon took his brother's son under his wing to groom him as the future successor to the Belz dynasty.
Like nearly all of the other groups originating in Poland, Belzer Hasdism was nearly wiped out by the Holocaust. Some Hasidic followers from other communities joined Belz after the war and following the deaths of their rebbes. Belz, like Ger and Satmar, was comparatively fortunate in that its leadership remained intact and survived the war, as opposed to many other Hasidic groups which suffered losses both in terms of rank-and-file supporters, as well as the physical decapitation of their leaders.
Rebbe Aharon became an acknowledged leader of Haredi Judaism in Israel. He laid the groundwork for the spread of Belzer Hasidism through the establishment of schools and yeshivas in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.
Since 1966, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach has presided over both the expansion of Belz educational institutions and the growth of Hasidic populations in Israel, the United States, and Europe. Under the Rebbe's leadership, the Belz Hasidut has grown from a few hundred families at the time of his accession to leadership in 1966, to over 7,000 families as of 2011.
The largest number of Belzer Hasidim outside of Israel are living in the USA, mostly in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, which has eight Belzer synagogues and ten dayanim. Belz is the largest Hasidic community in Borough Park, followed by Bobov, Satmar, Munkatch, and Ger. Belz in the USA & Canada counts over 2000 families.
End of Article
Open and Scroll down on Daily Mail Article for Videos of the Wedding
As Wikipedia summarized the “Hasidic Judaism”
Wikipedia – “The Holocaust brought final destruction to all Hasidic centers of Eastern Europe. Most survivors moved eventually to Israel or to America, and established new centers of Hasidic Judaism modeled after their original communities. Some of the larger and more well-known Hasidic sects that still exist include Belz, Bobov, Breslov, Ger, Lubavitch (Chabad), Munkacs, Puppa, Sanz (Klausenburg), Satmar, Skver, Spinka and Vizhnitz.
The largest groups in Israel today are Ger, Chabad, Belz, Satmar, Breslov, Vizhnitz, Seret-Vizhnitz, Nadvorna, and Toldos Aharon. In the United States the largest are Satmar, Bobov, Ger, and Lubavitch all centered in Brooklyn, New York City, USA. Reb Aharon's Satmar camp is centered in Kiryas Joel, New York, while Reb Zalman is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Skver (New Square) in Rockland County, New York.
New York City is the home
of the Largest Hasidic Population in the World
There are over one million Hasidic Jews worldwide. The two main Hasidic communities in the United States are located in New York City and Rockland County, New York. In New York City, the neighborhoods include Borough Park, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights in the borough of Brooklyn.
However, the most rapidly growing community of American Hasidic Jews is located in Rockland County and the western Hudson Valley of New York State, including the communities of Monsey, Monroe, New Square, and Kiryas Jol. There is also a sizable and rapidly growing American Hasidic community in Lakewood, New Jersey, which was once a center of mainly Litvish and Yeshiva Orthodox Jews, as well as other areas of the U.S. state of New Jersey, including Teaneck, Englewood, Passaic, and Fair Lawn. Other American Hasidic communities also exist in Pikesville and Northwest Baltimore, Maryland; the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles; the Sherman Park neighborhood of Milwaukee; and St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb. A Canadian Hasidic population can be found in the Outremont borough of Montreal.
Outside of the United States, the largest Hasidic community is in Israel, located mainly in Jerusalem and its adjacent areas, such as Ramat Beit Shemesh and also the religious city of Bnei Brak. Smaller communities are scattered across Europe.
According to The New York Times, the high fertility rate of Orthodox Jews will eventually render them the dominant demographic force in New York Jewry. A 2009 article published by the University of Florida stated that the growth of Hasidic Judaism may cause Jewish politics in the US to shift towards the political right.”
Credit to Daily Mail Online – “The bride with 25,000 guests: Holding a sash, newlywed, 19, waits for relative to perform a 'Mitzvah dance' as she marries into Ultra Orthodox Jewish family” – May 22, 2013
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The Haredi or Hasidic Jew is today recognized as the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. The founder of Hasidic Judaism was the famed Jewish mystic rabbi, Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name), who’s real name was Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer. By the use of the “Divine names” he was recognized as the “Wonder Rabbi” whose legacy also left behind numerous miracles and cures of various illnesses.
Composed of numerous different subsects, Hasidic Jews depict a vast diversity of spiritual and cultural orientations, that span from the Hasidic sects in Eastern Europe of the Lithuanian-Yeshivish Jewish streams to the Oriental Sephardic Haredim more south in Spain. Their lifestyles and ideologies are very diverse. These express how strict or stringent their religious practices are, or how integrated or isolated from the general population defines the various styles or sects of the Haredi or the Hasidic Jew. Today, the largest populations of the Haredim are located in Israel, North America and in Western Europe. With a worldwide population of Haredi Jews approaching 1.3 million (2011), the conservative lifestyle of the Haredi Jews will continue to influence the larger Jewish Orthodoxy worldwide in the years to come.
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