Rabbis at Weddings
From a mere two witnesses to
top hat, tails, and rabbi. A Jewish
Wedding, Jozef Israëls, oil on
canvas, 1903
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam
2 Adar II 5784_March 2024
Rabbis at Weddings
Who Invited
the Rabbi?
Rabbis have officiated at weddings for centuries,
but the Talmud mentions no such practice. So how
did Jewish clergy become an integral part of the
ceremony? | Ariel Picard
M
any human endeavors begin
spontaneously but gradually
become so institutionalized
that authorization is required.
For instance, the ancient art of healing has
evolved into the science of medicine, in which
practitioners must be not just knowledgeable
and experienced but certified MDs.
This phenomenon applies to Jewish
marriage as well. In the Talmud, the
creation of such a union requires no more
than a man gifting something valuable to
a woman in the presence of two witnesses
for the express purpose of matrimony,
and her accepting the item with that in
mind. Talmudic literature details countless
marriages and divorces, all performed
without supervision. Rabbinic authorities
get involved only when complications arise,
as in the following example:
An incident occurred involving five women,
Segula_The Jewish Journey through History 3
Rabbis at Weddings
M
A
ZA
L TO V
!
including two sisters, in which a man
gathered a basket of figs […] and declared,
“Behold, you are all betrothed to me with
this basket,” and one accepted it on behalf
of all. The sages ruled: the sisters are not
betrothed. (Mishna, Kiddushin 2:7)
The Talmudic sources all describe a man
betrothing a woman with no rabbi (or
anyone else) performing any ceremony. So
how did the role of officiant develop, and
when did it become reserved for rabbis?
Ordination
Actually, the position of community rabbi
also has a history. Ever since the Second
Temple period, local religious leaders have
addressed halakhic matters both communal
and personal. However, the official rabbinic
position known in Aramaic as mara deatra, “master of the location,” is less ancient
and doesn’t even appear in the Talmud. The
relationship between rabbi and community
was formalized as late as the medieval
period, and according to scholar Prof.
Mordecai Breuer, the rabbinate became
an Ashkenazic profession – complete with
ordination documents – only in the 14th
century.
Communal politics swiftly surrounded
the new, paid position, with power
struggles between established rabbis and
up-and-coming rabbinic talent. With
personal incomes at stake, incumbents
accused their competition of professional
trespassing.
One example, cited by Rabbi Yitzhak
bar Sheshet Parfat (acronym Rivash) in a
responsum, concerns two French rabbis in
4 Adar II 5784_March 2024
the 1380s. Rabbi Isaiah Astruc, leader of the
Savoy Jewish community, aimed to become
chief rabbi of France. He therefore decreed:
All bills of divorce and levirate release
issued without Rabbi Isaiah’s permission
by any rabbi attempting to settle in France
shall be invalid; [any such rabbi’s] books
are those of an idolator. (Responsa of Rivash
271)
Yet the rabbi of Paris, Johanan ben
Mattithiah Treves, son of the country’s
previous chief rabbi, aspired to succeed
his father, only to have his authority
undermined by Rabbi Isaiah’s proclamation.
Rabbi Johanan turned to Rivash, head of the
Spanish Jewish community of Zaragoza, for
help.
The resulting responsum discussed the
The local rabbi was part of
the community leadership
but not necessarily the
exclusive authority. Klezmer
musicians dominate this
portrayal of a Jewish
wedding procession by
Wincenty Smokowski, 1858
Courtesy of the Warsaw
National Museum
Rabbis at Weddings
origin and nature of the halachic authority
bestowed by ordination. Rivash wrote that
the Talmudic chain of rabbinic ordination
had been broken, making its contemporary
equivalent much less binding. Therefore no
rabbi could impose his authority.
Such is the ordination customary in France
and Ashkenaz. When a student becomes
capable of teaching […], he is rabbinically
forbidden to do so without his teacher’s
permission […] That is to say: he is
henceforth no longer a student; rather, he’s
worthy of teaching others anywhere and
deserves the title “rabbi.” (ibid.)
In numerous Talmudic
anecdotes, rabbinic authorities
intervened in marriages only
when complications arose
No rabbi’s authority is territorial.
Rivash's response notwithstanding,
the trend toward granting rabbis local
jurisdictions seems only to have gained
momentum in the region in question.
Doctors of Halakha
In other words, according to Rivash,
ordination stems not from the relationship
between a rabbi and his community, but
from that between a scholar and his teacher.
A century after Rivash, statesman,
philosopher, and Bible commentator Don
Isaac Abarbanel reestablished himself in Italy
following the expulsion from Spain. In his
It only takes two to
tango – or to wed – in
this medieval illustration
featuring bride and
groom. Festival prayer
book, Leipzig, 1320
Courtesy of ANU Museum
Segula_The Jewish Journey through History 5
Rabbis at Weddings
new country, Abarbanel was surprised by
the Ashkenazic custom of ordaining rabbis
altogether. He detected Christian academic
influence:
This was the practice in Spain while the
[Jews] were still there, that none among
them was ordained. Yet after my arrival
in Italy, I discovered that the custom of
one rabbi ordaining another had become
common. I perceived that it had begun with
the Ashkenazim, all of [whose rabbis] are
ordained and ordain others. I know not
whence they derived this license, unless they
acquired it from the ways of the non-Jews,
who award doctorates and whose doctors
then appoint others. (Nahalat Avot 6:1)
While agreeing that Jewish scholars
deserve respect, Abarbanel disapproved of
granting them professional qualification,
which he thought reeked of Christian
academic institutions. For Abarbanel, Jewish
scholarship wasn’t a profession, nor did it
require ordination. In the past, the chain of
authority soldered together by ordination
had depended on the Sanhedrin. With
no such body or anything similar in the
Diaspora, sages were to be described as
“neither rabbi nor rabban, terms reserved for
those appointed by those already crowned
with semikha (ordination; see p. 36), since
there can be no ordination outside the land
of Israel” (ibid.).
Rivash’s understanding of ordination as
part of the relationship between rabbi and
student is echoed in Rabbi Moshe Isserles’
(acronym Rema, 1530–1572) Ashkenazic
glosses on Rabbi Yosef Karo’s code of Jewish
6 Adar II 5784_March 2024
Rabbis at Weddings
law, the Shulhan Arukh:
The matter of ordination as practiced
nowadays indicates that [one] has reached
the level of instruction and that the rulings
he issues are by permission of his teacher
who ordained him […]. (Yoreh De’a 242:14)
Rema also qualifies the value of rabbinic
ordination:
Some say that the rulings of anyone not
ordained [by the rabbinic authority they
recognize] […] are meaningless, and
his divorces, etc., are suspect, unless all
acknowledge him as a widely recognized
expert who humbly doesn’t aspire to
greatness [or titles]. (ibid.)
That is, ordination may signify professional
expertise, yet even someone without such
credentials but renowned for his wisdom
and knowledge is just as authoritative.
Qualifications
Despite the objections of Abarbanel and
Rema, the rabbinate became a certified
profession. The Ashkenazic trend was
strengthened by the modern period’s
obsession with qualifications. Even as
modernity weakened the sense of religious
obligation, rabbinic authority was bolstered
by certification and institutionalization. In
the field of marriage and divorce, however,
that process had begun much earlier.
Even the Talmud was uncomfortable with
the fact that betrothals and divorces could be
enacted by anyone:
Rabbi Judah said in Samuel’s name: Anyone
unfamiliar with the nature of divorce and
betrothal should have no business with
them. (Kiddushin 6a)
Rashi (medieval commentator Rabbi
Shlomo Yitzhaki) comments here that
expertise regarding the consequences of such
agreements is vital.
“I know not how rabbinic ordination
became permitted if not by aping the nonJews’ awarding of doctorates” – Abarbanel
Facing page: was
community rabbis’
ordination influenced by
that of Christian clergy
and other professional
certification? Meeting of
Doctors at the University
of Paris, Etienne Collault,
16th century
In Jewish law, betrothal
requires only that a man
give his intended a gift
in the presence of two
witnesses. The ketuba
(marriage contract)
accompanying this act
details the husband’s
obligations to his wife
and has been compulsory
since at least the fourth
century. Ketuba from
Livorno (Leghorn), Italy,
1698
Segula_The Jewish Journey through History 7
Rabbis at Weddings
“Should have no business with them” – to
serve as a judge of the matter, lest he permit
marriage between those forbidden to marry
one another, resulting in an error that
cannot be rectified.
Not just a matter of
Jewish law. Officiating
at weddings was also
lucrative for the local
rabbi. A Jewish Wedding,
colored print by Dirk
Jansz van Santen, late 17th
century, Netherlands
This fear resulted in a series of rabbinic
restrictions on those authorized to perform
weddings and divorces. Maimonides
described a decree he himself helped
formulate:
8 Adar II 5784_March 2024
The rabbis of Egypt have issued – and
brought a Torah scroll out in public to
declare – a ban on the inhabitants of
the villages of Damanhūr, Bilbeis, and
Almohella to prevent any man among them
from marrying or divorcing his wife other
than by means of the rabbis of the Egyptian
villages: Rabbi Halfon, rabbinic judge of
Damanhūr; Rabbi Yauda Hakohen, rabbinic
judge of Bilbeis; and Rabbi Perahia, rabbinic
judge of Almohella. We have agreed to
ban whoever grants a license [to preside
over marriages and divorces] to anyone
unschooled in the nature of divorces and
betrothals. (Maimonides’ Responsa, vol. 2,
Blau edition, sec. 348 [Hebrew])
Similar decrees were enacted in various
times and places. The Rules of the Exiles
of Castile in the City of Fez, a collection of
Rabbis at Weddings
M
A
ZA
not detract from the wage of
the local rabbi by officiating at
wedding ceremonies and taking the
accompanying gratuity for himself, since
that is the reward of the resident rabbi. [The
guest] may, however, perform the marriage
and hand the payment to the regular rabbi.
(Yoreh De’a 245:22)
L TO V
!
Israeli Invention
Local rabbis clung to their
right to perform marriages,
refusing to share the
privilege or its fee
rabbinic rulings beginning in the late 14th
century, included retrospective annulment
of any marriage performed by an unlicensed
rabbi. The main idea was to prevent
weddings performed by people unaware of
the complications arising from halakhically
inappropriate relationships. But there was
an additional motive, originating wherever
rabbis were salaried. Rema mentions it in
another gloss on the Shulhan Arukh:
If a guest sage comes to town, he should
The exiles of Castile
brought their
stringencies with
them to Morocco, even
annuling unauthorized
marriages. A Jewish
Wedding in Morocco,
Eugène Delacroix, 1839
Courtesy of the Louvre
Museum, Paris
In the United States, Canada, and many
other countries, marriages may legally be
performed and registered by a member of
the clergy, a public official such as a judge, or
possibly even a civil celebrant. The modern
state’s insistence on marriage registration,
beginning in 18th-century Europe, probably
contributed to the institutionalization
of weddings and the requirement of a
recognized rabbinic presence.
The next stage in formalizing rabbinic
officiation at weddings occurred shortly after
the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s inception. This
body decreed that all marriages be registered
with the local rabbinate. Any time lag
between betrothal and wedding was likewise
forbidden, formally ending an ancient
custom that had long since fallen out of use
lest it lead to abandoned brides. Betrothed
couples delaying their weddings would be
forced to divorce. Furthermore:
We hereby forbid any person or rabbi of
Israel to arrange betrothal or marriage
unless he has been appointed in this capacity
in writing and by signature of the Chief
Rabbinate of the Cities of the Land of Israel.
[…] Violators will face excommunication –
with all the weight of decrees made by the
Segula_The Jewish Journey through History 9
Rabbis at Weddings
In a Word | Semikha
The Hebrew word semikha originally
indicated the laying of hands upon a
person or animal, designating him/it for a
certain purpose. The verb appears in the
Pentateuch in the context of sacrifices
offered in the Tabernacle. No sacrifice
made in fulfillment of a vow or to obtain
atonement was valid unless the owner of
the animal leaned on it with both hands
prior to its slaughter.
Perhaps by association, a similar
procedure is described for the biblical
transfer of leadership. In Numbers (27:18),
God instructed Moses to “Take Joshua
son of Nun, a man of spirit, and lay your
hand upon him.” Through this ritual, some
measure of Moses’ greatness was passed
on to his successor.
Ethics of the Fathers opens by
documenting the chain of rabbinic
leadership from Moses until the beginning
of the Second Temple period. The Talmudic
tractate Sanhedrin recounts the valiant
but futile rabbinic struggle to maintain the
practice of semikha and thus the chain
of ordination despite a ban imposed by
Roman emperor Hadrian.
This chain was ultimately broken, leaving
Jewish judges “unordained” and therefore
no longer authorized to impose fines or
other penalties.
Outstanding rabbis such as Maimonides
and Yaakov Berab of Safed (1474–1546)
attempted to restore the practice of
semikha but without success.
rabbis of Israel – in all existing communities
of Israel and those that may arise in the
10 Adar II 5784_March 2024
Country or community?
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate is
essentially one big “local
rabbi,” though its rulings
carry the force of law. The
Great Rabbinical Court
sitting in judgment in its
offices in Heikhal Shlomo,
King George Street,
Jerusalem, 1959
future. (Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, Heikhal
Yitzhak, Even Ha-ezer, vol. I, sec. 5, note 1)
The Israel Chief Rabbinate Law, passed in
1980, listed among the powers of the Chief
Rabbinical Council the following:
(a) To enable a rabbi to act as a marriage
registrar and (b) to appoint certain rabbis
as marriage registrars from among those so
authorized above. (ibid., sec. 2 [6])
Photo: Moshe Pridan,
Israel National Photo
Photo Archive
Yehezkel Landau, chief
rabbi of Prague, ruled
that only in the town
rabbi’s absence could
his colleague perform
a wedding. Portrait of
Landau, 18th century
“We hereby forbid any person
or rabbi to arrange betrothal
or marriage unless appointed
by the Chief Rabbinate”
Rabbis at Weddings
In 2017, the rabbinate defined the criteria
qualifying rabbis to officiate at marriages.
Parliamentary legislation proposed in 2009
had even stated that any couple married or
divorced by an unauthorized officiant would
face two years in prison, while the master
of ceremonies himself would serve a sixmonth sentence. Although the bill didn’t
pass, it shows how institutionalized marriage
has become. One reason is the increase in
private, non-rabbinate weddings in Israel,
including illegal marriages involving minors
or clandestine nuptials designed to prevent
widows or single mothers from losing welfare
payments contingent on their unfortunate
status. The law’s creators believed that only the
threat of criminal prosecution could halt such
practices.
Also in the background is the longsimmering struggle between Israel’s
Orthodox sector, represented by the
Chief Rabbinate, and the Reform and
Conservative movements. Only the
Chief Rabbinate is authorized to perform
marriage, divorce, and conversion.
Nonetheless, as stated, a fair number
of Israelis sidestep the rabbinate and
cement their relationships with non-
Orthodox ceremonies. In addition to the
circumstances discussed above, some go
this route because as far as the rabbinate is
concerned, the bride or groom in question
isn’t Jewish. Others want an egalitarian
ceremony or just prefer to defy the
Orthodox monopoly on marriage.
Current attempts to circumvent the
requirements of certification and officiation
by a state-licensed Orthodox rabbi seem to
be trending back to where we started, with
weddings validated by two witnesses alone.
Many modern Jews would rather avoid
officialdom and run their lives and life-cycle
events as they see fit. Too much oversight,
though born of the worthy intention of
maintaining the integrity of the Jewish
people, can backfire, producing exactly the
opposite effect.
State occasion. President
Haim Herzog at the
wedding of his son Isaac,
current president of
Israel, with future chief
rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau
officiating, 1985
Photo: Yaakov Sa’ar,
Sa’ar,
Israel National Photo
Photo Archive
Further reading:
Kopel Kahana, The Theory of Marriage in Jewish Law, Brill
1966. Mendell Lewittess, Jewish Marriage: Rabbinic Law,
Legend, and Custom, Aaronson 1994
Rabbi Dr. Ariel Picard A research fellow at the
Shalom Hartman Institute. His books include
The Philosophy of Rabbi Ovadya Yosef in an
Age of Transition (Hebrew)
Segula_The Jewish Journey through History 11