Elopement

Yesterday a woman called to ask if I was available to do a wedding today, Tuesday. Yehudah had married her daughter and son-in-law several years ago and she had remembered him fondly. She was looking for Yehudah to perform the wedding, but, as he is busy working at other jobs this week I told her that I was available. We planned a time to meet yesterday afternoon with both her and her fiance. In one and a half hours we basically planned their personalized wedding ceremony. That evening I worked on writing up a ceremony for them, looking on-line for symbolic connections about chocolate and a particular Jewish phrase, "Ani l' dodi v'dodi li". I will include here the piece I wrote about this as it excited me that they were choosing to get married in this particular time period. The woman is Jewish and the fellow comes from a Catholic background, but considers himself a universalist.

Well, he arrived this morning in his Prius to pick me up to go to their home. Her two daughters and one friend were their witnesses. She had set the table with lovely red crystal wine glasses, a large red box with chocolate and rings - the rings in a lovely, small box with Taj Mahal on the cover, champagne, other family heirlooms. It was just a lovely wedding!

So - if you are reading this and are considering an elopement - we are available!

Here is the piece I adapted from material I found on-line:

................, you have chosen to honor .............’s Jewish heritage in your choice of ring vows. Curiously, you are marrying in the early days of the Hebrew month of Elul and the Hebrew letters of the word [Elul] can be read as an acronym for the phrase “Ani l'dodi v'dodi li, which is from the Song of Songs. The Beloved, the tradition teaches, is one way of understanding Divinity; the acronym reminds us that Elul is a time to keep Adonai and love foremost in our minds. Each inbreath can be thought of as “ani l'dodi” and each outbreath as “v'dodi li” -- each breath a conversation with the Beloved, an assertion of that relationship which underlies everything we do. You are each other’s beloved and, as well, you are both in relationship to that which is greater than yourselves.

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
entry by Joanie Levine