A wedding in the city of Modiin ended on a frightening note after the chassan received a serious head injury from falling from a height of almost ten feet (3 meters), Ynet reported
As is done at countless weddings, the friends of the 34-year-old chassan had lifted him up on a table as part of the dancing and he somehow fell backward off the table, hitting his head on the floor and instantly losing consciousness.
Paramedics were called and he was evacuated to Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, where he was hospitalized in the ICU, sedated and ventilated. Unfortunately, his condition did not improve overnight and doctors reported on Monday morning that they are continuing to fight for his life.
HaRav Yehudah Meizlik, who officiated at the chasunah and has been close to the chasan since he became frum ten years ago, told Channel 12 News: “They lifted the chassan on a table and at a certain point he apparently lost his balance and fell on the back of his head from a height of three meters. He lost consciousness and the soundman at the wedding, who’s a senior MDA paramedic, administered emergency medical aid.”
“There was screaming and commotion. He’s a wonderful bachur, a successful accountant who waited a very long time to get married. It was such a happy and big wedding and it ended in tza’ar. His wife accompanied him to the hospital in her wedding gown. We have to stop this dangerous minhag of lifting [the chassan and kallah] at weddings.”
Israeli singer Amiran Dvir responded similarly to the incident, stating: “Perhaps it would be worthwhile to end the minhag of lifting the chassan on a table. This isn’t the first chassan that was injured as a result of it.”
The soundman, Pini Rotshtein, later posted a video on social media, saying: “I can’t get the sound of the screaming of the kallah and his parents out of my head. All the members of the band and myself are accepting upon ourselves, and I hope that other bands join us, to stop the music if they lift the chassan in a dangerous way.”
The public is asked to daven for Itai ben Ahuva l’refuah sheleimah b’toch shaar cholei Yisrael.
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8 Responses
I went to about 500 weddings and I never ever saw a Chosson on a table. They always pick him up with a chair.
Also this practice of stepping on glass under the Chuppah. It happened already a few times that the Chosson his feet got slightly cut from the glass. Please Please Please bring to the Chuppa a nice thick fabric napkin and put it on the glass besides the one that the hall provides. A lot of shoes today are very thin and one cloth from the hall is not enough when smashing glass.
Please google “groom was injured under the canopy”.
avraham:
I have seen both the chassan and the kallah lifted up on tables on their respective sides of the mechitza. Yes, lifting up the chassan on a table has happened.
Kudos to the band for saying that they will stop the music if it does happen.
A solution to the glass issue is to use your heel.
Would it break the hall to provide motorcycle helmets to the chossen and kallah?
I only learned a few years ago about the table thing. But the chair is a well known Jewish custom that even most non-Jews know about.
A chair is safer because you can grab on. Maybe each hall can have some kind of safe rolling platform.
As noted in the CR, a minhag that chazal originally trace to carrying the Kalah (not the choson) on someone’s shoulders to show kovod, morphed into a more generalized set of customs to be mesameach choson/v’kalah to today’s sometimes undignified and definitely non-tziniusdik circus performances.
There are many options that are both safe and dignified. Perhaps consider this as a message from shamayim to scale back these chair/tabletop routines.
May Hashem have rachmanus on him and his family and get a second chance to enjoy and live his life.