Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Motzei Shabbos that Israel is beginning a partial shutdown beginning on Sunday for five weeks included a ban of gatherings of over 10 people. Furthermore, simcha halls, among other venues, were to be shuttered by Sunday morning, which means that any family who has a wedding scheduled for the next five weeks has to cancel the wedding.
Many Chareidi families who were supposed to hold a wedding this week decided to quickly prepare a wedding to be held overnight Motzei Shabbos before the new restrictions went into effect at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. These hastily prepared weddings were of course still subject to the ban of gatherings of over 100 people.
A hall in Ashdod opened its doors to allow a couple from the south to hold their wedding, with the chuppah beginning at 4:30 a.m. and ending at 5:15 a.m., B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. Shacharis was then held at neitz and dancing took place until 7.50 a.m. Israel Police arrived to close the hall at 7:55 a.m.
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Kikar H’Shabbos reported on a family from Ashdod who held a wedding in a Bnei Brak hall in middle of the night. The kallah, who lives in Jerusalem set out to Bnei Brak after Shabbos but was delayed due to the heavy traffic. Meanwhile, a chef was called to the hall to cook the wedding meal.
בשל ההוראה על הגבלת אירועים לעשרה אנשים, כעת (01:00 בלילה) מתקיימת חתונה שהייתה אמורה להתקיים מחר pic.twitter.com/YLoDKKV69X
— 🎈kobi bornshtein | קובי בורנשטיין (@kobi_bornshtein) March 14, 2020
The wedding was held on Sunday morning at 4 a.m. “It was a moving chupah,” one of the participants told Kikar H’Shabbat. The men and women were separated into two different halls so as not to violate the ban of gatherings of over 100 people but many people were present at the chuppah that was held outside the hall.”
3 לפנות בוקר, חתונה במודיעין עילית pic.twitter.com/REkkZyrd8g
— מנחם קולדצקי (@nbjovsr88) March 15, 2020
“The excitement was palpable in the hall. Despite the hasty preparations – the kallah chair, the food, the band – everything were prepared in a rush but they were all wonderful. It was obvious from the guests’ expressions that they were experiencing an extraordinary event.”
2 לפנות בוקר: חתונה אחרונה באולמי נוף עילית במודיעין עילית pic.twitter.com/ZPkNK1xgVk
— מנחם קולדצקי (@nbjovsr88) March 14, 2020
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
which means that any family who has a wedding scheduled for the next five weeks has to cancel the wedding
1) This violates the פסק of the venerated Chief Rabbi:- Moreinu hoRav Yitzchak Yosef shlita, not to push off any weddings. Albeit Kiddushin just needs 2 עדים, but Nissuin needs a Minyan, and bride doesn’t count towards Minyan, so would need minimum of 11 people, and limit of 10 people per new regulations.
2) 5 weeks from now is almost אייר:- shall there be a הוראת-שעה to permit weddings during ספירה this year due to unprecedented backlog?
JPS: just plain stupid. If a secular-government ban on gatherings of more than 10 is set to go into effect in 12 hours, the sensible response is to start the ban early, not rush to get the big gathering completed seconds before the deadline. Whoever said Jews are so smart did not have all the facts.
And, yes, I know there are some halachic authorities who would not agree with me, and yes, they know halacha way better than me. But one must reconcile halacha and medical science, and some halachic authorities have no regard for medical science, and no understanding of the need to reconcile the differences. And, no, if the secular government were the Hungarian, or some other anti-Semitic government, I would not necessarily comply with their rule, unless they plan to kill me by the usual means, not a new virus.