On Sunday, Jess and I went to Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA to work on some of the Jewish details of the wedding. In addition to stopping at Rami’s so we could use the best Groupon ever for some falafel, we made a stop at Kolbo and The Israel Book Shop.
The purpose of our trip was to make some decisions about benchers and ketubot.
Benchers
Benchers are the prayerbooks/songbooks that will be on the table at our wedding for use in the Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals) and Sheva Brachot (seven blessings) that are sung after Birkat Hamazon to re-enact the same 7 blessings that are recited during the wedding ceremony. These books will also accompany us for the family meals in the days after our wedding, the “Sheva Brachot meals.”
It came as a shock to us that a bencher that we had previously been considering, B’Chol Echad, has been discontinued and replaced with a revised edition. I refer, of course, to “the little blue bencher” associated with USY, Camp Ramah, and you probably have at least one copy “stolen” from a bar mitzvah or wedding underneath your piles of kippot at home. If we wanted a personalized B’Kol Echad then it would have to be the new version, which has completely different pagination than the older one. Thus, if we are going to pick out a bencher that would be “incompatible” with collections people have at home, then we would make use of the entire library of available benchers and pick our favorite.
So we decided on L’Chu N’Ran’nah, a new bencher that was published last year. While it is a little on the large side (wide), it has several great things going for it, including: gender-neutral translations, 3-column layout with Hebrew in the middle and English and transliteration on either side, and contiguous pagination for the Sheva Brachot (no flipping back and forth). It also has a great song selection in the back (short songs and long songs) which make this a great all-purpose bencher for us to use in our new home next year!
I’ve ordered a sample and it will be thoroughly vetted before ordering, but this is clearly the favorite for both of us. Check out their website; let us know what you think by commenting below!
Ketubot
The ketubah is the Jewish marriage contract signed by both parties, the rabbi, and two male non-family witnesses. The traditional text of the ketubah is in Aramaic (not Hebrew!) and many designs for the ketubah leave space for an English translation or interpretation.
We looked at over a hundred different ketubot in Brookline as well as several websites that feature beautifully-designed ketubot. Our favorite ketubah we saw in person, appropriately enough, was designed by Jessica Fine (no relation), and the style is called “Jerusalem Sunrise.” Our favorite ketubah we saw online was designed by another Jessica, Jessica Kraft, and the style is called “Arch of the Sky.”
You’ll notice that both designs leave space for an English translation or interpretation. Because we appreciate the tradition and heritage that the ketubah stands for we will likely use the traditional Aramaic text for the “legal” portion of the ketubah. However, because we also want to make the ketubah more personal, an English/Egalitarian interpretation (rather than a literal translation) will accompany it. Our favorite pair-up is found here: “Traditional Aramaic with Egalitarian English IV,” subject to any tweaks or changes required by the Rabbi officiating at the ceremony and signing the ketubah with us.
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