A cloth canopy stretched over four poles, a cup of wine, a contract written in Aramaic, a perfectly plain ring, and then, just as emotions are at their peak, the sharp crack of a glass crushed under the groom’s foot, followed by a huge “Mazal tov!” Why does a Jewish wedding take place under a chuppah? What is a ketubah? And why is a glass broken in the middle of all the joy? Here is a complete answer: the texts of the Torah and the Talmud, the meaning of each gesture, the history and today’s practice.
In short: the Jewish wedding (in Hebrew kiddushin, “sanctification,” followed by nissuin, “elevation”) is a commitment by which a man and a woman consecrate themselves to each other before G-d and before witnesses. It is celebrated under the chuppah, the wedding canopy that represents the future home. The groom gives the bride a ring, saying: “Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring according to the law of Moshe and Israel.” Then the ketubah is read: the marriage contract that guarantees the wife’s rights, instituted by the Sages to protect her. The seven wedding blessings are recited, and the groom breaks a glass in memory of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem: even at the height of joy, a Jew does not forget Jerusalem (Tehillim (Psalms) 137:5-6; Berachot 30b-31a).
What the Torah says: “It is not good for man to be alone”
In the Torah, marriage begins with the first couple. After creating man, G-d observes for the first time that something “is not good”: “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper against him” (Bereshit (Genesis) 2:18). Then comes the conclusion on which the whole Jewish view of the couple rests: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Bereshit 2:24).
The Hebrew expression ezer kenegdo, “a helper against him” or “a helper facing him,” has caused much ink to flow. It does not mean a subordinate assistant. The word ezer is used elsewhere in the Bible for G-d Himself: “My help comes from Hashem” (Tehillim 121:2). And kenegdo, “facing him,” expresses being face to face, dialogue, and sometimes the contradiction that makes one grow. The Talmud relates that G-d Himself adorned Chava and brought her to Adam, acting as a best man (Berachot 61a). Humanity’s first wedding was therefore celebrated by G-d.
The Torah does not describe a ceremony. It mentions marriage as a familiar institution: “When a man takes a wife” (Devarim (Deuteronomy) 24:1). It sets out the husband’s obligations toward his wife: food, clothing and conjugal life (Shemot (Exodus) 21:10). It even grants the newlywed a year’s exemption from military service “to gladden the wife he has taken” (Devarim 24:5). The first commandment addressed to humanity, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Bereshit 1:28), finds its natural framework in marriage.
From these verses the Sages drew a firm conviction: “Any man who has no wife lives without joy, without blessing and without goodness” (Yevamot 62b). Marriage is not a concession to human weakness, nor a mere social arrangement. It is the place where the human being, created “in the image of G-d,” “male and female” (Bereshit 1:27), recovers his unity.
Kiddushin: a word that means “sanctification”
The Hebrew name for marriage speaks volumes. The first word used is not contract or union but kiddushin, from the root kadosh, “holy,” “set apart.” By marrying, each of the two consecrates himself or herself to the other exclusively, just as an object consecrated to the Temple can no longer be put to ordinary use. This is how the Talmud explains the wedding formula: with these words, the husband makes his wife “forbidden” to anyone else, “like a consecrated thing” (Kiddushin 2b).
The Mishnah lists three ways in which a marriage can be concluded: by money (or an object of value), by a written document, or by conjugal union (Mishnah Kiddushin 1:1). In practice, for centuries only the first has been used: the groom gives the bride an object of value, today a ring. The Talmud derives this mode of acquisition from a parallel between the words “when a man takes a wife” (Devarim 24:1) and the field that Avraham “took” from Efron for money (Bereshit 23:13; Kiddushin 2a).
The term “acquisition” sometimes shocks the modern reader. It must be understood in its legal sense: the woman is not bought, since the value required is minimal (a perutah, the smallest coin) and the marriage cannot take place without her full consent. The Talmud is categorical: a woman may not be married against her will (Kiddushin 2b), and a man is not allowed to marry a woman without having seen her first, lest she not please him (Kiddushin 41a). What is “acquired” is a new status: from that moment on, they are husband and wife.
The Rambam stresses what the Torah introduced that was new. Before the giving of the Torah, he writes, a man would meet a woman in the marketplace, and if they both wished, he would take her into his home. Since the Torah, Israel has been commanded to precede life together with a formal act before witnesses (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Ishut 1:1). Marriage becomes a public, considered and sanctified commitment.
The two stages: betrothal and wedding
In the time of the Talmud, marriage took place in two stages, usually separated by a year (Mishnah Ketubot 5:2).
- Erusin (or kiddushin): the groom gave the object of value. From then on the couple was legally married (separation required a divorce), but each remained in their parents’ home. The word “betrothal” translates it poorly, since this was already a genuine bond.
- Nissuin: a year later, the bride was led under the chuppah, into the husband’s home, and life together began.
In the Middle Ages, the dangers and hardships of life in exile led communities to combine the two stages into a single ceremony. That is why, under the chuppah today, two sets of blessings are recited: the blessing of erusin, then, after the reading of the ketubah, which serves as a separation between them, the seven blessings of nissuin.
What is called an “engagement” today (tena’im among Ashkenazim, or simply the engagement party) is a moral and family agreement, with no force as a marriage.
Before the chuppah: the fast, the veil and the blessings
A personal Yom Kippur
The wedding day is experienced as a fresh start. The Jerusalem Talmud teaches that the groom’s sins are forgiven on that day (Yerushalmi Bikkurim 3:3). That is why, according to a widespread custom, the bride and groom fast until the ceremony (Rema, Even HaEzer 61:1) and recite the Yom Kippur confession in the afternoon prayer. Among Ashkenazim, the groom often wears the kittel, the white garment of Yom Kippur, under the chuppah. This is not sadness: it is the awareness that one is entering a new life and wishes to enter it pure.
The bedeken: the groom covers the bride’s face
Just before the chuppah, in Ashkenazi communities, the groom, accompanied by his family and friends, walks up to the bride, looks at her and lowers the veil over her face himself. This is the bedeken. She is then blessed with the words once addressed to Rivkah by her family: “Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of myriads” (Bereshit 24:60). The veil itself recalls Rivkah, who, seeing Yitzchak in the distance, “took the veil and covered herself” (Bereshit 24:65).
Several reasons are given for this gesture. The best known: Yaakov married Leah believing he was marrying Rachel, because the bride was veiled (Bereshit 29:23-25). By checking the bride’s identity himself, the groom makes sure he is not deceived. Another, deeper reason: the veil says that the bride’s beauty now belongs to her and to her home, and that the husband is bound to a person, not to an appearance.
Under the chuppah: the canopy of the home
What the chuppah is
The chuppah is a canopy, usually a cloth or a large tallit, the prayer shawl, stretched over four poles. The word appears in the Bible: “Let the groom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her chuppah” (Yoel (Joel) 2:16); the sun “goes forth like a groom from his chuppah” (Tehillim 19:6). Originally the chuppah was the groom’s room or tent, into which the bride was led. Today’s canopy is its symbol: it represents the home the couple is going to build.
The halachic authorities debate exactly what constitutes the chuppah from the legal point of view: entering under the canopy, or the moment when the bride and groom are alone together (Rema, Even HaEzer 55:1). That is why, among Ashkenazim and in many other communities, the couple spend a few minutes alone in a room after the ceremony: this is yichud, which completes the nissuin.
This canopy, open on all sides, has been seen as an image of the tent of Avraham and Sarah, open to the four winds to welcome passersby. A Jewish home, it is said, should have a roof, but no walls shutting it off from others. According to an Ashkenazi custom, the chuppah is set up outdoors, under the sky, as a sign that the couple’s descendants may be as numerous as the stars, according to the promise made to Avraham (Rema, Even HaEzer 61:1; Bereshit 15:5). Among Sephardim, the ceremony often takes place inside the synagogue, and a tallit is sometimes spread over the heads of the bride and groom.
The circles around the groom
In Ashkenazi communities, the bride, accompanied by her mother and her future mother-in-law, circles the groom seven times on arriving under the chuppah (some do three circuits). This custom is linked to the prophet’s verse: “A woman shall encircle a man” (Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:21). The seven circuits evoke the seven days of creation, as if the couple were building a new world. The three circuits correspond to the three expressions of commitment in the prophet Hoshea: “I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you to Me with righteousness and justice, with kindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me with faithfulness” (Hoshea (Hosea) 2:21-22). This is not a law but a custom, and Sephardim generally do not practice it.
The blessings and the ring
The officiant takes a cup of wine and recites the blessing over the wine, then the blessing of erusin, which praises G-d “who sanctifies His people Israel through chuppah and kiddushin” (Ketubot 7b). The bride and groom drink from the cup.
Then comes the legal heart of the marriage. Before two valid witnesses, the groom places the ring on the index finger of the bride’s right hand and declares in Hebrew: “Harei at mekudeshet li b’tabaat zo k’dat Moshe v’Yisrael”, “Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring, according to the law of Moshe and Israel.” The basic formula is found in the Talmud (Kiddushin 5b). The ring must belong to the groom and have a clear value; that is why a plain ring without a precious stone is traditionally used, so that its value cannot give rise to any mistake. In the traditional form, the bride does not give a ring in return under the chuppah: the legal act is a single one and must not be blurred.
The ketubah: the contract that protects the wife
What the ketubah contains
The ketubah (“that which is written”) is the marriage contract. It is written in Aramaic, the legal language of the Talmudic period, and signed by two witnesses. In it, the husband undertakes to “work for, honor, feed and support” his wife “according to the custom of Jewish husbands,” taking up the three duties set by the Torah: food, clothing and conjugal life (Shemot 21:10). Above all, he undertakes to pay a fixed sum in the event of divorce or widowhood. The Mishnah sets the basic amount at two hundred zuz for a young woman marrying for the first time, and one hundred for a widow or a divorcee (Mishnah Ketubot 1:2), to which are added what the wife brings into the marriage and what the husband adds of his own accord.
The ketubah is read aloud under the chuppah, between the two parts of the ceremony, and then handed to the bride, who keeps it. The law is strict: the groom may not be alone with the bride before the ketubah has been written (Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 66:1), and it is forbidden to live with one’s wife, even for a moment, without a ketubah; if it is lost, a new one is written (Ketubot 57a; Even HaEzer 66:3).
Why the Sages instituted it
The Talmud tells the history of this institution (Ketubot 82b). At first, the sum was deposited with the bride’s father, and husbands, when angry, divorced easily. Then it was kept with the husband, in the form of valuables, with no better result. Shimon ben Shetach, in the 1st century BCE, instituted that the husband write: “all my property is pledged for your ketubah.” The reason is stated explicitly: “so that it should not be easy for him to send her away.” Divorce becomes costly, and therefore carefully considered.
The ketubah is thus one of the first documents in history to protect the married woman legally and financially. It says that marriage is not only a feeling, but a concrete and lasting responsibility. In many families, the ketubah is a work of art, illuminated and framed on the living-room wall.
A very ancient document
Archaeology confirms how old this tradition is. On the island of Elephantine, in Upper Egypt, a Jewish community of the 5th century BCE left Aramaic papyri, among them genuine marriage contracts setting out the dowry and the wife’s rights in case of separation. Later, the manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah preserved hundreds of medieval ketubot, witnesses to the life of communities all around the Mediterranean.
The seven blessings: a hymn to creation
After the reading of the ketubah, a second cup of wine is filled and the sheva berachot, the seven wedding blessings, are recited; their text is given in the Talmud (Ketubot 7b-8a). They require the presence of a minyan, ten men, which the Talmud derives from Boaz, who gathered ten elders for his marriage to Ruth (Ruth 4:2; Ketubot 7b). Each blessing is often given to a relative or a rabbi whom the family wishes to honor.
Their order is remarkable. They begin with the blessing over the wine, then go back to the creation of the world (“who has created all things for His glory”), to the creation of man, and then to that of the couple, made “in His image.” They then turn to Jerusalem, compared to a barren mother who rejoices at the return of her children, and then to the joy of the bride and groom, compared to that of Adam and Chava in the Garden of Eden. The last blessing lists ten expressions of joy, “gladness and joy, song and jubilation, love and brotherhood, peace and friendship,” and calls for the day when there will again be heard in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem “the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride” (Yirmiyahu 33:10-11).
The message is clear. Each wedding remakes, on its own scale, the first couple of creation, and each wedding is a step toward the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The couple is not a private matter: it takes its place in the history of the world and of Israel.
These blessings are repeated at the end of the wedding meal and, when a new guest is present, at the festive meals given in honor of the bride and groom during the seven days following the wedding (Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 62). These seven days recall the wedding “week” of Yaakov and Leah (Bereshit 29:27).
Why is a glass broken at a Jewish wedding?
The source in the Talmud
This is the most famous gesture of the Jewish wedding, and often the least understood. Its source is a story in the Talmud (Berachot 30b-31a). Mar, son of Ravina, was holding the wedding feast for his son. Seeing that the Sages were letting themselves go in excessive merriment, he brought a precious cup worth four hundred zuz and broke it in front of them: they immediately became serious again. Rav Ashi did the same at his son’s wedding, with a cup of white glass. In the same passage, a Sage sings to the bride and groom: “Woe to us, for we are going to die!” From these stories the Talmud draws a lesson: “Serve Hashem with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Tehillim 2:11). The Tosafot, the medieval commentators, write that this is the origin of the custom of breaking a glass at weddings (Tosafot on Berachot 31a).
The remembrance of Jerusalem
After the destruction of the Second Temple, in 70 CE, the Sages instituted many signs of mourning that accompany even the most joyful moments. The Talmud thus asks that a little ash be placed on the groom’s head, where the tefillin go, in memory of Jerusalem (Bava Batra 60b). These gestures rest on the oath of the psalmist in exile: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy” (Tehillim 137:5-6).
The Shulchan Aruch records the custom of the ashes, and the Rema adds that it is customary to break a glass under the chuppah (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 560:2; Even HaEzer 65:3). In the Middle Ages, the Kol Bo explicitly links the broken glass to the remembrance of the destruction. This is the meaning that tradition retains today: at the moment a new home is being built, we remember the House of G-d that remains to be rebuilt. In many communities, the groom recites or sings the verse “If I forget you, O Jerusalem” just beforehand.
How it is done today
Among Ashkenazim, the glass is broken at the very end of the ceremony, after the seven blessings; in other communities, it is broken at another point, according to local custom. It is wrapped in a cloth or a small bag, so that no shards can injure anyone, and the groom crushes it with a stamp of his heel. The guests then shout “Mazal tov!” and the music bursts out.
Other explanations
The rabbis have offered other readings, which do not contradict the first. The Peri Megadim sees in it the memory of the first Tablets of the Law, broken by Moshe at the foot of Sinai: the covenant between G-d and Israel, compared to a marriage, suffered a rupture, and we hope for a new and final “wedding” at the time of the redemption (Peri Megadim, Mishbetzot Zahav on Orach Chaim 560:4). Others read in it a reminder of the fragility of all things: a marriage, like a glass, can shatter in an instant if it is not cared for; the gesture therefore commits the couple to daily vigilance. One also sometimes hears that the noise drives away evil spirits: this is a popular explanation with no basis in the classical sources.
What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches
Several of Rav Benizri’s lectures, published on this site, shed light on the meaning of the wedding customs. Here are their main ideas, faithfully summarized.
The broken glass: two covenants of the same nature
In his lecture on Bereshit Rabbah 39 (part 8, Beit El), the Rav comments on the verse in which Avram “pitched his tent” in the land of Canaan. The word is written in a feminine form, and the midrash deduces from this that Avram first pitched Sarah’s tent, and then his own. For the Rav, the covenant one makes with the land of Israel is of the same nature as the one one makes with one’s wife. Indeed, he remarks, we never speak of a “fatherland”: Israel is the “matrix” of the Jewish people.
Just as a man only fully realizes himself through the wife he has chosen, and without her remains unsettled, so he only fully realizes himself through his attachment to his land. That is why, the Rav explains, every wedding ends with the broken glass and the verse “If I forget you, O Jerusalem”: the covenant made with one’s wife belongs to the same order as the covenant made with the land.
The veil: choice and destiny
In his lecture Vayetze: Rachel and Leah, two faces, the Rav links the story of Yaakov, who loved Rachel and found himself married to Leah, to the custom of the bedeken. The groom walks with his face uncovered toward the woman he has chosen, then covers her face: he has chosen her, but is she his destiny? When the bride walks to the chuppah with her face covered, it is destiny that leads her, and it is destiny that the blessings come to greet.
There are therefore two aspects to every marriage: love and choice, and the reality one discovers “on waking up.” Yaakov, discovering Leah, does not seek a divorce and does not turn against his wife: he considers that there is destiny at work here. And it is from Leah that Yehudah will be born, from whom kingship will come. Finally, the Rav recalls that every couple is blessed with the wish that the bride be “like Rachel and like Leah,” who together built the house of Israel (Ruth 4:11).
The bride’s circles and the meaning of “a helper facing him”
In Sukkot: the festival of joy, the Rav compares the sukkah, which surrounds and “clothes” the one who shelters in it, to the circles the bride traces around her husband under the chuppah: “the feminine is the man’s wall,” it surrounds him on every side.
In Eshet Chayil, part 1: the status of the feminine, he returns to the expression ezer kenegdo. To read it as a diminishment is a misreading: when we say of G-d that He is “my help,” this does not mean He is my assistant, but the One who builds me, raises me up and helps me realize myself. The feminine is no longer “side by side” but “face to face.” This is what Adam recognizes: “this one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Bereshit 2:23), the bone being the essence, what gives a being its stature.
The deeper meaning: G-d between man and woman
The Talmud makes a famous observation about the Hebrew words for man and woman (Sotah 17a). Man is ish (aleph, yud, shin); woman is ishah (aleph, shin, heh). The two words share the letters aleph and shin, which form esh, fire. What distinguishes them is the yud of one and the heh of the other: put together, they form Yah, a name of G-d. Rabbi Akiva draws this lesson from it: if the man and the woman are worthy, the Divine Presence dwells between them; if they are not worthy, all that remains is the fire, which consumes them.
The Jewish marriage is therefore conceived as a relationship of three: the man, the woman, and G-d who unites them. That is why the Sages say that bringing a couple together is as difficult, in G-d’s eyes, as splitting the Red Sea (Sotah 2a). They even teach that forty days before a child is formed, a heavenly voice proclaims: “the daughter of so-and-so for so-and-so” (Sotah 2a). A midrash relates that a Roman noblewoman asked Rabbi Yossi what G-d has been doing since the creation of the world; he answered: “He makes matches” (Bereshit Rabbah 68:4).
The joy of the bride and groom is itself a mitzvah for everyone. The Talmud teaches that whoever takes part in the wedding feast must gladden the bride and groom, and it relates how the Sages danced before the bride singing “a beautiful and gracious bride” (Ketubot 16b-17a; Berachot 6b). Dancing before a couple, entertaining them, making them laugh, is not a pastime: it is an act of kindness that tradition values highly.
Misconceptions about the Jewish wedding
- “The broken glass is for good luck.” No: its source is the remembrance of Jerusalem and the call to temper joy with awareness (Berachot 30b-31a; Tehillim 137). The idea that it drives away evil spirits belongs to folklore.
- “The ketubah is the purchase of the wife.” On the contrary: it is a document that protects the wife and makes divorce difficult and costly for the husband (Ketubot 82b).
- “The chuppah is just decoration.” The chuppah has legal force: entering under the canopy, or the seclusion that follows it (yichud), completes the marriage (Rema, Even HaEzer 55:1).
- “You need a rabbi to get married.” According to the law, what makes the marriage is the groom’s act before two valid witnesses, with the bride’s consent. But in practice the rabbi’s role is indispensable, because the legal details are many and a mistake can have serious consequences. He conducts the ceremony and ensures that it is valid.
- “The Jewish wedding is the same everywhere.” The core is shared, but customs vary widely: circles, bedeken, kittel and an outdoor chuppah among Ashkenazim; a tallit over the couple’s heads, henna the night before and other traditions among Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews.
Frequently asked questions about the Jewish wedding
Why is a glass broken at a Jewish wedding?
To remember the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem at the moment of greatest joy, in keeping with the verse “if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy” (Tehillim 137:6). The custom goes back to the story in the Talmud in which Sages broke a precious cup to temper excessive joy (Berachot 30b-31a). It is also a reminder that Jewish joy always remains aware of what the world still lacks.
What does the groom say when he gives the ring?
He says in Hebrew: “Harei at mekudeshet li b’tabaat zo k’dat Moshe v’Yisrael,” “Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring according to the law of Moshe and Israel.” It is this sentence, spoken before two witnesses, that effects the marriage.
Why do the bride and groom fast on their wedding day?
Because the wedding day is considered a personal Yom Kippur: the couple’s sins are forgiven, and they begin a new life (Yerushalmi Bikkurim 3:3). According to custom, they fast until the ceremony and recite the confession in the afternoon prayer.
What does “Mazal tov” mean?
Literally “good star” or “good fortune.” It is the expression of congratulations shouted when the glass is broken, and more generally at every happy occasion.
Can one get married on any day?
No. Weddings are not held on Shabbat or on festivals, nor during certain periods of mourning in the calendar, such as the three weeks before the 9th of Av and, depending on custom, part of the Omer period. To set a date, consult a rabbi.
Further reading
Under the chuppah, in just a few minutes, the creation of the world, the story of Avraham and Sarah, of Yaakov, Rachel and Leah, the remembrance of Jerusalem and the hope of its rebuilding all come together. The Jewish wedding says that the love between two people is sacred, that it is binding, and that it builds something greater than themselves.
- Bereshit Rabbah 39, part 8: Beit El
- Vayetze: Rachel and Leah, two faces
- Sukkot: the festival of joy — a lecture by Rav Benizri
- Eshet Chayil, part 1: the status of the feminine
- Tisha BeAv: why the 9th of Av is a day of mourning
- Why do married Jewish women cover their hair?
- Why do Jews circumcise? The meaning of brit milah
- Glossary of Hebrew terms in Judaism
Sources and references
- Bereshit (Genesis) 1:27-28; 2:18-24; 15:5; 23:13; 24:60-65; 29:23-27
- Shemot (Exodus) 21:10
- Devarim (Deuteronomy) 24:1 and 24:5
- Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:21 and 33:10-11
- Hoshea (Hosea) 2:21-22
- Yoel (Joel) 2:16
- Tehillim (Psalms) 2:11; 19:6; 121:2; 137:5-6
- Ruth 4:2 and 4:11
- Mishnah Kiddushin 1:1; Mishnah Ketubot 1:2 and 5:2
- Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 2a-2b, 5b, 41a
- Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 7b-8a, 16b-17a, 57a, 82b
- Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 6b, 30b-31a, 61a; Tosafot on Berachot 31a
- Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 60b; Yevamot 62b; Sotah 2a and 17a
- Jerusalem Talmud, Bikkurim 3:3
- Bereshit Rabbah 68:4
- Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Ishut 1:1
- Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 560:2 (with the Rema)
- Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 55:1; 61:1; 62; 65:3; 66:1 and 66:3 (with the Rema)
- Kol Bo (14th century), on the broken glass
- Peri Megadim (Rabbi Yosef Teomim), Mishbetzot Zahav on Orach Chaim 560:4
- Aramaic papyri from Elephantine (5th century BCE); ketubot from the Cairo Genizah
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Bereshit Rabbah 39, part 8: Beit El
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Vayetze: Rachel and Leah, two faces
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Sukkot: the festival of joy
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Eshet Chayil, part 1: the status of the feminine
Article by the Pensées Juives editorial team. Passages attributed to Rav Raphaël Benizri are taken from his lectures published on this site.