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Subscribe to RSSPhotographer Oded Balilty attended the wedding of Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, the great-grandson of the Rabbi of the Wiznitz Hasidic followers, and his bride Nechama Paarel Horowitz. The ceremony took place in the Israeli town of Petah Tikva on Tuesday night, continuing early Wednesday.
Oded Balilty / AP
Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather for the traditional Jewish wedding in Petah Tikva on Feb. 14, 2012.
Oded Balilty / AP
The bride Nechama Paarel Horowitz fulfils the Mitzvah tantz, in which family members and honored rabbis are invited to dance in front of the bride, who holds one end of a gartel. At the end the bride and groom dance together.
Oded Balilty / AP
A gauze curtain is used to separate men and women during the wedding.
Oded Balilty / AP
Oded Balilty / AP
Oded Balilty / AP
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Mazel tov!
I find small religious groups who dress in "uniforms" fascinating: Old Order Mennonites, Hutterites, Hasidim, Orthodox Old Believers, initiated Druze, the Whirling Dervish.....humanity is pretty crazy! Interesting, but crazy.
I she a child bride? Looks about 12...
A strange and dangerous people.
Fantastic photos! Really enjoyed looking through them. I would have loved to have observed this ceremony in person - I wouldn't have understood a single word of it, I'm sure but just watching would have been memorable.
She's not a child bride. Although I don't know her exact age, the bride was consulted and her opinion as to her future groom was taken into consideration. She was not forced into this, and if she had insisted on breaking it off for any reason, her wishes would have been honored. The young woman is of age to marry and her groom is in the same age bracket (she is not being forced to wed an older man).
As for uniforms, I find that pretty funny, looking at today's "modern world" teenagers. Every last one of them is wearing the same thing: blue jeans, tee shirt, sneakers, shoulder-length hair, pierced ears and nose, overshirt and a parka.
These people are not "strange and dangerous." Which would you rather be stuck in an elevator with? Four young men from the Vishnitzer Chasidim, or four young punks looking you over while fingering their switchblades? Nobody is in any danger from the Vishnitzers, unless you are a thug coming into their neighborhood intending to beat up and rob them. They will defend themselves if necessary, thank you, but otherwise they simply ask to be allowed to follow their own lifestyle as they choose to live it.
If she and the young man were asked if they really wanted to wed, I wonder if they felt free to say "no" in a cultural and familial context. I doubt it, at this young age. However, arranged marriages can work very well.
I enlarged the photo and, in the half of the face that shows, I see a very young woman who appears overwhelmed, similar to the young bridesmaid Grace Van Cusen clapping her hands over her ears.
At seventeen, she's the center of attention. And we see her crossing over into the male area, a normally forbidden area for women. Was she frightened? Did she enjoy the male rabbis dancing in front of her? Any Orthodox brides ever talk about this stuff?