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  • 3
    days
    ago

    25,000 guests show up for lavish Jewish wedding

    Uriel Sinai / Getty Images

    Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Belz Hasidic Dynasty take part in the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokach to Hana Batya Pener early on the morning of May 22, 2013, in Jerusalem.

    Ronen Zvulun / Reuters

    Bride Hannah Batya Penet sits with her relatives during her wedding ceremony in Jerusalem, early on Wednesday.

    Ronen Zvulun / Reuters

    Bride Hannah Batya Penet dances with a relative during her wedding ceremony early on Wednesday.

    Some 25,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews participated in one of the community's biggest weddings in years on Tuesday night, Getty Images reports.

    Bride Hannah Batya Penet married Shalom Rokeach, the eldest grandson of the Chief Rabbi of Belz, Yissachar Dov Rokeach. The Belz Hasidic dynasty is one of the largest Hasidic movements in the world, according to Reuters.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    The bride is escorted by relatives on Tuesday evening.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    The groom, center, is accompanied by his relatives on Tuesday.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    The bride takes part in a dance during the wedding on Tuesday night.

    Uriel Sinai / Getty Images

    Hannah Batya Penet dances with a relative during the wedding ceremony early on Wednesday.

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    24 comments

    bellasrella227...thanks for explaining that tradition...sounds beautiful when one knows what's going on...

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    Explore related topics: israel, middle-east, religion, wedding, jewish, world-news, jerusalem, featured, ultra-orthodox
  • 27
    Dec
    2012
    1:18pm, EST

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    A first born son receives ancient Jewish ritual

    An Ultra Orthodox Jewish mother decorates a new born baby with silver jewelry in a silver bowl for the pidyon haben (redemption of the first born son) ritual ceremony in Bnei Brak, Israel, on Dec. 27. Pidyon haben is an ancient Jewish custom in Judaism whereby a Jewish firstborn son is redeemed by use of silver coins from his birth-state of sanctity at the age of 30 days.

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

    • Lighting the way to Hanukkah in Jerusalem
    • Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men celebrate Simhat Torah
    • Street turns into sidewalk during Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

    2 comments

    END APARTHEID IN ISRAEL

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  • 24
    Sep
    2012
    7:10pm, EDT

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews symbolically cast their sins into water

    Baz Ratner / Reuters

    Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty pray next to a plastic pool containing fish as they perform the Tashlich ritual outside their synagogue in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv on Sept. 24. Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, starts at sundown Tuesday. Tashlich is a ritual of casting away sins of the past year into the water.

    Uriel Sinai / Getty Images

    A youth looks on to the sea as Ultra-Orthodox Jews perform the Tashlich ritual on Sept. 24 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

    Tashlich, which means 'to cast away', is the practice by which Jews go to a flowing body of water and symbolically 'throw away' their sins during the days of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the upcoming Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins this Tuesday evening.

    --Reported by Getty Images

     

    Amir Cohen / Reuters

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray as they perform the Tashlich ritual near shore of the Mediterranean Sea in the southern city of Ashdod on Sept. 24. Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, starts at sundown Tuesday.

    View more photos from Israel on PhotoBlog.

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    1 comment

    Strangely, the thing that caught my attention is that in the first picture, all three men, who look to be young, are wearing reading glasses.

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    Explore related topics: world-news, religion, israel, judaism, ultra-orthodox
  • 23
    Aug
    2012
    4:34pm, EDT

    Ultra-Orthodox men (& boys) gather for funeral of spiritual leader

    Baz Ratner / Reuters

    Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men attend the funeral of Rabbi Abraham Haim Roth, spiritual leader of the Shomrei Emunim (Keepers of the Faith) Hasidic dynasty, at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem on Aug. 23. According to local media reports, the spiritual leader died last night at the age of 88.

    Bernat Armangue / AP

    Baz Ratner / Reuters

    Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men walk between graves before the funeral.

     

    Comment

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  • 25
    Jun
    2012
    8:28am, EDT

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest Israel military draft

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews participate in a prayer rally and protest against the Israeli government's intention to recruit Yeshiva students to the army and civil service, in the neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem on June 25, 2012.

    Thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews joined an early-morning prayer rally in Jerusalem on Monday to protest against government moves which could bring to an end the exemption of yeshiva students from mandatory military service.  

    The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Pini Rosenberg, one of the speakers at the rally, said: "Instead of preparing the prisons for immigrants from Sudan, we suggest to those haters of religion to prepare 50 thousand places of detention for yeshiva students who will refuse to be drafted."

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

    Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray early on Monday morning in the Sabbath Square at the heart of the Jewish neighbourhood in Jerusalem during a protest against the replacement to the Tal Law, that exempts ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students from mandatory military service.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    An Ultra-Orthodox man wearing burlap as a sign of mourning takes part in a prayer rally in Mea Shearim.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    Boys watch from the sidelines of the rally.

     

    88 comments

    So the Ultra-Consecrative Jews want all the liberties of Freedom without paying for it. These Ultra-Consecrative Jews feel it is fair for other young Jews to risk their lives, while these yeshiva student live with no risk.

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  • 10
    May
    2012
    7:52am, EDT

    Orthodox Jews celebrate Lag Ba'omer in Israel and New York

    Oded Balilty / AP

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews stand next to bonfires during Lag Ba'omer celebrations to commemorate the end of a plague said to have decimated Jews in Roman times, in Bnei Brak, Israel, on May 9, 2012.

    Reuters reports — Lag Ba'omer marks the end of a plague that killed thousands of Jewish scholars in ancient times, as well as the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who had rebelled against Roman rule and is believed to be the author of the Zohar, the core text of Kabbalah mysticism. Holiday traditions include lighting bonfires and cutting the hair of three-year-old boys for the first time. 

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

    • Song, dance, costumes and wine at the Jewish festival of Purim
    • The wedding of Chananya and Nechama

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

    Mike Segar / Reuters

    A young boy watches a bonfire burn as Orthodox Jews of the Satmar Hassidim dance and celebrate the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'omer in the village of Kiryas Joel, Orange County, New York, on May 9, 2012.

    Ammar Awad / Reuters

    Ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys sit in front of girls and women as they look at a bonfire lit on the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'omer in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood on May 9, 2012.

    Ariel Schalit / AP

    A man cuts a boy's hair next to the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai during Lag Ba'omer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, on May 10, 2012.

    Mike Segar / Reuters

    Men of the Orthodox Jewish Satmar Hassidim crowd the steps of a synagogue (backround) as women of the sect stand in a separate area (front) as they celebrate Lag Ba'omer in the village of Kiryas Joel, New York, on May 9, 2012.

    Nir Elias / Reuters

    An ultra-Orthodox woman prays during traditional festivities for Lag Ba'omer near the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel on May 10, 2012.

     

    15 comments

    Very interesting. Thanks, cnn, for some coverage of a people that in fact HAS contributed greatly in a very positive way to the history and culture of the entire world.

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    Explore related topics: religion, featured, israel, middle-east, new-york, jewish, festivals, ultra-orthodox, lag-ba-omer
  • 15
    Feb
    2012
    11:20am, EST

    The wedding of Chananya and Nechama

    Photographer 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

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

     

    6 comments

    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 …

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