Chasidic Wedding part 3

More from the wedding this past weekend. Rabbis checking the ketuba:

Cell phones are never out of place:

Dotting all the 'i's' and crossing all the 't's':

Happy couple, glad it's over, now for the fun:

Chasidic Wedding part 2

A Chasidic wedding is full of symbolism and ritual. But it's not all serious stuff. Lots of joy and dancing. The groom comes to the bride and places a veil over her head and face. It's the last time the bride will see the world as a single person. After the wedding their souls will be joined. After the veil is lowered, the brides father places his hands on her head and blesses her:

The bride's and groom's fathers accompany the groom to stand under the chupa, a ritual tent cover in the open air:

The groom's little sister is overcome with feelings of giving up her brother to the bride:

The bride is accompanied to the chupa by her and the groom's mothers. She circles the groom seven times and the ketuba - marriage contract - is read:

After the ceremony, the bride and groom go to a private room where they are alone for the first time as a married couple. When they rejoin the celebrants they split up to the men's and women's sides of the room and enjoy dancing and drinking:

The entertainment for the evening is provided by the chasidic Temptations:

An Abundance of Photos

Oy Vey! I went through a drought this summer. Days and weeks I had to struggle to get out of a rut. I walked miles and miles in NYC. As Mr Holmes would say to Dr. Watson, I looked but I didn't see. But yet, it has to be done. This past week I attended a hasidic bar mitzvah and wedding. Now I've got hundreds of images to edit down.

I'm in the process of applying for a grant for next year. If invited,  I will be allowed to submit up to twenty images from the project on which I've been working since the early 1990's. Paring the choice down is going to be very difficult. Beginning with thousands of negatives and RAW images, the first few cuts are pretty obvious, but after a certain point I'm in love with every image in the selection. So I won't be able to do it alone.

Here's a group of shots from the wedding. All but one are of rabbis of the various dynasties in Boro Park. I knew only one, but have to work on identifying the others.

First the groom, Menachim Melamed:

On the right is Rabbi David Feinstein, foremost Talmud scholar in the USA: