Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis Sermons

Bride and Groom

The Wedding by Harold M. Schulweis

Pour my cup of wine with thine
into one vessel
Fill the emptiness
with drink of laughter, song and love
Drink together
Let us be strengthened in each other.

Our lives, like our wines, are intermingled
An extraordinary arithmetic
union without subtraction
Two persons into one
one person into two.
Fusion without coercion
merged without loss of identity.

Odd geometry
distance without isolation
space between us without alienation
Like the four poles of the wedding canopy
stand apart
too close and the curtain falls
too far and the foundation will not support.

Take this ring
round as a circle
not to exclude
For love enlarges
joins families and friends
embraces causes that reach out to touch the hem of God.

Take this ring
unadorned, unbejeweled
love not blinded by glitter
love not opulence
measured by the weight of gold
Like the ring, love is simple.

This glass we break at last
reminds us of two fragilities.
Fragile we are
however strong our outer self
words hurt, silence pains.
Our strength is in the wisdom of the heart
Gentle now, tender now, soft now, dear heart.

The other fragility in the world about us
The temple is destroyed,
poverty, homelessness, hunger, sickness, hates abound
And we two blessed with God's greatest gift to creation - love
pledge ourselves
to bind up the bruises of broken spirits
to make whole fragmented lives
Bring joy to the joyless
Laughter to the heavy-hearted

For love is more powerful than death
Love heals, love binds, love cures, love resurrects.

Love and marriage are a cosmic joy
Heaven and earth embrace and create
where there is love there is life.

Rejoice with me
the birth of a new syntax
not mine or yours
but
"us" and "ours"
a new word is born
a new beginning
a new promise.

Blessed art Thou who has created
mirth and exultation
pleasure and delight
I and you
"we" together.

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