American Orthodox Wedding Rituals (AOWR)

It is interesting that the non-Jewish world, and the non-Orthodox world, and now the Orthodox world have this whole thing with engagement rings and wedding rings. Engagement rings are always in one direction: The bridegroom buys a very expensive item, with real economic value, for the bride -- and receives nothing in exchange.

Then (except in certain sectors of the Orthodox world), afterwards, the two parties perform a ceremony, in which each gives the other a ring, which is much less expensive than the engagement ring.

Thus, the engagement-ring thing is really a sort of a קנין -- the husband buys the wife with a 20K diamond ring. On the other hand, the wedding-ring thing is just a ceremony.

This is parallel to the halakhic Jewish way, in which Qiddushin (a קנין) is followed by Nissu'in (some kind of ritual).

But it's interesting, because the Orthodox Jews of today's America have grafted the WESTERN nissu'in onto the JEWISH qiddushin, by doing the wedding-ring ritual at the moment of the qiddushin

Isn't that interesting?

New book

Kabbalat HaAri - Yosef Avivi

Kabbalat HaAri is an entirely new work which after decades of research appeared for the first time in Kislev 5768 (12-08). R. Yosef Avivi one of the foremost authorities on Kabbala in the world has documented for the first time which all of the writings of the ARI and his students, their origins, their relationship andhow they were edited and printed. An entirely new theory to explain the system of thought of the ARI is presented.The Sefer appears in 3 volumes comprising 1568 pages (weighing almost 5 kilo) and includes 40 facsimile pages from manuscripts. It is available for a limited period through VirtualGeula for 350 shekels which is significantly less than the price in bookstores.

I think they mean "Kislev 5769". It seems that the book just came out. I was looking at it at the YU library — very interesting and well researched, and beautifully printed.

I was just now reading the section about what the Ari preferred from the Ashkenazic liturgy (viz. piyyutim on Yomim Nôro'im, 3 Regolim, and Purim), and what he preferred from the Sephardic liturgy (daily viddui in Shaharit and Minha, and more mizmorim).