photo by Samantha Gades

Hello everyone, I am back posting after a hiatus. Our book has been “on hold” too, but we still hope to publish it. Today I am posting a letter I wrote several years ago sparked by an assignment in on of my college classes. It is about the Sheva Brachot, which in English means Seven Blessings – a traditional Jewish wedding blessing based on the Old Testament. ~Emily Winslow Cox

Dear Jewish Community / OU,

Hello! I am a college student from the state of Georgia. Recently, I was assigned to do a presentation on a specific cultural practice, and I decided to do my presentation on Jewish wedding and courtship traditions. That’s how I learned about the Sheva Brachot. Thank you for making your version of this blessing available on your website. I was glad to find this version of the Sheva Brachot in particular, which clearly expresses the unique distinction between bride and groom, and yet the bride and groom are coming together as one in the marriage covenant. Also, the Sheva Brachot concisely expresses the origin and beauty of human community, as intended in the beginning and awaited in the present, amidst a broken world.

As I read the Sheva Brachot and the words of the prophet Jeremiah which it echoes, my eyes filled with tears as my heart filled with bittersweet longing for the ultimate fulfillment of the prophetic hope, which I currently experience in an “already, but not yet” context. As a result of the research I did for my assignment, I wanted to share the following links with you. These are messages which explain a Messianic understanding of Jeremiah 33 and other prophetic teaching. I hope that you will take some time to learn more about this perspective, even if it is different from your own. May you be blessed with a happy Hanukkah and joyful New Year!

Sincerely,

Emily Cox

p.s.

“From Gloomy Darkness to Glorious Light” by Maarten Kuivenhoven

https://sermonaudio.com/sermon/112814143923

Hebrews series by Alex Mark (this has been helpful to me personally!)

https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?subsetitem=Hebrews&subsetcat=bible&keyword=Alex%5FMark&SpeakerOnly=true&includekeywords=&ExactVerse=

And for our readers:

https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/sheva-brachot/

Transliterated and Translated Sheva Brachot