Avram, who used to read us the Russian newspaper from Kiev back in Anatevka, told me once that in America, they have something called "moving pictures" where people can pay money to see films being played. Tzeitel's family just went there- maybe they'll get a chance to see one! I never have, though.

But apparently there's a moving picture all the way in the 1970s that's about our lives in Anatevka, though why us who can imagine... how interesting are we? And this is only one of a few different movies about us, because of some fellow named Sholem Aleichem? Fascinating. One thing about this one is different than the others, though- we definitely never sang and danced this much, except I guess on Simchas Torah- that's the festival where we celebrate completing the reading of the Torah in our synagogue each year. We dance up a storm!

Another time when we really did dance a lot is at weddings- including, of course, mine and Tzeitel's. I was so happy when her father gave us his approval to marry, and the wedding was one of the most beautiful days of my life. I mean, I was hungry for quite a lot of it- the tradition is that the bride and groom fast before the ceremony- but I was told that on that day it was as though I was cleansed of all of my sins. And Tzeitel looked so beautiful, even more beautiful than in the moving picture!

We really did walk down the streets of the town before the ceremony- it was a common part of shtetl weddings that already is starting to become a little bit less popular even now, as people get more interested in "modern" ideas. It's unfortunate, as it's a really beautiful tradition! Before that, though, we had something called a badeken, that apparently didn't make it into the moving picture- Tzeitel sat on a chair with her veil over her face and I lifted it off (so that I could see that it was actually her! The tradition comes from Jacob accidentally marrying Leah instead of Rachel in the Bible). The village klezmers, or musicians, were serenading us during the badeken and as we walked through the streets to the chuppah, the wedding canopy in the company of the rest of the local Jews, who also held candles at the ceremony. Our wedding ended up being a quite traditional one, though we didn't have it on Friday night, as many others do- the wedding is Friday afternoon, then comes the Sabbath, and then the wedding party and dancing are Saturday night! Instead we got married in the evening, after the sun set, so that according to Jewish law it was actually the next day and there was no confusion about the date on the marriage contract.

For the actual ceremony part- I mean, I was so nervous and excited (and honestly so hungry!) that it was all kind of a blur for me! But I did notice that they seem to have shortened it a bit, or maybe skipped some parts so that they could show my shver (father in law) and shvigger (mother in law) singing, and then also Hodel and Perchik later on... At the very beginning of the ceremony, Tzeitel, her mother, and my mother circled me under the chuppah seven times and then went off to the side as the ceremony began. The rabbi, who served as the mesader kiddushin (wedding officiant), recited two blessings- on the wine, and on the marriage- as two witnesses looked on (if you look closely in the scene, you can see one of them next to him), after which we drank the wine. After this, I put the ring on Tzeitel's index finger and said "harei at mekudeshes li betaba'as zu kedas Moshe ve'Yisrael"- behold you are betrothed to me with this ring according to the law of Moses and Israel. Then we get to the part you can't really see so well, but the kesubah, or marriage contract, was read aloud and then rolled up, and I gave it to Tzeitel, who now has possession of it for the remainder of the marriage (though she gave it to someone to hold after because she was kind of busy!). Then the rabbi said seven blessings over another cup of wine, which Tzeitel and I drank from as well. Then I broke the glass, but it's a weird thing- people immediately said mazal tov, which is definitely something that really does happen, but really, since we break the glass to remind ourselves of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, to add some solemnity to a happy occasion, it's odd that we use that as a cue to start cheering "mazal tov!"

And then Tzeitel and I were married! It was absolutely wonderful- the actor doesn't even capture the half of it. Even though the moving picture shows it as though we went straight to the dancing, really we took a few minutes to rest privately for yichud, or time alone, which is actually part of the wedding ceremony. It was definitely a time to eat and drink a bit after a long day! Then we went out to dance with our families, and while the movie definitely makes it look a bit... fancier than it was (hey, we didn't have the time to learn fancy choreography, that Tradition song did a pretty good job capturing all the different things we had to do every day!), a lot of the dance moves and kinds of dancing that people did were really similar to what our friends and families did, and it looks like the choreographer went to some real Jewish weddings in order to find that out! Of course, all dancing was separated between men and women- it was definitely very shocking, especially in a small, traditional community like Anatevka, when Hodel and Perchik decided to break the rules. That said, I don't know what they were thinking when they had the rabbi saying that it was permissible. Our rabbi would never have allowed it.

When we had the wedding meal, the village badchan (comedian- yes, a lot of shtetls really do have official comedians whose job it is to entertain at weddings and other events, often with poems and songs which mixed spirituality and snark) announced all the different wedding gifts that we received- though I would definitely say that the brawl that ensued was not exactly typical, though not unheard of! Sadly, though, while I wouldn't say that the attackers coming to disrupt and destroy the wedding was typical either, it was definitely not something that we could be excessively shocked by, and certainly nor could we have been shocked by the fact that the policeman, who I know my shver thought was his friend, did nothing to stop it.

Anyway, that was our wedding! It still makes me smile like a lunatic to think about it- though a lot has happened since then. We're in Poland now, though we hope to leave soon, as things have been challenging here as well- perhaps we shall see my in-laws soon in New York, America!

If you have any other questions about other parts of the moving picture, please let me know- I don't know for sure if I'll know how to answer, but I will try!