hatam_soferet | DRBR 12d: Drinks courses

Today, drinks.

Menu item 10: Wine.

Explanation 10: Psalms 128 says “Your wife shall be a fruitful vine.”

Menu item 11: Beer.

Explanation 11: מכי רמו שערי באסינתא, From the time they put barley into the asinta, Ketubot 8a.

Ketubot 8a is discussing the early formation of the wedding-meal liturgy. Today, the standard practice is that during the seven days after the wedding, if the bride and groom are at a meal with at least one person who hasn’t already participated in the wedding festivities, and a minyan is present, a special Invitation to Recite Grace After Meals is said, and a set of extra blessings is added to the grace. In the Talmud, it seems that all these elements are negotiable.

Regarding the Special Invitation, it seems that possibly you said it whenever your household was infused with weddingish joy, for example if you had a wedding guest staying for up to a year after the wedding (!). And also before the wedding. How long before the wedding? From the time you put the barley into the asinta to soak, to make the beer for the wedding feast.

Menu item 12: Seltzer (מי געש, volcano water).

Explanation 12: Reference to Proverbs 5:18, Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Mirrored from hasoferet.com.