Day of Wedding

From Halachipedia

Shemira

  1. A bride and groom shouldn't go outside alone the week after their wedding.[1]
  2. Some have the practice for a bride and groom the week before their wedding not to go outside alone.[2]
  3. Some have the practice for a bride and groom the day of their wedding not to go outside alone.[3]

Fasting on Your Wedding Day

  1. Some have the custom for the bride and groom to fast on the day of their wedding. [4] However, most sephardim don't have this custom. [5]

Holding Hands

  1. Some hold that it is inappropriate for the bride and groom to hold hands before the chuppah. [6]

Practices for the Week Before

  1. There is a minhag that the chosson and kallah shouldn’t see each other for the week before the wedding.[7]

Links

Sources

  1. The Gemara (Brachot 54b) states that a bride and groom require a guard from dangerous demons. Rashi (s.v. chatan) explains that the reason that they are at risk is because the demon is jealous of them. The Rama E"H 64:1 codifies this as halacha that a bride and groom shouldn't go outside alone the week after their wedding. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 149:!2 agrees. The Bikkurei Yacov 669:13 offers another reason for this halacha. He says that a bride and groom are compared to a king and queen. Since a king and queen don't go outside alone, a bride and groom shouldn't go outside alone.
  2. Nitai Gavriel (Nesuin v. 1, p. 55, 4:5) writes that some chasidim and Ethiopian communities have the practice that a bride and groom don't go outside alone starting from the Shabbat before their wedding.
  3. Nitai Gavriel (v. 1, p. 55, 9:13) writes that some chasidim have the practice that a bride and groom don't go outside alone the day of their wedding based on a fear of the dangerous demons mentioned in Brachot 54b.
  4. Rama EH 61:1, Sh"t Maharam Mintz 109, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 146:1, see TorahMusings for potential explanations of this practice, chabad.org
  5. Birkei Yosef OC 470:2, Sh"t Yechave Daat 4:61
  6. Rav Soloveitchik (quoted in M'peninei HaRav p. 272)
  7. There is no actual source for this minhag in the Gemara or the Rishonim. Shu”t Maharshdam 31 quotes a minhag that chasan and kallah should avoid seeing each other from after the shiduchin, i.e. engagement, until the wedding. The Radak (Bireishis 24:64) writes that it is proper for a woman to be modest in the presence of her betrothed and not be seen by him until they are married. Rav Elyashiv in Mevakshey Torah 25:280, 27:48 says that the chasan and kallah shouldn’t see or speak to each other, even on the phone, during the week before the wedding.There are a couple of reasons that are given for the minhag. Some suggest that it is a harchaka, a way of distancing oneself from violating any prohibitions. See Rabbi Binyamin Forst’s sefer Laws of Niddah pages 458-459 for more information.