Sheva Brachot under the chuppah

Sheva Brachot under the chuppah – interpretive translations by Yoav Potash

ONE & TWO (read by Amy Hordes; creative expression by Sharon Hordes)

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, spirit of all creation, who plumps the grape and makes the scraggly vine into a sapphire necklace of gleaming fruit. Blessed are you Boundless One, who created the fruit of the vine.

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, source of all life, whose whole creation testifies to your glorious everpresence.

THREE (read by Beth O.; creative expression by Jon Astmann)

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, spirit of all creation, who formed humanity from this earth, and filled every man and woman with the life of your breath.

FOUR (read by Liora Kahn; creative expression by Dave Plotkin)

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, spirit of all creation, who has shaped humanity as a reflection of you, patterned after your likeness, and enabled humankind to perpetuate this image, yours and ours, out of our own beings. Blessed are you Adonai, shaper of humanity.

FIVE (read by Jen Shaw; creative expression by Lenice Cally Smith)

May the barren and the unfortunate be gladdened with an ingathering of children and an outpouring of laughter. Blessed are you Adonai, who gladdens Zion with her children.

SIX (read by Liz & Keelan; creative by Nachman Weitzman)

Grant joy to these loving companions as if they are first setting foot in the Garden of Eden. Blessed are you, everpresent God, who gladdens the bridegroom and the bride.

SEVEN (read by Atiim; creative will be communal singing of Hebrew)

Blessed are you, one true God, divine force of the universe

Who created the joy and gladness we feel inside,

Guide the steps of this groom and this bride

With merriment, song, dance, and delight

Love, harmony, peace, companionship, and light.

Adonai, our God, may we soon hear them

in the cities of Yehuda and Jerusalem,

the voice of joy and the voice of celebration,

the voice of gladness and the voice of jubiliation

the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,

may the rapturous lovers be encircled with the pride

of friends and family – soon let us feast and sing

let us lift them high on angels’ wings.

Fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers,

Let us bless God who unites the bride and groom to rejoice in each other.