|
|
June 18, 2004/Sivan 29 5764, Vol. 56, No.39
Community celebrates marriage
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
Rivka Levertov is led down the aisle by her mother, Tzipporah, left. The opaque veil emphasizes the focus on inner beauty, and gives the bride privacy during this important moment in her life.
Photo by Jennifer Goldberg
|
The Valley's Chabad community witnessed a landmark occasion June 8 as it celebrated the first local wedding of an Arizona-born Chabad member.
Rivka Levertov and Rabbi Yossi Friedman were married on June 8. Levertov is the only daughter of Tziporah and Rabbi Zalman Levertov, who founded Chabad of Arizona in 1977.
Approximately 600 guests attended the ceremony, which was held at the Chabad-Lubavitch Center at 2110 E. Lincoln Drive. More than 150 of the attendees were from out of town, and some came from as far away as Australia and Switzerland. A meal at Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale took place later that evening.
"It gave me great joy that everybody who was able to come came," Rabbi Levertov said.
The wedding incorporated the numerous elements of a traditional Hasidic wedding, including the kabbalas ponim (sep-arate welcoming recep-tions for the bride and groom), bedeken (veiling of the bride by the groom), and recitation of the Sheva B'rachot (seven blessings). Although some of these elements were strange to some of the guests, Levertov said the wedding was a great hit with everyone.
"There were some people who wondered how were they going to enjoy (the wedding) if it's separate seating, separate dancing?" he said. "But then at the end of the wedding, they felt they had a blast of a time."
Friedman is the son of Esther and Rabbi Ben Zion Friedman of Overland Park, Kan., and was teaching in Detroit until the wedding.
As is customary for Hasidic weddings, the new couple spent the first seven days of their married life in Phoenix among family and friends, before returning to Brooklyn, N.Y., where they will both work as teachers.
"She's my only daughter," Levertov said. "To see your only daughter get married, it's a big nachas" (happiness).
|
|
