CCAR RESPONSA
New American Reform Responsa
217. Wedding on Yom Hashoah
QUESTION: May weddings be conducted on the Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom Hashoah)? (Annette Feinstein, St. Louis MO)ANSWER: Tradition has a long list of days on which marriages are prohibited. Among them are various fast days as well as days of mourning. So, for example, weddings are not conducted from the first of Av to the ninth of Av (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayim 551.2). Among Central European Jews it has been customary to extend this time to include the period from the seventeenth of Tamuz to the ninth of Av, as the walls of Jerusalem were breached on the seventeenth of Tamuz (Isserles to Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayim 551.2). As far as other public fast days were concerned there was some controversy. Abraham Gumbiner indicated that a groom is not obligated to fast on a public fast day which was, of course, an obvious indication that marriages were conducted on those days (Magen Avraham to Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayim 551); other authorities decided that the groom should fast on that day, a similar indication. On the other hand, more recent Orthodox authorities tended to be stricter, and Marcus Horovitz felt that marriages should be prohibited in order to get people to take those days seriously once more (Responsa Mateh Levi Vol II #32). Tradition also prohibited the marriages during some days of the Omer period. Yet Joseph Caro indicated that a marriage on the thirty-third day would not lead to any punishment (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayim 493.1). Isserles and Gumbiner disagreed whether marriages may take place after the thirty-third day of Omer. The reason for these prohibitions during the Omer period is not clearly established. Tradition has stated that we remember a plague which struck the yeshivah of Akiba (Yeb 62b). Yom Hashoah is, of course, a modern commemorative day. As yet there are few traditions connected with it. It has become a major occasion and reminds us of the millions who died during the Holocaust in the middle of this century. It is, therefore, linked with one of the saddest periods in Jewish history. This tragedy is on an equal plane with the destruction of the first and second Temple. It would be inappropriate to conduct a wedding on this day which should be commemorated by all Jews throughout the world.August 1990
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