The wedding, as we have seen, is not simply a beautiful
ceremony—it is an intricate web of laws and customs that the Torah has ordained
and society has developed for the protection of the family and social morality.
These traditions are far too complicated to be implemented by a novice.
Countless legal difficulties can beset this otherwise magnificent event if it is
not overseen by a rabbi who is a scholar of the law.
The Talmud insisted that Kol she-eino yodeia be’tiv
gittin ve’kiddushin, to ye’hei to esek imahem—whoever does not know the
niceties of the divorce and betrothal procedures should not engage in
supervising them. Maimonides instructed the Egyptian Jewish community that no
marriage may be arranged without the supervision of an ordained rabbi. The
presence of the rabbi gives the wedding the character of an official act. This
was part of the historic Jewish effort to transform marriage from an
unstructured, casual arrangement to a formal, officially approved, legal
transaction, which carefully spelled out the responsibilities attendant upon the
new status.
The rabbi has no part in effecting the marriage itself. He
ascertains only that the partners are legitimately permitted to marry one
another and that the marriage process is executed according to the laws of Moses
and Israel. His primary value is not as a public speaker or a master of
ceremonies, but as a scholar, able to assure that all the actions meet the
centuries-old halakhic standards of the Jewish people.
Cantors who are not ordained as Rabbis should not perform
marriages (though they perform at marriages.) The fact that the state may
authorize them is irrelevant; the Jewish religion does not. A wedding should be
postponed if there is no ordained rabbi available on the date selected.
Marriage is too important, the law too complex, and the
Jewish family too essential to be left in the hands of those who, however
well-intentioned or talented, have no knowledge of the intricacies of the
marriage laws.
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