Escorting the Bride and Groom, Part 2

At Mount Sinai, Moses and Aaron served as "marriage ushers," escorting G-d and the Jewish People to one another to unite in an eternal covenant. Chassidic teaching explains that Moses represented the "masculine" Divine force, and Aaron, the "feminine" Divine force - so from this derives the custom for a man and a woman to escort bride and groom to the Chupah.

Chassidic teaching offers another reason, based on human nature: The bride and groom may be anxious to approach one another in this life-changing commitment. So each one has a friend who has already gone through this experience - a man for the groom and a woman for the bride - to reassuringly take them by the hand.

The Giving of the Torah also created a union - a "marriage" - between Heaven and Earth. This unity, however, had been achieved once before - when Abraham performed the Mitzvah of circumcision. Circumcision was the only Mitzvah with the power to forge a complete bond between the holy and the mundane - whereby a physical person became sacred. Therefore, just as a marriage has ushers, the baby at a circumcision has them, as well - with the same spiritual elements represented, through a man and a woman.