The Link Between Jewish Marriage Customs and The Last Supper

In this episode, we discover the profound connections between ancient Jewish wedding customs and the Christian faith. Our fascinating discussion takes us on a journey through time, exploring the historical significance of wine, the ceremonial cup in betrothal rituals, and the manner in which a Jewish groom traditionally 'acquires' a bride. From the wedding at Cana to the four cups of the Passover meal at the last supper, these symbols find a deep echo in Christian beliefs, painting a vivid picture of covenant and unity that transcends the ages. Join us as we contemplate the theological richness of marriage underscoring the sacrament of marriage and Communion as the ultimate expressions of divine covenant.

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Sources for Reference:
The Mystery of the Passover Wine Revealed
13 Facts about Judaism and Wine
Wine at the Jewish Wedding
Why is Kiddish Said Over Wine?

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to our podcast friends. Thank you so much for listening. If you like our podcast and want to support us, please subscribe or follow us, and please don't forget to click the notification bell so you will be notified when new episodes release. Thank you and God bless.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Do you see my cool shirt? You probably can't see it. It's like a. It says like Jesus, mary and Joseph. It's like a holy family shirt. It's really cool. Yeah, betty got me a. It's like a t-shirt subscription. I don't I can't remember what they're called, but it's literally like a Catholic t-shirt subscription and this little family. They make t-shirts and then they send them out and you get a little box of goodies like prayer cards or stickers or rosaries and stuff with them. I wish I knew what they were. Maybe I'll see if I can get her to tell me and I'll try and put the link in our description. No idea who these people are, but I like their t-shirts, so kudos to them, I guess okay all right, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:13

Thanks for joining me and my friend, the friar, father stephen sanchez, a discalced carmelite priest. You're laughing again. Good morning, father. Good morning, how are you. I am fine and dandy and we have beans for the week. Ooh, yes, they're good. They look marvelous. Yeah, they're yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Okay, last time. What did they used to say in the TV shows Last time on?

Speaker 1: 1:45

My Friend the Friar. Last time on my Friend the Friar.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Previously Previously, on my Friend the Friar, we were talking about Jewish wedding rituals and a little bit of theology, right? So you think you could recap it for us real quick nutshell the symbolism wine and blood, and then marriage. Did you just take a bite of something? Is your mouth full? Yes, it is. It's like when the waiter shows up and they ask you how's your meal? Right, when you take a bite. Some chocolate in my mouth. Well then, I'll take a drink of coffee. We'll just both keep going with our mouths full.

Speaker 1: 2:41

We began exploring the signs and the symbols in the engagement what is known as the engagement cup or the wedding cup, right, and how blood is considered something not only joyful but also something divine, because the blood is, you know, the life source, and so therefore there is the life source, the divinity, and then the wine itself then is something that is joyful. So there is some connection there. And then how. That is part of what used to be the betrothal ritual and now is part of the wedding ritual in Judaism, whereas before the betrothal ritual was the groom offering the bride a cup of wine and if she accepted it, then she accepted his marriage proposal wine, and if she accepted it, then she accepted his marriage proposal. So now, in today's marriage ritual in Judaism, the wine is part of the marriage ceremony itself and we talked a little bit about.

Speaker 1: 3:58

According to the tradition, then, a man acquires a wife through silver, through contract or through marital cohabitation. We spoke a little bit about the ceremony itself, so that the silver is, we could say today, is the ring, something of value, the contract, which is something that they approve of before the wedding ceremony itself, the marriage ceremony itself and the marital cohabitation, which in the Jewish ceremony is that symbolic house with that canopy, that they have the marriage ritual underneath that symbolic house, or the chuppah so that's what we spoke of last time, all right underneath that symbolic house or the chuppah.

Speaker 2: 4:45

So that's what we spoke of last time. All right, and when I was researching for this, a couple sources that I found one of them, nazarenejudaismcom, is a website had a good article in there, and then I don't know if I'll say this right because my Hebrew is non-existent, but anyway, I think it's chabadorg and it was literally a Jewish website where you could man, you could dig in and really learn all sorts of stuff about just historical Judaism the meanings behind the rituals, meaning behind the symbols, all these kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 5:26

I found it super fascinating, so I pulled from there. And then, of course, what's that thing? Oh, the Bible. Yeah, I pulled a lot out of sacred scripture because it's a good source. It's a good resource. I highly recommend it to anyone listening. You should open it up from time to time, all right?

Speaker 2: 5:54

So the first miracle Jesus performs is at the wedding feast in Cana. Right, and so, from John, chapter 2, the Gospel of John, chapter 2, it says in verses 2 through 4, jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine. And Jesus said to her O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

Speaker 2: 6:22

Just find that super fascinating now, after what we were talking about with weddings and the importance of wine and the importance of blood, symbolically throughout Judaism. So of course, this makes us think of the Last Supper, right, and so at the Last Supper, there's four cups in the Passover meal. Right, and again, I apologize to anybody who speaks Hebrew because I'm going to butcher anything that's not English here. So the Kaddush is the first one, which is the cup of sanctification. Which is the cup of sanctification and the kind of the intention behind it is I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. The second cup, magid, or Magid Magid, is the cup of deliverance. I will rescue you from their bondage. The third cup is Berkat Hamazon, the cup of redemption. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. And then the fourth cup is the halel, the cup of praise. I will take you as my people. And so, as I was reading about the cups, at Passover Jesus is like what I guess in the last episode I said the marriage at Cana or the wedding at Cana is his first miracle, and then the Last Supper is kind of the end right, so his last one.

Speaker 2: 7:56

So as I was reading about the cups, I specifically I stumbled across Isaiah in all this research and I was kind of surprised. I wasn't expecting to see the prophet Isaiah having anything to do with any of this, but let's jump in. So from Isaiah, chapter 25, verses 6 and 8, it says On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of choice wines well refined. He will swallow up death forever and the Lord, god, will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of His people he will take away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken.

Speaker 2: 8:44

And then, a little bit later, in Isaiah 52, verses 13-15, appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the sons of men, so shall he startle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them, they shall see and that which they have not heard, they shall understand. So, like that, immediately, I see a lot of things that just made me think he's talking about Jesus in some way, shape or form here, right Like. He'll be exalted, he'll be lifted up, his appearance will be marred, right. So all the things that happen at Jesus' crucifixion, so all the things that happen at Jesus' crucifixion.

Speaker 2: 9:44

So in one of these articles I was reading, they were talking about the and again I apologize Yayan Hamashumar, which is wine served by God at the final redemption, wine which has been kept or preserved from the beginning. And so back to Isaiah 25, when he's talking about at the end of time, right, and this is from Isaiah 25, verses 6 and 8. He's talking about redemption at the end of time, when they're going to be served a feast of choice wines, right, wines well refined. So that wine, the Yayen Hamishumar, it can either mean preserved wine, because it has been carefully guarded from the beginning of time, or strained wine, because it had been strained from all the impurities and the dregs and stuff, uh, that exist in the process of making it Um. So. And after this, isaiah starts talking about the suffering servant, which is Jesus, unless I'm wrong.

Speaker 1: 11:05

That's how we interpret it. We interpret those oracles as referring to the suffering Messiah to Jesus yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 11:14

So, as I'm reading all this and I'm seeing, okay, so wine is served at the redemption. So, as I'm reading all this and I'm seeing, okay, so wine is served at the redemption and this wine has been kept from or preserved from the beginning.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 11:38

And all of this so far. There's this symbolism that, to me, is starting to speak about Jesus, and so what I found interesting is Jesus seems to be that wine that was preserved from the beginning, which is served at the final redemption Because the second person of the Trinity, the Logos, is timeless From the beginning, Right In the beginning was the Word. Timeless From the beginning, right, Right In the beginning was the Word. So Jesus is the redemption. At the Last Supper, Jesus serves the wine and says this is my blood, right? So this is me. And so I'm starting to connect all these dots here.

Speaker 1: 12:18

And Jesus is the groom.

Speaker 2: 12:21

Yeah, and so I'm like okay. So this is starting to become really interesting, this concept of marriage and the symbolism between marriage, the engagement cups and Christianity. So I keep reading right In 1 Corinthians. Paul writes in chapter 2, verses 6 through 10, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. This is the part that stuck out. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood it or understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, god has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches. So that to me that echoed Isaiah, right? So the or is it hidden wisdom of God which decreed before the ages of our glorification, whereas Isaiah said of our glorification. Whereas Isaiah said kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which had not been told them, they shall see. Which they have not heard, they shall understand. So Paul is talking about the hidden wisdom of God. Isaiah is talking about the kings that were missing. The wisdom, right? The wisdom that was hidden from them.

Speaker 2: 14:04

And then Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23-27. He says For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also the chalice after supper, saying this chalice is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So now we have Jesus and I'm trying to find connections outside of the gospel accounts where he's doing the Last Supper and so we have now Jesus offering the chalice to someone, right To the disciples who are there with him.

Speaker 2: 15:16

And now Paul, continuing this with the other Christians, right that the chalice is being offered to everybody when they participate in the Mass. In Revelation then I found Revelation chapter 19, verses 7 and 9, revelation, chapter 19, verses 7 and 9. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. And the angel said to me Write this Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me these are true words of God. So now we have scripturally right a connection between Jesus offering the cup to the disciples.

Speaker 1: 16:16

Yes.

Speaker 2: 16:17

And that Passover is now become a wedding feast or a marriage supper, right, right, and something about I don't know it's. I don't know. As I thought about it, I don't know how they could make that leap without Like they had to have—they couldn't have—how do I say this. They couldn't have just made that leap and just like come up with something. They had to have already seen the connection themselves.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Well, I think part of it is first we have the whole God will be the groom, and how God will be the true shepherd, and how God is the real, significant person in this relationship with Israel and binds Israel to himself and binds Israel to himself, and when Jesus will take on that whole idea of being the groom as well.

Speaker 1: 17:33

When he talks about the parables of the groom and the bride, it's basically that it's talking about himself. For Jewish, I guess, theology, the idea of redemption is this idea of a banquet, the idea of a banquet, but also it takes on later, I assume, somehow it takes on the idea of not just a banquet but a wedding banquet, and since God is the true husband or spouse of Israel, then redemption, salvation, is likened to then this sort of a wedding banquet, right, and so now we've got this whole idea then of the betrothal, of the wine, of the blood, of a wedding banquet, and so all of it starts coming together and is being picked up by not just the apostles and the early Christian writers, but there's something within the community itself that they understand this. They understand that this is something that is supernatural, but not supernatural like in, like X-Files supernatural but, supernatural like this is a.

Speaker 1: 19:07

There is something significant here that is occurring that is beyond just the physical participation in the ritual. Does that make?

Speaker 2: 19:15

sense, yeah, yeah, well, because Paul writes in Ephesians, right, he says so. Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself, loves his wife, loves himself, for no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it as Christ does, the church, because we are members of his body. So there's that unity, right, right? For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church. So I think you're right. They see the connection between Israel belonging to God and a wife belonging to her husband for lack of a better way of saying it and similarly, us belonging to Christ, and we belong there, as in. That's where we're made complete, that's where we're fulfilled, that's where we're one, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:25

So now we've got these points for consideration, now that we have scriptural references, we've got the extra scriptural references from Jewish tradition and the Talmud and all that. So blood and wine they're symbolic, they're very symbolic. Jesus is potentially right. The theory is he's the preserved wine from the beginning which is served by God at the final redemption, and that comes from Isaiah and Paul, the husband and wife. They share a cup of wine to seal the betrothal and the wedding ceremonies.

Speaker 2: 21:02

The wedding at Cana was foreshadowing Jesus' Passover. Right From Jesus. His words in the Gospel of John he says it's not time yet. Basically, right. When Mary asks him to do something about the wine, he's it's not time for me to do something about the wine. Right, I'm the wine at the redemption. This is not the redemption, mom, so not time yet.

Speaker 2: 21:31

The fourth cup at the Passover he declares. Jesus declares in the Gospel of John that this is his covenantal blood. And again, that fourth cup of Passover, the Hallel. The concept with it is I will take you as my people, right, god's saying to the Jewish people I will take you as my people. So the fourth cup at the Passover is when Jesus says this is my covenant, right? So I'm taking you as my people. In the same way, then, a husband takes a woman to be his wife, right? A man takes a woman to be his wife and they become one. I'm taking you to be my people. That's Genesis, jesus, matthew, mark, paul, right, that's all over Scripture. The church, then, is the bride of Christ, and husband and wife are one flesh, the same way that we, the church, are members of Christ's body, and that comes from Paul, and I think there's a lot there worth considering, like whatever this thing that Betty stumbled across. I think it's interesting, right. I don't think it's like inspired scripture kind of like infallible doctrine.

Speaker 2: 22:54

Yeah, but it's definitely something worth considering. There were some other kind of interesting notes that I found as I was reading through these articles. The Kabbalah describes the Sabbath Kab kabbalah. How do?

Speaker 1: 23:12

you say it no, no like the kabbalah. But the kabbalah is kind of like uh, for some people it's sort of like x-files kind of stuff. You know, it's kind of like mystical and kind of esoteric and really yeah, it's kind of like numbers and stuff and yeah, it's, yeah, but go ahead. Yeah, so it's, but it's kind of like numbers and stuff, yeah, but go ahead.

Speaker 2: 23:32

Yeah, but it's part of the Jewish Tradition. Tradition, right, yeah, and that's one thing that the Jewish people loved to do is to argue about stuff, right? The Pharisees and the Sadducees they liked to have healthy debates, theologically on what's important. So it doesn't surprise me then that this is X-Files, like you said. But what I read was that it describes the Sabbath as the bride of the Jewish people, the Jewish people, and that was really neat, because if the Mass is kind of this continuation of this wedding feast of the Lamb, and we are the Bride of Christ.

Speaker 2: 24:17

Then our Sabbath is where we kind of renew our vows with Jesus.

Speaker 1: 24:23

And so I was like, oh that's, I don't know, that's really interesting, our Sabbath, our Sunday, which is Sunday right, exactly, yeah, I don't know, that's really interesting, our Sabbath, which is Sunday, right.

Speaker 2: 24:28

Exactly, yeah, also, wine was used, or is used, I guess, maybe at the threshold of the Sabbath, to kind of sanctify it and separate it, so that so similarly it's used at the threshold of marriage, right At the betrothal, at the wedding, at those two separate ceremonies or combined ceremonies today. And so it kind of separates from what's prohibited to now what's holy right.

Speaker 1: 25:01

What's been sanctified.

Speaker 2: 25:02

Right, yeah and yeah. And just the fact that the new Sabbath is Jesus' resurrection and we're his bride, all those things together, I don't know. I found it fascinating. I thought it was a really interesting kind of side note, kind of thing from Betty for us to investigate, dive into.

Speaker 1: 25:33

Yeah, and I think there's something is that, as we're going through this, I was also thinking like there are other.

Speaker 1: 25:35

There are, you know, like wedding cups and blessing cups, and in fact I think there was for a while in some cultures. Um, somehow two cups were joined together and the bride and the groom was to drink from the two cups together, from the. Somehow it got. Yeah, of course, we, we love to complicate things as human persons, so anyway, uh, I was thinking about that. I go like, wow, there's something there about historically, culturally and maybe even, you know, anthropologically in terms of human persons, that there's something there in the celebration, or using wine, or maybe beer for the Egyptians, who knows that? There's something there in terms of something that is exhilarating, of something that is exhilarating, something that is maybe even euphoric or can be euphoric in connection to this ritual, right, so, whether it's a wedding ritual, whatever rituals it is, and so for us, then, within the Judeo-Christian economy of things, how this all comes together of things, how this all comes together, and for us it is definitively realized in the person of Jesus Christ, who is, as we said earlier, who is the new wine, who is the lamb, who is the groom, who is the blood, I mean, who is the marriage covenant himself, right? So there's a lot there and I think there's a lot of richness in this right.

Speaker 1: 27:24

So, yeah, and the reason the richness is there is because this cup the engagement cup or the wedding cup is connected to the larger idea or the larger theology of this covenantal bond, this marriage right, surrendering yourself to another in this way of total vulnerability and genuine intimacy, and all these things, right, this is part of that whole idea of what it is that we're called to and for us, and going back to the idea for us as Catholics, and that the wedding ceremony, even the sacrament of marriage, is only a sign and a symbol of something greater, and that something greater is the union that we're called to live with Christ.

Speaker 1: 28:23

Right, because in heaven there is no marriage. Right, people are not going to be married to each other because in heaven we're going to be in this union, complete union with God, the sacraments of service, which is the sacrament of marriage, that the marriage is not really so much about the two people that love each other as much as it is the two people that have given themselves to Christ, love each other and journey together towards that final definitive union with Christ. I mean, there's a lot of richness in the theology of marriage, but again, this idea of the engagement cup, the wedding cup, kind of opens the door to that whole idea of okay, so now, but this is, as you said, the threshold. This is just the beginning, then, of that greater exposition of that covenantal theology or sacramental theology of marriage.

Speaker 2: 29:28

Yeah Well, and now imagine again, as we've been talking about Mystagogy in some of our episodes, every time you participate in communion, it reminds you of your If you're married right, Then it reminds you of your wedding vows, that your spousal relationship, and then, extra layer on top of that, it reminds you of your relationship to Jesus in that same kind of spousal way.

Speaker 2: 29:56

Yeah, and so it's not just with one another and you know we're all members of the body of Christ but it's much more particular or personal. Yes, it was something. It was really interesting too. I thought to see how—because I know some Christian denominations that have moved towards seeing marriage as just a contractual thing. Right, divorce is fine, whatever kind of thing, it's just a thing you do. But for our Catholic theology, I can see how it developed from the Jewish theology. Right, how there's something greater, especially how there's something divine about it and how God is present in it.

Speaker 1: 30:46

Right, and there are some communities, christian communities. There are some Christian communities that are trying to move towards what they call a covenantal marriage Right and I'm going like, okay, so it's an attempt, I think, of trying to grasp what we have as a sacrament of marriage right. They're trying to come to some understanding. They know that it has to be more than contractual right and so there's this understanding there, but they can't quite grasp it because, you know, a sacrament of marriage would be too Catholic right.

Speaker 1: 31:28

And so they don't want to go there, of marriage would be too Catholic, right, and so they don't want to go there. So they're striving to reach this understanding of marriage being a covenant. But, again, I'm not too sure I haven't dug too deep into that development in those churches or those communities that are trying to develop this understanding of a covenantal type of marriage, right, because I'm going like, okay, so how are you going to tie—you have to tie covenant if you're trying to get marriage to be understood as a covenant. So what are you tying that to you know, again, scripturally, what are you tying it to? Tying that to you know, again, scripturally, what are you tying it to? Because, again, so for them it's it, depending if it's solo scriptura, church, uh, then where? What are you connecting this to? Right, obviously there's some desire or need or intuition that this is, this has to be something more than just contractual.

Speaker 2: 32:32

Yeah, yeah, and so I think the big takeaway from all this I guess one thing is I guess not everything on the internet is total garbage, Like there was. This was a nice little discovery. There was something, something there.

Speaker 1: 32:49

Just 80%, but yeah, discovery, there was something there Just 80%, yeah worth considering.

Speaker 2: 32:53

Yeah. And then the second is that we are so blessed to have such a rich faith to where now, maybe if you've never considered it before, because I hadn't before this, whenever you participate in communion that you have something extra to think about, right? Something? That relationship, that spousal relationship between you and Jesus, between you and your spouse, if you're married, if you're unmarried, the thing that you should be longing for or desiring for if you feel called to marriage. Yeah, I don't know, it's good stuff, good stuff. Well, thanks for playing right. Thanks for chewing on this and your chocolate. You're welcome.

Speaker 1: 33:39

You're welcome. I enjoyed the chocolate. It was just a little Sunday treat.

Speaker 2: 33:44

Yep, all right, maybe Betty will bring us something else to chew on.

Speaker 1: 33:48

Okay, we'll see.

Speaker 2: 33:49

Yeah, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Father, thanks for joining us. God bless, thank you. We'll see you all next time. Bye.