Jewish Traditions: Shalom Bayit

Shalom Bayit is Hebrew for peace in the home.

I mentioned previously that I didn't feel that different after we moved in together because it felt like the natural next step for us. However, we did make it a special experience for both of us (actually, you'll soon find out, Mr. Hermit Crab made it special for me!).

Shortly before I moved to Syracuse, and in with Mr. Hermit Crab, we visited Israel. My birthday was in the middle of trip, and Mr. Hermit Crab gave me a very special present. He found a framed and painted version of the Birkat HaBayit - Blessing for the Home, and gave it to me to hang in our new home together.

personal photo of my Birkat HaBayit

The translation of the Hebrew text is:

Blessing for the home
Let no sadness come through this gate.
Let no trouble come to this dwelling.
Let no fear come through this door.
Let no conflict be in this place.
Let this home be filled with the blessing of joy
and peace.

I was so moved that Mr. Hermit Crab gave this to me, and it hangs where we see it every day, where most people see it when they come to our house and where we spend a lot of time together - in the kitchen! Even if you're not Jewish, I think this is a tradition that can speak to all people - hopes for peace in the home.

Do you have any special traditions for creating a home together?

Jewish Tradtions: Our Ketubah

There were oh-so-many things that we (okay, I) wanted to DIY, and our ketubah was one of them. A ketubah is a Jewish wedding contract; the original Hebrew text actually reads a lot like a pre-nup, outlining the groom's responsibility to the bride. In addition to being an important part of a Jewish wedding ceremony, many couples now use it as an art piece that commemorates their wedding day and commitment to one another. There are so many beautiful Ketubahs that you can get nowadays; Miss Spaniel, Miss Trail Mix and Miss Hot Cocoa have all written about their experience finding ketubahs.

We spent some time looking at hundreds of ketubahs online, and found so many different ones, from painting to paper cuts.

(source)

However, after looking at so many beautiful and different designs, I decided that I wanted to try and make my own. While I've painted before, I would not consider it my forte. But I am always willing to try new mediums. So for this project, I decided to try paper mosaic. I went in cold, and bought a canvas to practice on (for the real thing, I could buy the ketubah text on a blank canvas).

Here is what happened:

(personal photo)

It's, well, okay. In my opinion, it looks kind of juvenile, but that may be due to the colors and the large size of the tiles that I used.

After this project, we spent some more time on Ketubah.com and fell in love with one on the site. We decided that we would buy one from the site, but we would personalize the English wording to make it uniquely ours. And I love it! However, we're still waiting for it to arrive, so you'll just have to wait to see which one we chose!

Are you including any religious customs in your wedding? Were there any projects that you were looking forward to doing-yourself but that you ultimately left to the experts?