A special committee set up by the Belzer kehillah in Yerushalayim recently issued a special protocol limiting wedding spending among the community members, in a bid to ease the financial burden on couples’ parents. The “Chasunah Plan,” which was sent to the families of the kehillah this past week, includes a list of restrictions regarding wedding preparations. For instance, the parents of the chosson are instructed to choose between a bracelet and a mixer as a gift for the kallah during the engagement period. The rules also state that it is prohibited to send the kallah’s family gifts or mishloach manos for Purim or birthday presents. It also places a limit on the price of flower bouquets and states that the wedding ring must be adorned with a fake, rather than a genuine diamond.
According to the instructions of the Belzer rebbe, those who fail to abide by the new rules will not be eligible for loans or financial assistance from the chassidus.
All Belzer mishpachos, regardless of their financial standing, are required to follow the chasunah takanos.
The takanos were based, among other things, on questionnaires handed out to mishpachos of the community.
Belz is not the first to place limitations on wedding expenditures. Satmar, Ger and others have done so before. But it is the first stream to publish an elaborate document that leaves no room for interpretation. For example, it stipulates the exact number of guests a family is allowed to invite to wedding events, and defines which family members should be considered “close kerovim.”
The new plan includes not only restrictions, but also some benefits. The document’s authors have taken a number of steps to help families lower the cost of the wedding by getting photographers, badchanim and musicians to agree to charging reasonable prices for their services.
Home furnishing for chassanim and kallahs will also be offered for cheap.
{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}
Well done. Good idea. We need the takanos here in the US too.
What about post-wedding takanos, i.e. support?
(I’m not Belz but it doesn’t seem fair to make a kallah choose between a pretty piece of jewelry and a mixer. I guess that in my circles the mixer comes as a shower gift, and the jewelry comes from the boy’s side. Not that I get the bracelet myself.)
Please!!!! America needs some takanos too.
I will be sending invitations by email only. This will save me $500 right there.
No email address?????? No invitation!!!!!!
These takonos only seem to work in Chassidus, where everyone follows one rebbe. It’s very hard to implement in litvishe circles, but if it could be done- that would be great! The idea of not getting loans would be a good idea, since that’s an incentive.
What’s more crippling about the diamond ring is the apartments they have to buy in Eretz Yisroel.
Are they taking care of that too?
Who need restrictions promulgated like this?
If you”re wealthy, who needs them? And if you’re not, try to man up to the truth and explain to your mechutonim that the thousands of dollars spent on sheer narishkeit won’t be spent in your case. A little communal and individual maturity and we’ll all be better off.
And tell me, why should florists, catering halls, photogs, jewelers and bands suffer just because there’s a recession out there?