Wedding stone
The wedding stone (also a traustein or chuppastein ) is a stone in synagogues for the ritual smashing of glasses at Jewish weddings.
regional customs
The ritual breaking of a glass at Jewish weddings is a custom still widely practiced today in memory of the temple in Jerusalem that was devastated. The wedding party calls “ Masel tov ”, which translated means “good luck”, but literally means “good star”. Wedding stones therefore usually show a star ( Magen David ), often in the center the letters MT for Masel Tov ( מט For מזל טוב). Other common (partly abbreviated) inscriptions come from Jeremiah 7.34 ELB ( OT ) and 33.11 LUT ( OT ): voice of jubilation and voice of joy, voice of the groom and voice of the bride (קול ששון וקול שמחה קול חתן וקול כלה).
Historic wedding stones
17th century
Wedding stones have been preserved in many places. In Höchberg in the district of Würzburg there is a wedding stone from 1660/1661.
18th century
A wedding stone is also located above the portal of the Weisenau Synagogue in Mainz-Weisenau , which was spared in the night of the pogrom in 1938 and which was built in the first half of the 18th century and which is also the oldest surviving building in the city. Another one at the synagogue of Altenkunstadt in the district of Lichtenfels, Upper Franconia bears the date "1726". A stone in Wilhermsdorf dates from 1736. A stone in the former synagogue in Dittigheim in the Main-Tauber district dates from 1769.
One of the largest and best-preserved wedding stones in southwest Germany is located at the Old Synagogue in Eppingen, which was built in 1772 . The colored stone with an eight star and attached rose window on the facade of the building escaped destruction because the building owner covered it with a shutter during the Nazi era . The wedding stone of the Heinsheim synagogue (in a district of Bad Rappenau in the Heilbronn district) dates from 1796. A Star of David is carved in its center with the usual Hebrew letters.
19th century
The Aufhausen wedding stone is dated 1824.
Wedding stone of the Ehrstädt synagogue
Traustein of the former Dittigheim synagogue
literature
- Alfred Grotte: wedding stone. In: Jewish Lexicon . An encyclopedic manual of Jewish knowledge in four volumes. Volume 2: D-H. Jüdischer Verlag, Berlin 1928, Sp. 1641 f., Urn : nbn: de: hebis: 30-180015078028 ( scan in the Freimann Collection [accessed on March 7, 2019]).
