[Avodah] Wedding Rings for Men

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:24:28 -0500
Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

...

> And of course, it was "simlas ishah" until about a century ago, not worn
> by non-Jewish western men (I don't know about other cultures) either.

I assume you mean wedding rings in particular, not rings in general.  I
couldn't find any authoritative documentation, but this essay seems to
indicate that men's wedding rings actually entered Western culture even
more recently, during WWII:

"It was, in fact, during the second world war that the use of wedding
rings by men became more common. (Note that mens wedding rings and
men's wedding bands are interchangeable, both meaning the same thing.)

It became the custom for US soldiers going to war to publicise their
marital status by the wearing of a man's wedding ring. They were happy
to make public their commitment to their wife by the wearing of a
public symbol that declared that commitment to all. Given that this
habit of wearing men's wedding bands was reasonably new it was all the
more creditable that these men were willing to forego the marital
obscurity available to them from not wearing a ring and actively chose
to make a public statement about their choice.

Men's wedding rings have become increasingly more common since that
time."

http://www.familyresource.com/relationships/marriage/mens-wedding-rings-should-a-man-wear-one-or-not

Yitzhak
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