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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>From: "kennethgmiller@juno.com" <A href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com">kennethgmiller@juno.com</A><BR><BR><BR>>
3. What is the purpose of the bride wearing a heavy veil (dech<BR>> tikel)
[--RET]<BR><BR>Why wear a veil at all? I always thought it had something to do
with Yaakov not realizing that he was marrying Leah. If so, a heavy veil makes
much more sense than a see-thru one.<BR><BR>Akiva
Miller<BR><BR></FONT></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>Picking UP the veil, or rather, having the groom place the veil on
the bride himself, comes from the scurvy trick that Lavan played on Yakov.
The bedeken ensures that the chasan sees the kallah before the ceremony and
makes sure there has been no substitution.</DIV>
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<DIV>But we see here -- from the fact that Leah was heavily veiled when Yakov
married her -- that the custom of having the bride veiled at the wedding is
very ancient indeed, and originally not even (exclusively) a Jewish
custom. The reason for it? Don't know, but I can speculate.
What I said before (my guess): to avoid having the riffraff stare at the kallah,
avoid an ayin hara. Also maybe, to protect the maidenly shyness and
modesty of a demure young girl, who is unaccustomed to being the cynosure of so
many eyes.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>--------------------
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