What is a Vort?

Question

Hi Rabbi, what is a “vort” mean in the contest of engagement to get married? Thanks.

0

Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    When a couple decides to marry, they announce the occasion with an engagement party. In Yiddish this event is called a vort, which means a “word.” At the vort the man and woman traditionally give their “word” and formally commit to marry.

    There is a custom to break a ceramic plate at the vort. This symbolizes the seriousness of their commitment to each other: Just as breaking the plate is final, so too the engagement is final and not easily terminated.

    Breaking the plate also tempers the intense joy of the occasion, similar to the glass which is broken under the chupah. It reminds us that the Temple is not yet rebuilt.

    Customarily, the couple’s mothers are the ones who break the plate. They hold the plate together and drop it onto a hard surface. It’s important to wrap the plate well to ensure that no one gets hurt from the broken pieces. I once attended a vort where a flying splinter from a not well-wrapped plate went into the leg of one of the mothers.

    Some have the custom to make a necklace for the bride from the broken pieces. Others give the broken pieces to eligible “singles” as if to say “may a plate soon be broken for you.” Some break the plate at the wedding just before the chuppa.

     

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team