| A marriage is not permitted on the Sabbath. The reason is that part of the
marriage ceremony requires the making of a transaction "kinyan" and one is
not permitted to make a "kinyan" on Shabbat.
There is a discusiion in the Talmud whether a marriage can be consumated
(meaning the first sexual meeting between man and wife) on the Sabbath. The
final ruling is that it can. In fact there is an old Jerusalem custom to
perform marriages on Friday afternoon and to continue the "Simcha" into
Shabbat (no bands of course).
The reason for the discussion is that the first
sexual contact is likely to cause the spilling of blood due to the breaking
of the hymen and spilling blood or wounding is forbidden on Shabbat. The reason
that it is permitted is based on a famous Talmudic expression "P'sik re'sha
v'lo yamuth" which means -- can one break off the head (of an animal) and not
have it die -- the implication being that the Sabbath only prohibits an act
which has been done for its own sake. An act which in its own right is
permitted but has has an ansilary affect which would be prohibited is itself not
prohibited. In our case the actual sexual meeting is certainly permitted (in
fact it is encouraged on the Sabbath as part of "Oneg Shabbat"), the breaking of
the hymen is ansilary to the main act and in fact not really desired. Therefore
the main act is permitted.
The discussion is quite lengthy and complicated, and I've only touched upon it
very superficially. It is in Tractate "Ketubot" page 5.
There is also a law that says that marriages should not be held the night
after Shabbat. The reason here is that it was feared that preparations would
be started before the Shabbat was over.
Hope this answers your question.
Cb.
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| Another little known piece of information is that marriages were
held on the evening prior to a day when Torah was read, i.e. on
a sunday evening or on a wednesday evening. The reasoning used was
that if the groom found that he had not married a virgin and that
the sheets were clean, he could take them to the minyan and get
an annulment. I regret that I cannot cite the source. Solomon Zeitlin
Z"L used to ask his students at Dropsie for their sources before
he could accept their statements. It is still a good practice.
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