Mi Ban Siach - A Jewish Wedding Song

I'm so excited!

I recently hooked up with a program called TorahMates. Today, my study partner, an Orthodox Jewish woman and mother of 10 children from Brooklyn, just told me all about Jewish weddings and showed me this video of her daughter-in-law circling with the two mothers seven times around her son in the Chuppah.

You know, just because I'm Jewish doesn't mean I knew anything about Orthodox Jewish weddings. I've never been to one. I had no idea what an Orthodox Jewish wedding was like until today.

Here's what the words Mi Ban Siach מי בן שיח, the song sung to a Jewish bride as she enters the chuppah) mean:

Mi bon siach shoshan chochim,
ahavas kallah, m'sos dodim,
hu yivarech es hechasan v'es hakallah
מִי בן שיח שושן חוחים,
אהבת כלה, משוש דודים,
הוא יברך את החתן ואת הכלה

Translation:

He who understan​​ds the speech of the rose among thorns, the love of a bride, who is the joy of the beloved ones, may He bless the groom and bride.

Alter​natively,​ the lyrics (based on middrash Shir HaShirim Rabba 2) may be rendered:​

One who knows how to say the Sheva Brachos, [and is thereby like a] rose amongst thorns, who understan​​ds the love of a bride and the joy of lovers, he will bless the groom and bride.