Sheva Berachot and cosmopolitanism

I spent Shabbat at some old age home cum weekend hotel for Sheva berachot. It was nice. The other side of the family was British. I was glad. Lately I am getting used to the idea of the British as allies. It was one of those interesting sort-of arranged marriages where the groom and bride met about two or three times before they were engaged. The wedding was really out of some really old story where two families living two thousand miles apart were united because they were both headed by well respected Torah scholars and their children were almost destined for this. There were many backs and forths no doubt. It was facinating seeing these two houses unite and observing what they had in common. They were so similar. Because of their cultural similarity the transition from one family to the other was seamless.

There was a moment on Friday night when the family of the groom all left the room to ritualistically wash their hands, and the family of the bride was a bit dumbfounded because they wash their hands only after the Friday night blessings are said. The groom was of German origin and the bride descended from Eastern Europe. Otherwise their songs, dress, and vernacular were identical. I can admit that it was a bit odd hearing Yinglish (Yiddish-English) in a British accent. It must be nice being part of such an international community.