The INSIDER Summary:During a Jewish marriage ceremony, the couplecrushes a glass.It's meant to be a moment ofremembrance for the destruction of the Jewish temples.The glassalso has several symbolic meanings associated with the wedding.In the past few years, the practice of shouting "mazal tov!" after they break the glasshas elicited some controversy.The Jewish wedding is a finely detailed process, with hundreds of different customs and traditions.One of the most iconic ones is breaking aglass.At some point during the marriage ceremony (the exact point varies between different traditions, but usually during the end), a glass wrapped in cloth is placed on the ground under the chuppah, or bridal canopy. One member of the couplestompson it, and the congregation shouts "mazal tov!" in congratulations.The reason Jews break a glass during the wedding ceremony is to remember twoof the most important and tragic events of Jewish history: the destruction of the Jewish temples. In an otherwise joyous occasion, it's a ritual that tempers that happiness and allows for a moment of reflection."We perform a number of actions to keep the Temple in our collective consciousness," writes Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff in "Will Jew Marry Me': A Guide to Dating, Relationships, Love, and Marriage.""One of them is breaking the glass under the chuppah."The tradition dates back to at least the fourth century CE.The oldest referenceto breaking glass during a wedding in Jewish literature isin the Talmud, an important Jewish legal text. In an esoteric discussion among rabbis about happiness and solemnity during prayer,there's a story of a rabbi who hosts a wedding for his son.During the wedding, he sees the attending rabbis are excessively joyous, so he gets an expensive cup, breaks it in front ofthem, and they become sad.It's a cryptic story. Why make the wedding guestssad' Oneexplanation offered in the Talmud is to make sure they don't get too carried away in their merriment and end up sinning.The more generally understood reason is that it allrefers toa verse from Psalm 137, often recited before breaking the glass, which values keeping "Jerusalem in memory even at the happiest hour."The memory isn't a happyone.Two of themost important events in Jewish history are the destructions of the first and second temples in Jerusalem.In Judaism, thetemple is supposed to be the physical focal point offaith and worship. The first one was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian kingNebuchadnezzar II. It was replaced by a second temple at around530 BCE, while Jerusalem was occupied by the Persian Empire, and then destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman army. Now, all that remains is a small section of its outer western wall.Breaking the glass is supposed to recall the destruction of the temples.It's a way of remembering the tragedy of Jerusalem "even at the happiest hour" ' that is to say, your wedding.For the same reason, weddings are prohibited, according to Jewish custom, in the three weeks leading up to Tisha b'Av, the date on the Jewish calendar when both temples were destroyed.Breaking the glass also recalls breaking the tablets.There's another Biblical reason for breaking glass, according toHajioff.In the Jewish tradition, God giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai is understood to be a kindof metaphorical marriage ceremony,where God is married to the Jewish people.In that context, breaking the glass resembles the passage in Exodus when Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and, seeing the Jewish people worshiping the Golden Calf, broke the first set of tablets God gave him."Since the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people was the marriage between God and the Jewish people, the breaking of the glass recalls this first-ever tragedy that occurred to our people at Mount Sinai," Hajioff writes.For some Jews, breaking glass was used to keep demons away.In Eastern Europe, the idea of demons associated with different sins became popular in Jewish life. People were thought to be particularly susceptible to demonicpossession and curses during rites of passage, like circumcision ceremonies and weddings.Shattering glass, some scholars suggest, would keep demons away. It would frighten themwith a loud noise, or otherwise confuse them into thinking it was an event of mourning, not of celebration.Glassitself is deeply symbolic.Anything that's fragile couldbe shattered, so why glass'Hajioff writes that glass is shattered rather than, say, ceramic or fine china because it can be remelted and reblown."Similarly, we humans can have moments where we are 'broken' or even 'shattered,'" Hajioff writes. "Like glass we can reform as new beings if need be. So we break glass because it recalls our mortality but also the divine promise of immortality of the soul."Usually the actual glass the couplecrushes is a cup used earlier in the ceremony, when a blessing is said over a glass of wine.Sometimes a plate is used as the glass. It's thought to be a reference to a separate tradition of breaking a plate when a binding contract is sealed, symbolizing its irreversibility. It'salso traditional to break a plate following an engagement agreement between the couple.After the plateis broken, people shout "mazal tov!" ' but that's become controversial in recent years.Right after the glass is broken, the congregation yells out "mazal tov" to wish the couple congratulations, bringing thewedding out of its moment of somberness.But in the past few years, the custom of saying "mazal tov" following breaking the glass has been criticized. In particular, RabbiOvadia Yosef, one of the most influential Jewish legal scholars in the past 100 years, said in 2010 that the practice should be eliminated altogether "if not for the weight of Jewish tradition."The reason, he said, is because many Jews are unaware of the reasoning behind breaking the glass ' to remember the destruction of the temples ' and therefore treat the moment with levityinstead of sorrow.Nowadays, Psalms 137 is often recited before breaking the glass to remind everyone about where the tradition comes from. Duringthe happiest day in a couple's life, it's a moment to remember the weight of history that brought them there in the first place.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Here's footage of the US military's new helicopter that'll cost as much as an F-35
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