Jewish Wedding

In Judaism, the wedding ring plays a major role in the Jewish wedding ceremony, but after the wedding is over, many men don’t wear a wedding ring and for some Jewish women, the ring ends up on the right hand.

The origin of the ring as a wedding custom in Judaism is a bit shaky. There isn’t a specific mention of the ring used in wedding ceremonies in any ancient works. In Sefer ha’Ittur, a collection of Jewish legal rulings from 1608 on monetary issues, marriage, divorce, and (marriage contracts) by Rabbi Yitzchak Bar Abba Mari of Marseilles, the rabbi recalls a curious custom from which the ring as a wedding necessity might have arisen. According to the rabbi, the groom would perform the wedding ceremony over a cup of wine with a ring inside, saying, “You are hereby betrothed to me with this cup and all of which is inside it.” However, this wasn’t recorded in later medieval works, so it’s an unlikely origin point.

Rather, the ring likely originates from the basics of Jewish law. According to Mishnah Kedushin 1:1, a woman is acquired (i.e., betrothed) in one of three ways: