What Jewish Marriage Laws Teach about the Meaning of Holiness

Last week, thousands of Jews around the world following the daily regimen of Talmud study known as daf yomi completed the tractate of Kiddushin, whose name means “betrothals,” or, more literally, “sanctifications.” Dovid Bashevkin explains the ritual—perhaps better described as a legal transaction—that is the tractate’s focus, and why the Talmud devotes so much space to it while ignoring the actual marriage ceremony almost entirely: