…and everywhere else, too. After Tisha B’Av, Jews can get married, and it seems many of them are this month.

It’s a real blessing to be able to marry a Jewish couple, and it is one of the best parts of being a rabbi. I really enjoy meeting with the couples, sometimes a year in advance, and sometimes only weeks in advance. Getting to know them and how they met, and seeing their love for each other, is a true pleasure, and guiding them through the process of preparing for their wedding – ordering a ketubah, explaining and personalizing the traditional Jewish marriage ceremony, explaining kosher witnesses and kosher rings and all the rest – leads up to the wedding day itself. And the holiness of serving as their wedding officiant (the province’s term, not mine) under their chupah is just magical.

Yes, the Jewish calendar does allow Jewish weddings on some days and not on others. The two main periods in which Jewish weddings are not done are the omer, the period from Passover until Lag Ba’Omer, and the three weeks from the 17th of Tammuz through the 9th of Av. But not to worry: before you book a wedding venue and a florist and a band and a crew of photographers and videographers, meet with your rabbi to determine whether the date you want is kosher, and to make sure the rabbi you want is available.

More info on planning a Montreal Jewish wedding.