GEN834 The ideal Jewish home is created by the conviction that a blessing unfolds itself within the life of husband and wife and their children through the family. This is both of a natural and of a spiritual order. Home life is on a partnership basis; there is the love and the care of the parents for their children and there is the obedience and the respect of the children towards their parents. In their father and mother, the children have before their eyes that union between man and wife which is Kiddushin (holy). It is from the care and love for him that the child first learns the meaning of God as “Our Father who art in Heaven (avinu she’bashamayim).”  One of the many answers that could be given to the question “What is Judaism?” is this: It is a religion in which the family is in possession of God’s blessing and in which the parents hand down this blessing to their children. It is in the happiness of the family life that the Jew experiences his nearness to God.  The question might also be asked “What is marriage?” The answer could equally be given very simply. It is not merely a social relationship but an attempt to create joy and peace in the world, to build a sanctuary out of a worldly institution. Husband and wife and enabled through marriage to share in the creative work of God, “renewing the creation every day continually” Singer’s Prayer Book, p. 37.  Both can sustain life and make it holy; empowered by their life together to bring out the best that is in them.  “Thou are consecrated unto me by this ring according to the Law of Moses and Israel” is the translation of the nine Hebrew words by which the bride becomes a wife. They form a gateway through which the couple proceed towards their future life of joy and holiness, at the same time impressing upon them that they are now dedicated to each other for life. Jewish family life will always be the main reason for the survival of our people; for it is the ideal home that forges characters able to withstand extinction. No gain in national territory could ever offset the tragedy that would ensue were those ideals of Judaism – marriage, the Sabbath and Kashrut – to suffer a decline in the State of Israel. Thucydides, the historian of the Peloponesian Wars, records that Greece fell not because of the clash of arms but because home life was being destroyed.  Rome had a similar tale to tell. On account of the danger existing to the sanctity of marriage not only in the Golah [i.e., exile/diaspora – AJL] but also in Israel, it is the task of spiritual leaders constantly to be on their guard to defend and explain the ethical import of a Jewish union. … Marriage is holy, for it gives to men and women the opportunity of taking art in the miracle of creation and provides for the children resulting from such a happy union the best environment for their sound and healthy development – a united and happy home and the love and care of devoted parents. It is also blessed, because it offers to the majority of men and women the greatest chance of achieving personal happiness and the joy of companionship with a beloved and chosen partner. Judaism sees in marriage a mitigation of the essential loneliness of life and the opportunity of shared interests which gives content and significance to things around us.  LEHRMAN 246-9