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Presentation
The Editors

Marriage and the family are under attack in our day as never before. Anxiety is felt in both Christian and Jewish circles over the loss of values indicated by the break-down of family life and the increase of divorce in our permissive society. Seminars are held, studies are undertaken in an effort to understand the problems raised and to seek remedies for them. We saw, for example, the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church taking the family as its theme for its recent meeting in Rome.
With such problems in mind we present this reflection on the Jewish and Christian liturgies of marriage in an endeavor to search out the permanent values of our two traditions which these liturgies enshrine. One important aspect of Jewish-Christian dialogue is a study together of our liturgies in order to ascertain what we have in common in the worship of God and the faith experience which it encloses.
Both the Jewish and Christian presentations of the liturgy of marriage which follow reveal the underlying theology of the married couple as living signs of the Covenant God has made with his people and which the prophets present under the matrimonial symbolism of the Lord as the Bridegroom and the people of God as the Bride. The communal aspect of the Jewish liturgy is powerfully stressed in Rabbi Finkel's article, while Fr. Nocent takes up the same theme in presenting the archetype of the Covenant made present for Christians in the mystery of the union of Christ and of his Church. The study of Jewish liturgy can thus help Christians to deepen an understanding of their own insights.
The Jewish liturgy of marriage, in particular, is rich in symbolism, emphasizing so many biblical realities. The Christian liturgy, in its turn, reflects the continuity of these same realities. This is especially evident in the liturgy of the Oriental Church which, in this respect, has preserved more of Jewish ritual than the West.
The communal aspect of the liturgies of both Christianity and Judaism highlights the role of the family in order to ensure the perpetuity of the community. The next issue of the SIDIC Review will therefore be devoted to the theme of the importance of the family in Jewish and Christian traditions in order to continue to study the relevance for dialogue of marriage and the family in our two traditions.