About Shoshie

About Shoshie

Regarding an appropriate marriage our sages in the Talmud say (Pesachim 49a) that the mingling of grapes of the vine with grapes of the is beautiful and acceptable."

Why the analogy to grapes and not another fruit?

The grape has a special quality to it that the other fruits don’t have. What is it and what does it mean to us? 

Before eating a fruit that grows on a tree, one recites the normal blessing for it “Baruch ……etc . "Borei peri ha'eitz." –the one who creates the fruit of the tree
When that fruit is drunk as a juice (and not eaten) it loses it’s status, the  regular and normal blessing is not said and instead a lower ranked blessing is said over drinking the liquid 
Rather than the regular blessing said over eating a fruit.  Eating the fruit as it was intended is the normal way of enjoying it.

  
There is however one and only one exception to this rule and that is in the case of grapes.

While the fruit itself has the same blessing as all other fruits but when it is drunk as a juice unlike all the other fruits who blessing attains a lower rank, grape juice or wine
Acquires a new and special Blessing all together, one that is even higher than the blessing over the fruit itself.

What does this have to do with marriage?

The originators of a family are the parents, who are analogous to the vine, (Denise and myself or any parents) and the offspring are compared to the grapes (our children). Our sages are telling us that when it is a proper and good marriage in which there is a "mingling of grapes" - - - it will produce wine i.e. the children who will accomplish even more than their parents—and that is “ something beautiful and acceptable.”

Each vine has something unique and special to it - each parent has different qualities to contribute to one child. When the child picks up each of their parents special and unique qualities that child becomes even more special (or has the potential) than their parents.

I saw Shoshie as both a combination of Denise and myself - I think she even merited to receive a higher blessing.