Abstract

This dissertation focuses on ritual and, in particular, contemporary Montreal Jewish wedding rituals. It is a study of the material objects used in the diverse acts of human symbol-making which represent distinct identities, both personal and communal. The change from one to two wedding rings will be the focus of this investigation within the context of several Jewish weddings within Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist denominations. Double-ring wedding ceremonies present a conundrum in Judaism. On the one hand, Jewish law does not acknowledge the bride's giving of a second ring to the groom as a legal kinyan , while on the other hand, the practice exists. Various identities and interpretations emerged in this study over the subject of the second ring. The juxtaposition of three salient realities--namely, rings, rabbis and couples--provided the raw material for investigating the "second ring phenomenon". Finally, a re-thinking of Arnold Van Gennep's classic model of "rites of passage" shaped the central argument of this dissertation, that contemporary double-ring ceremonies in this study represented celebrations or events that were primarily rites of identity more than rites of passage.