War Can’t Stop “The Voice of a Bridegroom and the Voice of a Bride”

As Israel faces the strain of war, ordinary life refuses to stand still. Even as sirens sound and emergency restrictions close event halls across the country, Israelis continue to celebrate life’s most meaningful moments. In two moving scenes, couples chose not to postpone their joy but to adapt, turning protected spaces into places of celebration and reminding those around them that hope and life persist even in the shadow of conflict.

Hospital Staff Help a Couple Marry

A particularly moving ceremony took place at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, where Avihu Cohen married his bride, Emma. “It was a gesture I will never forget,” Cohen said afterward.

Last Saturday morning, shortly after finishing his prayers at synagogue, Cohen, who is a 27 year old resident of Nahariya in Israel’s north, was urgently called to the medical center, following the commencement of fighting against Iran. He immediately joined hospital staff in moving patients down to a fortified underground complex.

The war, however, had erupted just before he was meant to stand beneath the Jewish wedding canopy (chuppa).

The couple’s wedding had been scheduled for Sunday, a day after the outbreak of the war. But once Israel’s Home Front Command declared a national emergency and banned large gatherings, the event hall near Haifa informed the couple that the celebration had to be canceled.

Cohen’s colleagues at the medical center refused to let the moment pass. They approached hospital management with a request to hold the wedding on-site. Hospital General Director Prof. Masad Barhoum and Administrative Director Mr. Moshe Meyouhass immediately approved the idea, and the preparations began.

Deeply moved by the gesture, Cohen shared the news with his family and his bride’s family while coworkers rushed to organize the celebration. The hospital’s food services department prepared the meal and refreshments, facilities staff arranged tables and chairs, and other employees decorated the dining hall and prepared the wedding canopy according to Jewish tradition.

By midday, hospital staff and family members gathered in the protected dining hall. With singing, dancing, and joyful cheers, they welcomed the bride and groom as they stepped forward to stand beneath the chuppah.

A Wedding in a Shelter Beneath Tel Aviv

Michael and Lior also chose not to postpone or cancel their celebration. Rather than give up their wedding day, the couple decided to adapt it to the reality of wartime Israel.

Their ceremony had originally been planned as a traditional wedding event. But with restrictions in place and the difficulty of holding large gatherings, they searched for a place where they could celebrate safely.

The solution was found in the heart of Tel Aviv, four floors below street level in the parking garage of Dizengoff Center. For one evening, the underground space was transformed into an improvised wedding hall.

There, surrounded by friends and family, Michael and Lior stood beneath the chuppah, proving that even in uncertain times Israelis continue to affirm life, joy, and the determination to move forward.

Prophecy Unimpeded

One of the promises in Scripture for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the renewal of life there, is the description of the sound of weddings resounding through the land once more:
“So said the Lord: There shall again be heard in this place, concerning which you say, “It is desolate without man and without beast,” in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without a man and without an inhabitant and without a beast,
the sound of mirth and the sound of joy, the voice of a bridegroom and the voice of a bride, the sound of those saying, “Thank the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, for His loving-kindness endures forever,” bringing a thanksgiving offering to the House of the Lord, for I will restore the captivity of the land as at first, said the Lord” (Jeremiah 33: 10-11).

Despite the war conditions, brides and grooms in Israel are not letting that prophecy be interrupted.