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I have given some thought to your query about your Club’s habit of smashing your port glasses into the fire after your weekly toast—the old fireplace toss as you put it—and if it had any relation to the Jewish custom of smashing a goblet during a wedding ceremony.
This tradition, though derived from late antiquity, will not be found in scripture. Some believe it began when a rabbi smashed a glass at a festive wedding to remind those attending that despite their joy they should remember the fall of Jerusalem and the holy temple.
Today, most Jewish couples regard the smashing ritual as a symbolic reminder that even in the happiest occasions there is tragedy, and life is filled with both joy and sorrow. The shards remind all in attendance that God calls everyone to repair the world--tikkun olam.
I am reminded of the story of Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding feast in Cana, during which the party had run out wine. At the behest of his mother, Jesus ordered several large jars used for ritual purposes to be filled with water (180 gallons worth). The toastmaster of the wedding discovered that they were in fact filled with fine wine, and congratulated the bridegroom with his prodigious generosity. Had they shattered a glass, Jesus doubtless would have restored it whole.
I am struck that what Jesus does is to take apparent tragedy (running out of wine was beyond inhospitality and social faux pas) and transform it into something miraculous, beautiful, and filled with joy. Isn’t that what Jesus does in all things? He sets the prisoner free, he heals the leper, he exorcizes the possessed, he makes the blind to see and the crippled to walk, and he even raises the dead to life.
The old fireplace toss might be a way to seal a toast among clubbable friends, but the shattered glass at a wedding is nothing less that water turned to wine. And that, my dear Watson, is something worth toasting.
I remain sincerely yours,
S.H.