Brit Ahuvim

Text by Rachel Adler

On the ________day of the week, the ________day of the month of ________, in the year ________, corresponding to the ________day of ________, ________, here in ________, the bride/groom/partner/spouse/lover , ________, son/daughter of ________, and the bride/groom/partner/spouse/lover, ________, daughter/son of ________confirm in the presence of witnesses a lovers’ covenant between them and declare a partnership to establish a household among the people of Israel.
This agreement into which ________ and ________ are entering is a holy convenant like the ancient covenants of our people, made in faithfulness and peace to stand forever. It is a covenant of protection and hope like the covenant God swore to Noah and his descendants, saying,
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures, all flesh that is on earth. That, God said to Noah, shall be the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh. It is a covenant of distinction, like the covenant God made with Israel, saying, You shall be my people, and I shall be your God.
It is a covenant of devotion, joining hearts like the covenant David and Jonathan made, as it is said:
And Jonathan’s soul was bound up with the soul of David. Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
It is a covenant of mutual loving kindness like the wedding covenant between God and Zion, as it is said,
I will espouse you forever. I will espouse you with righteousness and justice and loving kindness and compassion. I will espouse you in faithfulness and you shall know God.
The following are the provisions of the lovers’ covenant into which bride/groom/spouse and bride/groom/spouse now enter:
________and ________declare that they have chosen each other as companions, as our rabbis teach:
Get yourself a companion. This teaches that a person should get a companion to eat with, drink with, to study with, to sleep with, to confide all one’s secrets, secrets of Torah and secrets of worldly things.
________and ________declare that they are setting themselves apart for each other and will take no other lover. ________and ________hereby assume all the rights and obligations that apply to family members: to attend, care, and provide for one another 1. and for any children with which they may be blessed. (optional)!2. and for ________, child/children of ________. (optional)
________and ________commit themselves to a life of kindness and righteousness as a Jewish family and to work together toward the communal task of mending the world. ________and ________pledge that one will help the other at the time of dying, by carrying out the last rational requests of the dying partner, protecting each other from indignity or abandonment and by tender, faithful presence with the beloved until the end, fulfilling what has been written:
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is stronger than death.”
To this covenant we affix our signatures: