Jewish Ocean Wedding in South Florida | Rabbi Amy Rader | Neshamah Institute

Love Like Water

Celebrating Ellie & Spencer’s Jewish Wedding Under the Stars

Officiated by Rabbi Amy Rader | The Neshamah Institute, Boca Raton, FL

October 12, 2025

At Jewish weddings, we say Mazel Tov. Most people translate it as “congratulations” or “good luck.” But the literal meaning is something richer: good stars. Divine timing. A moment when everything aligns in ways that feel like more than coincidence.

Standing under the open sky on the evening of October 12, 2025, looking out over the ocean as the stars came out one by one, everyone gathered for Ellie and Spencer’s wedding felt it: this was a moment of divine timing.

The Most Jewish of Moments

The timing of Ellie and Spencer’s wedding was extraordinary even beyond the setting. They chose to marry during Sukkot – the Jewish holiday our tradition literally calls “our time of joy.” It was the start of a new Jewish year, full of hope and promise. We were returning to the very beginning of the Torah, reading about creation, the newness of the world, the original purity of everything God brought into being.

And for the Jewish community gathered under that chuppah, there was something more: we stood on the eve of what we prayed would be the return of hostages held for over two years. The air was charged with hope, with longing, with the particular Jewish ability to hold grief and celebration at the same time and to choose joy anyway.

I don’t think you could have picked a more divine moment to stand here under this chuppah. Rabbi Amy Rader to Ellie and Spencer

That’s the kind of wedding this was. Not just a celebration of two people, but a gathering that felt woven into the fabric of Jewish time itself.

Water, from the Very Beginning

Because water has been so central to Ellie and Spencer’s story and because they chose to marry with the ocean as their witness, the dvar Torah for their ceremony drew on one of Judaism’s most enduring teachings: water as the source of all life and love.

The Torah tells us that before creation itself, the spirit of God hovered over the waters. Water was there at the very beginning. And in Jewish tradition, it remains present at every meaningful threshold: washing hands before a meal, the mikveh before a wedding, the waters of a baby naming, the ancient ritual of conversion. Water marks the moments when we cross from one chapter of life to another.

Ellie grew up surrounded by water. Swimming nearly every day. Family vacations at the beach. Summers at the lake house. Water has always been where she feels most herself, most connected to the people she loves most. And so, standing before the ocean on the night of her wedding, it felt less like a venue choice and more like a homecoming.

Ellie, you chose water not just as scenery, but as a witness –  a reminder of continuity, of family, of the connection that has always brought you home. Rabbi Amy Rader to Ellie and Spencer

From Indiana to the Pacific

Ellie and Spencer met at Indiana University, junior year. Two students navigating college life, finding their way into something neither of them had quite planned for. By senior year, they knew they had found something worth holding onto.

Then came the test that every real love story eventually faces: long distance. Phone calls and plane tickets. Believing in something you couldn’t always touch. But like water finding its path around every obstacle, their love flowed and persisted until Ellie made the move to Los Angeles, and two separate streams merged into one.

Our sages teach that when water from different sources meets, it doesn’t compete – it combines, becoming stronger, deeper, more life-sustaining. That is exactly what Ellie and Spencer have done. Spencer from his world, Ellie from hers – and now this beautiful convergence under a canopy of stars with the ocean at their backs.

What They See in Each Other

One of the privileges of officiating a wedding is hearing how two people actually talk about each other –  not in the careful language of a toast, but in the honest, specific, tender way people speak when they’re describing the person they have chosen for life.

Ellie values Spencer’s determination. His unwavering support. The way he helps her feel strong in herself. Spencer is the one who plans the European vacations, who will drag you cheerfully to every historical site in Greece, who – as Ellie puts it – can talk to a wall. And who makes sure, every single day, that she feels appreciated.

Spencer values Ellie’s kindness. In her work. With her niece, whom she treats with such care and intentionality. The way she loves, the way she gives, the way she shows up as a role model for everyone around her. As Rabbi Amy said that evening: she waters the world with her kindness.

And together – they make time. They check in daily. They eat together every day. They find hole-in-the-wall comedy clubs for thirty dollars and laugh until they cry. They try new coffee shops. They travel to Greece, plan Paris and Italy. They watch fantasy football and play tennis at Indian Wells. They eat pasta and drink wine and quote Bill Burr and John Mulaney. They have built, in the middle of ordinary life, a love that is fully, specifically, joyfully theirs.

Miriam’s Well

In the wilderness, our ancestors followed a miraculous well – Miriam’s Well – that sustained them through forty years of wandering. The rabbis teach that this well was a gift that never ran dry, a source of life and hope even in the driest places.

That is what marriage is, at its deepest. A commitment to be each other’s source of sustenance, even when life feels like a desert. To show up – with daily check-ins and shared meals and date nights and organic moments that say: you matter. We matter.

Ellie and Spencer wanted their wedding to be a beautiful web of people – every face they love packed onto that dance floor, celebrating this love that started in Indiana, survived distance, and now thrives on the West Coast. Brothers, family, friends from every chapter. A whole world of people who have watched this love grow and who came to say: we see it. We believe in it. We’re here.

A Blessing

Ellie and Spencer: may your love flow like water – constant, life-giving, and impossible to contain. May you be like Miriam’s Well for each other, never running dry. May the storms of life never extinguish what you’ve built, and may every challenge only deepen your bond.

May your home always be filled with laughter, good food, and people you love. And may the dance floor that night have been just a preview of the joyful, packed, beautiful life you are building together.

Mazel Tov, Ellie and Spencer. May good fortune, flowing water, and divine timing be with you all the days of your life.