Elyssa Cherney, Rabbi and officiant Tacklingtorah.com

Rabbi Elyssa is fantastic! My husband and I were nervous picking an officiant but Rabbi Elyssa was really helpful and put us at ease. We were interested in an inclusive Jewish ceremony and she had lots of suggestions to help us create a meaningful service. In addition, it was incredibly helpful to have her input and guidance both before the wedding and the day-of to coordinate everything we would need and set it up

Working with Rabbi Elyssa was a pleasure. She is warm, friendly and made us feel so comfortable right away. She is also so easy to connect with. Our conversations in preparation for the wedding were meaningful and helpful. We talked about our relationship, our future relationship and family plans, and the big picture surrounding the wedding. Rabbi Elyssa made the wedding much more than an event for us; she made it a magical experience. The ketubah ceremony she prepared for us was unlike any other I have ever witnessed. It was spiritual and transcendental. The ceremony under the chuppah was also nothing short of amazing. She made it so personal and intimiate, but also so accessible to our guests. They havent stopped talking about how special it was!

Rabbi Elyssa was absolutely amazing to work with! Our rabbi unfortunately was unable to make the wedding at the last minute, but Rabbi Elyssa stepped in and saved the day. She took the time to learn a bit about my husband and I and what we wanted for our ceremony. Our favorite part was when she took us aside for a private moment to do some grounding before the ceremony, which really helped my husband and I connect with each other and take in all the magic of the day. Elyssa did a fantastic job with the ceremony- it was so special and so beautiful. It has been 2 months since the wedding and we are still getting huge compliments from our guests about how much they loved the ceremony! I can't recommend Rabbi Elyssa enough. She is truly wonderful!

Rabbi Elyssa is truly fantastic. From our initial meeting with her, we could tell by her energy and personality that she was the Rabbi for us. Being that my husband and I are of different faiths, we had struggled to find a Rabbi who was willing to work with us and one who was understanding of our situation and different backgrounds. We met with Rabbi Elyssa multiple times leading up to our wedding and by the time our wedding day came, it felt as though we had always known her and as if she had always known us. Planning a wedding can be stressful, but working with Rabbi Elyssa was far from that. She arrived to the venue early and kept the whole day on schedule. So many relatives from our families loved the ceremony and could not speak highly enough of how beautiful it was. My husband and I could not be happier with our choice to get married by Rabbi Elyssa and cannot wait to continue working with her for future celebrations.

Rabbi Elyssa was incredibly supportive throughout wedding planning. She provided one-on-one sessions for marriage counseling and took the time to not only explain the Jewish wedding traditions but helped us create our own unique ceremony. One of our favorite parts of our wedding was our Ketubah signing ceremony where she held space for us to catch our breath before we walked down the aisle. Rabbi Elyssa also did a magnificent job co-hosting an interfaith union. Finally, she made herself available as we navigate our first year of marriage together. We highly recommend Rabbi Elyssa for your future wedding!

There are not enough words to describe how wonderful Rabbi Elyssa was. The whole process was thoughtful, and she provided such a grounding experience on our wedding day. She handled the chaos with grace and humor, and helped both my husband and I feel more in touch with Judaism. I truly can’t imagine the day without her. She is an excellent person who is excellent at her work. 1000000/10

Rabbi Elyssa was wonderful! She helped us design a ceremony that was meaningful for us, and was comfortable with incorporating some of my bride's Christian faith into the program. It was clear to everyone that we had a personal connection to Rabbi Elyssa, fostered over deep conversations during our engagement. The counseling that she provided was important in helping us realize and reach our goals for our special day and for our life together. I can't recommend Rabbi Elyssa highly enough. Even her singing of the blessings drew rave reviews from some of our guests.

Rabbi Elyssa was the MVP of our wedding. We had many stressful things happen in the months leading up to the wedding, but the day of the wedding, Elyssa really took charge to make sure everything before and during the ceremony ran smoothly. She kept us calm, grounded, and focused on each other, all while getting friends and family involved and helping them understand the traditions they were watching and participating in. Elyssa will have you do a bit of homework on your end, but it's all worth it. She uses what she learns from you to craft a ceremony that is very personal. We were, frankly, blown away. My husband and I also decided to do a public ketubah signing, which she turned into a beautiful communal ritual. She made our wedding day so much more special. You can tell how invested Rabbi Elyssa is in the happiness of the couples she works with. She says when she works with a couple, she becomes their rabbi for life, and I look forward to future occasions where we can turn to her for guidance and to share important moments.

My husband and I had a Jewish-Hindu fusion wedding, and we couldn't be happier that we chose Rabbi Elyssa to co-officiate! Rabbi Elyssa not only beautifully officiated the Jewish half, but she also coordinated with our other co-officiant (a Hindu priest) to make the ceremony feel interconnected and whole. We loved working with Rabbi Elyssa throughout the wedding planning process, as well as on our wedding day, and feel grateful and lucky to have her as a resource in our married life. We recommend Rabbi Elyssa wholeheartedly to anyone planning a Jewish and/or interfaith Jewish wedding!

Rabbi Elyssa made our wedding magical! We’re an interfaith couple and she made both parties feel very comfortable and she helped calm us down throughout the whole process. Our ketubah signing was so perfect and she had our whole wedding party involved which was amazing. Rabbi Elyssa is now our forever Rabbi! She even made some of our non jewish friends want to convert! If you’re getting married you should without a doubt go with Rabbi Elyssa!!! Thank you Rabbi Elyssa!

I’m still humbled by how amazing Rabbi Cherney was. We are basking in the glow from our ceremony. She made it so personalized , lovely, warm and intimate. She is not a “rent a rabbi,” but rather more of a close counselor who gets to know you as people and creates a completely custom ceremony. She also created a vibe and experience that I have never witnessed at a wedding before- she made spiritual moments accessible to our family and friends and brought everyone in to the love and warmth of the moment. Again, I’ve been to so many weddings and no rabbi has ever stood out to me and Elyssa stands out. She really made our wedding the beautiful moment that it was. It wouldn’t have been the same without her. If you’re on the fence, hire her!!

Rabbi Elyssa was absolutely a great decision and we loved the whole process through our one year engagement!! She really took the time to get to know us as a couple personally and turned it into a beautfiul ceremony that my now husband and I envisioned when we first started planning. We are an interfaith couple with myself being christian and my husband being jewish and Rabbi Elyssa really incorporated our values perfectly and seamlessly into the ceremony. We did a ketubah signing prior and it is now a special memory from our wedding day. All of our guests could not stop raving about how beautiful the ceremony was. If you are looking for a Rabbi/officiant I would not hesitate go ahead and book with Rabbi Elyssa because you will be in excellent hands through the whole process!

My husband & I had the most special wedding ceremony thanks to Rabbi Elyssa. Our family & wedding party along with all our guests continue to rave about what a special and unique experience our ceremony was. Our ketubah signing will forever hold a special place in our hearts. Thank you Rabbi Elyssa!!!

Rabbi Elyssa is the best! My now husband and I come from different religious backgrounds- I'm Jewish and he is Catholic. While it was important for my husband to be married in the Church, but I knew that I wanted to honor my Jewish background in the ceremony as well. I came across Rabbi Elyssa here on The Knot, and from the very beginning I felt a connection! She met with us over Zoom and really got to know us both as individuals and as a couple. She was easy to talk to, had some great insight, and made both my husband and I feel extremely comfortable and also excited to create an interfaith ceremony. The planning process was stress-free, super personalized, and communication was easy. When it came to the wedding day, Rabbi Elyssa couldn't have performed a more beautiful ceremony, which was shared with the priest. She listened to what we wanted and created such special moments within the ceremony. We couldn't recommend Rabbi Elyssa enough and are so happy that she was part of our day! Thank you Rabbi!! :-)

Working with rabbi Elyssa was easy, helpful, and smooth. She walked us through the entire Jewish ceremony process, and got to know the both of us and our relationship leading up to the wedding. The wedding ceremony itself was perfect. It was personal, meaningful, and eloquently done. When rabbi Elyssa first arrived she reminded my husband & I why we were there, and gave us the perfect moment before the ceremony began. After a crazy day of photos, it was exactly what we needed to start the night & be present in the moment. Our ketubah signing was also meaningful and flawless, and rabbi Elyssa made it a moment we will forever cherish. I would recommend her to any Jewish or interfaith couple, as she made everyone (Jews and non Jews) feel included in the ceremony and ketubah process and explained what every little thing meant to our guests.

We cannot say enough about how much we LOVED working with Rabbi Elyssa!! She was tremendous throughout the entire process, and getting to know her over the last year has been rewarding, enlightening, and such a privilege. When we originally hired her as our officiant, we went in with the standard expectation that she would have a call with us a couple of weeks before the wedding and then officiate the wedding. This is FAR from what we received. Over the span of a year, we met with her over five times (once in person which was awesome!), and each time we had an in-depth couples' counseling session about what marriage meant to us and how we plan to live our lives together. Her questions were always thought provoking, and she was incredibly present in making sure my wife and I were in the best headspace to walk together in marriage. She specializes in interfaith weddings and each of us felt our heritages/cultures/religions were completely respected, encouraged, and amplified. In addition, we are a same sex couple and have never felt more supported by a spiritual leader. We technically got legally married a couple months before our actual wedding celebration, and she graciously offered to officiate that as well (and she went above and beyond)! By the time we got to the "real" wedding ceremony, we truly felt like Rabbi Elyssa knew us well. The ceremony was incredibly beautiful, and we received an endless amount of compliments. She tailored the ceremony to our personalities, our relationship, and our vibe. She added a multitude of thoughtful touches that made the audience feel truly connected to us and for that we will be forever grateful. I highly recommend Rabbi Elyssa to anyone who is interested in having not only an amazing wedding, but an everlasting relationship with their Rabbi. She is now our Rabbi for life, and we cannot wait for the next life milestone to include her in!!

Rabbi Elyssa did a beautiful job serving as our officiant. She made sure to get to know us throughout the time leading up to our wedding, which made our ceremony feel even more personal and special. She completely "got it" - each little detail showed how much she cared (including using white wine for the kiddush in case of spillage on my white dress!!). We absolutely loved how she explained each part of the Jewish ceremony and allowed us to make choices about which parts we wanted to incorporate. This gave us a great understanding of the ceremony itself and made each part even more meaningful. We had so many guests tell us that the ceremony was the most special part of the evening! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Rabbi Elyssa is the best. It was very important to us to have our friends and family involved in the ceremony and she made that more than possible. The ceremony was beautiful and incredibly meaningful to us and our guests. It doesn’t hurt that she is a terrific singer! My wife is not Jewish (and I am not the most observant person…) so she was very diligent in making sure we understood what we would be doing and why. Most importantly, she was incredibly respectful of what we did not want to do. The counseling sessions ahead of the wedding were fantastic and helped ground us in the commitment we were making. On the subject of grounding, perhaps the most important moment of our whole wedding was when Rabbi Elyssa pulled my wife and I aside ahead of the Ketubah signing to help ground us and wash away the stress of wedding day. I can’t recommend Rabbi Elyssa enough!

Rabbi Elyssa made wedding day truly perfect. She tailored the ceremony and ketubah signing to exactly what we were hoping for, which was a primarily secular ceremony with Jewish traditions woven throughout. We were initially hesitant about working with someone who we had never met before, but over the course of our 3 meetings with Rabbi Elyssa, she took so much time and care to get to know us individually and as a couple. The ceremony that she was able to build was completely "us" and really took into account the qualities that we most cared about, like including our family and community. I also really appreciated that Rabbi Elyssa didn't want us to be *too* involved in the ceremony planning, so we could really be in the moment and experience it for the first time on our wedding day. One of my favorite moments of the day was when she had us turn towards our guests during the ceremony and soak in those who have supported us individually and as a couple. We couldn't have asked for a better experience, thank you!

Rabbi Elyssa was incredible! As couple looking to do an interfaith ceremony with a priest and a rabbi, we originally had some difficulty finding a Rabbi. In comes Rabbi Elyssa, she was is knowledgeable, friendly, and had a lot of experience in this area. We met with her several times for planning and marriage counseling, during which Rabbi Elyssa asked us really thoughtful questions and we had many meaningful conversations about what it means to be an interfaith couple and Judaism. Rabbi Elyssa worked closely with the priest to lead an absolute beautiful and personal ceremony that embodied both of our cultures and traditions. Neither of us had heard the full ceremony beforehand and we were absolutely moved. Our guests our continuing to tell us how special and beautiful our ceremony was. We also really enjoyed the special moments praying with Rabbi before the ceremony and the intimate Ketubah signing. We cannot thank her enough and would recommend her to anyone!

Rabbi Elyssa was the perfect officiant!! She was always available during the planning process and made our ceremony unique and special. Even though planning a wedding is stressful, Rabbi Elyssa made the process relaxing yet relevant. I am not Jewish, my husband is, so we wanted to incorporate his traditions into our ceremony. Rabbi Elyssa found the perfect balance and explained the symbolism and significance for the portions of a Jewish wedding ceremony. I highly recommend Rabbi Elyssa, she was perfect!

Rabbi Elyssa was an incredible presence throughout our wedding planning process and on our wedding day! We loved being able to dig into our relationship and discover more about our values and desires as we closed in on our marriage. Our wedding day was immaculate--our favorite part was signing the Ketubah in an intimate setting with our closest friends and found family. Rabbi Elyssa's personalized ceremony was also a highlight for us and the rest of our wedding guests. Thank you so much for your guidance and encouragement Rabbi Elyssa!

We were matched with Rabbi Elyssa through Unorthodox Celebrations, and from the first time we spoke with her, we knew it would be a great partnership. We were immediately impressed with how easy it was to connect with Rabbi Elyssa. She asked us such thoughtful questions about us, our relationship up until this point, and our goals for our relationship moving forward. She incorporated Judaism into the conversations in a way that was meaningful to us as individuals, and offered advice and expertise on both the wedding planning process, but also for our future. Lots of people you work with for a wedding focus on ensuring the day is special; one thing I really appreciated about Rabbi Elyssa is that she brought everything we talked about back to our relationship and our marriage. This framing kept us grounded and excited throughout the whole wedding process as we got to imagine all the exciting things in our life ahead of us. Our conversations were focused mostly on why we wanted to be together, rather than why we were having a wedding, which we really appreciated. She used everything we talked about to completely personalize our ceremony, and made the entire experience so meaningful for us and our families. My favorite part of the day was the ketubah signing ceremony. Rabbi Elyssa began by doing a short grounding meditation with us, and organized our friends and family to welcome us into our marriage- it was beautiful. We cannot say enough about how wonderful it was working with Rabbi Elyssa, and highly recommend anyone to reach out to her to work together!

Rabbi Elyssa officiated our wedding. Well…. actually, she officiated both of our weddings due to COVID. Because my husband is Jewish and I am not we wanted to find a Rabbi that performed interfaith marriages, through a series of recommendations we found Rabbi Elyssa and we couldn’t be more grateful. Prior to our wedding we met with Rabbi Elyssa 3x for premarital wedding sessions to talk about our relationship, why we chose marriage, and why now. She really engaged with us deeply, she let us know that she wasn’t just going to be our officiant, but she would be there for us always as our Rabbi; that made us feel incredibly safe, happy, and happy to have her. When the pandemic hit, she made sure to stay in contact and check in on us through the many stressful setbacks, cancellations, and numerous postponements. She was so gracious, every time we needed to change our wedding date, she was able to accommodate. When we decided to have a civil ceremony during the pandemic in 2020, she was there to guide us and made herself available to officiate in a park at a safe distance. She made our civil ceremony special by taking notes from conversations we had and created a wonderful script for the event. For our full wedding and ceremony in August of 2021, Rabbi Elyssa outdid herself! She took elements of each of us, special things that we requested to blend our faith and culture backgrounds. We included a Yoruba tradition of Tasting the Four Elements, sour, spicy, bitter, and sweet and she incorporated it seamlessly into the Jewish ceremony, as well as incorporating breaking the glass and jumping the broom. She personalized our ceremony so much that there was not a dry eye in the room, including us. We will never forget how special she made us feel and how connected we feel to Rabbi Elyssa as a part of our family. Thank you Rabbi Elyssa! Tychelle & Ben

Rabbi Elyssa Cherney was amazing to work with for our wedding. We found her through our original rabbi who was accidentally double booked and we feel so lucky to have found her! Rabbi Elyssa was easy to talk to, relatable, funny, and organized. She asked many thoughtful questions beyond just the wedding logistics and ceremony details to help us think about our lives as a Jewish couple building a family. Rabbi Elyssa made us both feel at ease and let us be our genuine selves which was especially important to me so that my non-Jewish partner would be comfortable with having a Jewish wedding. The ceremony ended up being so personal to her experiences getting to know us as individuals and as a couple. We got married four weeks ago and people (both Jewish and not Jewish) are still telling us how beautiful the ceremony was and how impressed they were with Rabbi Elyssa. We had a microwedding with no bridal party so she even fixed my train under the chuppah, helped cue the violinist with music during and after the ceremony, and taught our non-Jewish guests how to do the hora. Rabbi Elyssa truly went above and beyond and I can not recommend her enough for a wedding or any other life event that you need a rabbi for.

I feel SO LUCKY to have worked with Rabbi Elyssa. Because of Covid, my fiance and I had many last-minute changes to our wedding- including a new venue, date, and downsize only 4 weeks before our wedding date! Rabbi Elyssa was flexible, helped keep us calm, and delivered the perfect ceremony. She did a mix of Jewish and non-jewish traditions (at the request of myself and my fiance) and delivered a unique ceremony that perfectly represented us. Several of our guests commented how much they loved how personal and tailored to our needs the ceremony was. We are so grateful to have had Rabbi Elyssa on our team!

Rabbi Elyssa was an excellent rabbi to work with. She took a deep interest in getting to know us and was willing to help find translations of the ceremony into foreign languages. We are very glad to have found her.

Elyssa is a wonderful person and Rabbi. She provided much calm and spirituality to our interfaith wedding! The Ketubah signing was a true highlight of wedding day where she created a warm and intimate space for me, my husband and our families to connect. Not only did we appreciate the effort she put in to tailoring her blessings and kind words to us, but guests brought up what a great job she did as well. I recommend Elyssa without reservation for any wedding as she is excellent.

Rabbi Elyssa was incredible. Before getting married, we certainly didn't appreciate how big of an impact the officiant can have on the wedding ceremony.  After getting married, we can safely say that you won't find a vendor who has a bigger impact on your ceremony than your officiant. And you won't find a better officiant than Rabbi Elyssa. She made the ceremony absolutely beautiful, and all of our guests commented that it was one of the best ceremonies they had ever experienced. Rabbi Elyssa did an amazing job making the ceremony personal and meaningful while still keeping it lighthearted and funny. We also truly valued the meetings that we had with Rabbi Elyssa leading up to the wedding. These conversations really pushed us to focus on the importance of marriage in general and the meaning of marriage in the context of our relationship. We couldn't have asked for a better experience, and we hope to continue working with Rabbi Elyssa through future milestones!

It was an absolute pleasure working with Rabbi Elyssa from the very beginning. I found her on The Knot and we began emailing. She was extremely responsive right away. We met with two Rabbis and after meeting with Elyssa, we immediately decided to move forward with her. She not only was warm and welcoming but she was extremely accommodating in terms of meeting locations and times as we do not live close to our venue where she is located. As we got deeper into the process, I could see she had an organized strategy that both educated us on the process of having a traditional Jewish wedding and gave us the freedom to explore each tradition and choose for ourselves what we wanted to include in the ceremony. She was very helpful with all aspects including choosing text options to Ketubah art/text to asking questions that guided our own writing of the vows and giving her info to personalize our ceremony. She was spot on during the ceremony and made us both laugh and cry happy tears! However, most importantly, Rabbi Elyssa was the beam of light on the day of our wedding. It is a long and sometimes stressful day with a lot of attention, high demands and is really easy to get caught up in the chaos. My husband and I were having a particularly chaotic moment with family photos and came into the ketubah signing just a wee bit overwhelmed. She took us into a private section of the venue, didn't let anyone talk to us for 5 minutes and literally had us holding hands and meditating, it was honestly an amazing experience. We were both immediately calmed, more in touch with the joy that was this day and felt connected to each other despite the chaos ensuing around us. We tell everyone that she saved the day and grounded us in a way we both desperately needed at that moment. After that moment, I felt confident and ready for the ceremony and reception. We will both be forever grateful to Rabbi Elyssa for ensuring our day was special and meaningful and grounding us to remember the whole reason we were there in the first place!

We can’t thank Rabbi Elyssa enough for the beautiful, meaningful, and personal ceremony at our wedding. She worked closely with us throughout the months leading up to it and really got to know us individually and as a couple. We are so happy that she was a part of our special day that we will remember forever!

Rabbi Cherney was amazing to work with. My husband and I were from out of town and she was easy to schedule video chats with her. She answered all of our questions about the ceremony and modified it since Chris is not Jewish so we wanted a light Jewish ceremony. She really took the time to get to know us and that allowed her to make the ceremony extremely personal. I highly recommend her.

Rabbi Elyssa was an amazing guide from the very first communication. She is wonderfully patient and accepting of all aspects of our backgrounds. She gave guidance when we needed it and helped us think through the many different steps of preparing for our journey forward as a family. Rabbi Elyssa was both professional and caring during our meetings together and was very flexible towards accommodating our schedules. When our wedding day started she made sure that we took time aside to connect with each other as a couple and remember the purpose and love of the day. Also, her words and singing during our ketubah signing were remarkable and really made the moment feel special and inclusive for our families and witnesses. And she made our ceremony truly meaningful with personalized comments and connections to both of our heritages (Jewish and Chinese). We are deeply thankful and appreciative that she was our Rabbi. Our guests all commented on how beautiful the ceremony was and how elegantly Rabbi Elyssa spoke. We cannot thank her enough for joining us on our wedding day and helping us take the next step in our journey!

Rabbi Elyssa expanded and enhanced our wedding day with her suggestions to help us create what we wanted for our special day. She guided us and provided us with thought provoking questions to know us better and help us define, create and implement our vision. I emphasize OUR vision as many times in conversation she reminded us that this was our day and asked....what did we want? Her warmth, insight, connection and passion were palpable. Rabbi Elyssa truly has a gift!

Elyssa was very personal and thorough in her research about our "Big Day" and made sure that she had a complete understanding of who we were and what we both expected out of this upcoming wedding day. My wife and I had been married previously and had raised now grown up children . Starting and developing a new family and circle of love many years later can be a tricky thing, but Elyssa navigated that relationship beautifully and was a tremendous guide and support system at the same time. She truly has a gift and loves her work .

Rabbi Cherney was an absolute pleasure to work with. She took the time to get to know us & our family & performed a beautiful ceremony. She made it personal & we, along with our guests, were quite impressed with her demeanor. We highly recommend her to anyone needing an officiant who cares & makes the process so easy.

Excellent job officiating our wedding.

My husband and I were SO happy we found Rabbi Elyssa. Even before responding to my first inquiry, she already knew our story. She took the time to learn who we are as individuals and a couple from our wedding site and throughout the planning process. Rabbi Elyssa made us very comfortable during our meetings with her while answering your not-so-everyday questions. On our wedding day, she took us aside for before the ceremony for us to take in the moment and a blessing. We loved how she incorporated our immediate families and bridal party for the ketubah signing. As far as the ceremony, Rabbi Elyssa could not have lead a better ceremony. Multiple people came up to us afterwards to say that it was the best ceremony they’ve been to and that the whole ceremony was beautiful; everyone was moved by her words. We cannot wait to continue using Rabbi Elyssa as our rabbi and cannot recommend her highly enough.

We are so grateful that Rabbi Elyssa was able to give us the wedding ceremony of our dreams! I am so thankful that she worked with us over several video chat sessions to design a ceremony that felt personal and spoke to our interests in bringing in Jewish traditions, while also keeping the focus on us and our relationship. Rabbi Elyssa emphasized that while the ceremony and wedding day are very important, she was also interested in setting us up for success for our married life together, post-wedding day. We also appreciate that she will be here for us as we navigate married life and other lifecycle events. We highly recommend her to officiate your wedding! Thank you Elyssa!!

Elyssa was a wonderful wedding officiant! Me and my husband could not have asked for more. From our first meeting with her through the day of our wedding Elyssa was attentive, informative, and helpful. Most importantly, she personalized our wedding ceremony in a way that made it incredibly meaningful to both us and our families! So many people came up to us after the wedding to tell us what a meaningful ceremony we had, and I credit Elyssa for that. She really took the time to understand what was important to us. Elyssa was also great about working with all of our vendors (including going back and forth with my ketubah artist to make sure the language was correct). I'd highly recommend her as a wedding officiant, or for any other lifecycle event!