(lit. "bringing in the bride," i.e., enabling the bride to enter into marriage). Fund devoted to provide needy brides with a dowry to buy the basic necessities of married life. In the Morning Prayer, it is said that hakhnasat kallah is among those precepts "whose fruit is eaten in this world, while the principal remains for the World to Come"---implying its particular importance. In the historical Jewish Community, special societies were organized to raise and dispense funds for hakhnasat kallah.
The Shulḥan Arukh states that no charitable cause is greater than that of enabling a poor young girl to marry. Where only limited funds are available, priority is given to a poor young woman over a poor young man, "for it is more embarrassing for a woman to be unmarried than it is for a man" (Sh. Ar., YD 251:8). Great stress is placed in rabbinic literature on ensuring that the aid offered for hakhnasat kallah be given secretly.
The commandment of hakhnasat kallah also includes making the bride rejoice at her wedding. So important is this that according to some halakhic works it is even permitted to use the Torah ornaments of the Scrolls of the Law to dress up the bride, although customarily these may not be used for any purpose other than their original one.
