Wedding Blessings (Sheva Brachot)

Question

There appears to be an uproar in "right leaning" circles caused by a bride and groom reciting the last 2 of the 7 blessings traditionally recited under a chuppah together. I have two questions about this:

1 – Assuming for the moment the issue is not one of gender, in my experience these blessing are recited by others and not the bride/groom. Is there a reason why this is so? Could these last 2 blessing, or in fact all 7 be recited solely by the bride/groom?

2 – Assuming the issue is one of gender would the issue be “kol isha”, “Kevod ha’tzibur” or something else that would prohibit a woman from reciting these blessings in public?

See this link ( http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/427105/controversy-in-israel-rabbi-piron-allows-chosson-and-kallah-to-recite-the-6th-and-7th-brochos-together-under-the-chupah.html ). The article does not provide an explanation of the violation of halacha other than it not being the accepted norm.

Answer 1

There are a number of things wrong with this.

First, the traditional practice is to have the same person recite all the blessings. Even if there was some sort of pressing circumstance here, it's hard to see why the couple themselves would need to do this to avoid family fighting or whatever.

Second, R Avraham ben HaRambam writes that a groom should not recite his own Sheva Berakhot, and reports that his father, the Rambam, got angry ("כעס") at a groom who recited them for himself. Indeed while many classical works don't explicitly forbid the practice, they all make it sound like someone else is saying the blessings. Even the Talmud's examples (Ketubbot 8a) are of someone else saying them. The Arukh haShulchan (EH 62:9) rules this way, as does Minchat Yitzchak (3:114) and others. Moreover, the Rama (EH 34:1) rules that even Birkat Eirusin is said by someone else (as explained by the Perisha) so as not to embarrass someone who doesn't know how to say the blessing. It seems obvious that he would feel that way here, had he ever thought someone might do something like this. (Some are lenient and allow the groom to recite the Sheva Berakhot for himself if no one is around who knows how.)

Finally, it's obviously incorrect to have two people saying the blessing at once. One of them is by definition saying an unnecessary blessing, and, in accordance with the rule that multiple voices can't be heard (תרי קלי), the blessings aren't being heard by a Minyan, rendering them both Levatalla.

This is all in addition to the fact that a woman might not be able to say the Sheva Berakhot (link link).