Q&A: There Is No Rejoicing Except in the Wedding Canopy
There Is No Rejoicing Except in the Wedding Canopy
Question
Rabbi Michi, hello,
The Talmud in tractate Sukkah says: "There is no rejoicing except in the wedding canopy." My question is: what does this statement mean?
What is the definition of "rejoicing," and what is the definition of "wedding canopy"?
In other words, is the wedding canopy the place where the marriage was performed—that is, where the seven blessings were recited?
Did they customarily do this in the home of the groom and bride, or in their parents' home?
Accordingly, is there significance nowadays to holding the seven blessings in the wedding hall where the couple gets married?
I would be glad if the Rabbi could help me make a little order out of this issue. Thank you very much.
Answer
The Rosh there wonders about exactly this:
It requires clarification what the wedding canopy is. If it means the place where the marriage blessing is recited, that is, the beginning of the marriage, and that is why it is called a canopy—this is impossible, for sometimes they recite it in the city street when the crowd is large. Rather, the place of the groom and bride's primary dwelling is called the canopy, and not a place made merely for a one-time occasion. And the custom in Ashkenaz is to make a bridal canopy for the seating of the groom and bride, and that is called the canopy.
Nowadays this is not the practice, apparently because it involves expense (renting the hall again and again).
By the way, Maimonides and the Shulchan Arukh brought this law regarding the sukkah, but I have not seen that they brought the law of making the rejoicing take place in the place of the wedding canopy.
Discussion on Answer
That's how I understand it.
Thank you. What does "the groom and bride's primary dwelling" mean—called the sukkah? Do you mean their home, the place where they live after the wedding?