Stop The Music

Daf Hashavua

Sotah 48a

משבטלה סנהדרין בטל השיר

Why don't we have music by weddings in Yerushalayim ?

In Yerushalayim the Minhag by Ashkenazim is not to have musical instruments play at weddings.The reason for it is not so clear.

Some say it started when in 1865 there was a plague in Yerushalayim. Rav Meir Auerbach zt”l made  a sheilas Chalom by writing on a parchment  the question of why the plague came..It was then placed on his forehead. He dreamt the Pasuk in

in Shir Hashirim “     --הנה זה עומד אחר כתלנו

He realized the reason must be because the Shchina behind the Kosel is mourning the Churban They then made  the Takanah  Zecher L’Churban not to have music in Yerushalayim even at weddings.

Some (Rav S.Y Elyashuv zt”l amongst them) question the validity of this story. Newspapers, journals and Seforim of the time, don't mention  this story. The

story only started to appear over 100 years later.