Dear Rabbi Simon
Is there a correlation or commentary on Jeremiah 7:34 and the wedding song that uses the same words?
Susan
Dear Susan,
Thank you for your question, which is very apropos to my son Yehuda’s wedding earlier this week.
There is indeed a correlation. The prophet Jeremiah seems to have coined (or more likely, immortalised) the phrase “kol sasson ve-kol simchah” and its association with wedding celebrations. The irony is that he first uses the catchphrase in the negative, ie the cessation of joy and jubilation from bridegroom and bride, as in the verse to which you refer (7:34) and again in 25:10. However, in 33:10-11 he foresees a time when “there will again be heard…in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem…the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the sound of groom and the sound of bride…” It is worth reading the two verses in full to better appreciate the soaring eloquence and the deliberate contrast with the dire prophecies which preceded it earlier in the book.
May we soon see the realisation of all the prophecies of consolation of Jeremiah.
Best wishes
Rabbi Rashi Simon