You don't want your simcha to be a source of tzaar (pain) to others. You may have to live near a hall to really understand it, but a wedding hall brings crowds and noise and honking - through all hours of the night. On my block, where there is a catering hall, neighbors have missed sleep for weeks in a row. Some homes on the block get more of the noise than others do, but we all suffer greatly.

Even otherwise caring people get carried away by the hours of music and dancing. When going outside into the street after attending a simcha, they don't suddenly settle down. They shout in the street and honk their cars - even at 4:00 a.m.!

You don't want to turn your wedding into a source of tzaar, chas v'shalom. You don't want to chas v'shalom make the zivug "nisht messugal." We would like to be mochel, but this is too much.

Please have rachmanus (compassion)! You can make your weddings somewhere else. If you do, we all will wish you a mazal tov.

My neighbors and I are in the process of arranging a din Torah with the catering business on our block, since it is illegal and against the din for it to be there. (We have this in writing from a city official.) But regardless of politics, baalei simcha should be sensitive to the innocent neighbors.

The following is part of the letter that we sent to the Beis Din:

Rabbi [----], Beis Din Coordinator
Dear Rabbi [----]:
[----] Street between [----] and [----] Avenues in Brooklyn is a residential area - home to dozens of families.

Recently, however, some unexplained irregularities of procedure have resulted in a large-scale catering hall being built there. This business operates, on an almost nightly basis, throughout the late hours of the evening and into the early hours of the morning. Needless to say, this is a source of discomfort and even suffering to the residents of the block - due to the many disturbances that typically accompany such an establishment.

Among the grievances suffered by residents is the Disturbance of the Peace throughout the night until very late hours - often past 4:00 a.m. Boisterous crowds of people - wedding guests, family and staff - naturally and as would be expected, create quite a commotion in the street while they exit the premises, loiter, load their equipment and continue on their way. There is the disturbance caused by the honking cars and idling buses waiting to bring those people home. Vehicles are often illegally parked. Many of the weddings are held out in the street in front of the hall, the music and ceremony loudly carried through the streets via an outdoor public address system. Besides all of the noise, there is also the glare of the bright lamps shining from the hall's outdoor fixtures onto our street and into our homes.

These offenses to "quality of life" are not to be underestimated. Residents can go for weeks on end without a single decent night's rest. We must keep our windows shut even during the summer to keep out the noise, but the disturbance is so loud, it penetrates nonetheless.

One mother runs her air conditioner all night, even during the winter, to allow her children to sleep. To avoid the glare of the bright lamps and photo flash, we must lower our window shades when we are indoors and cover our eyes when we go outside.

Also, the waves of hundreds of guests, who arrive or depart by car, only exasperate the problem of traffic congestion the block already suffers. (Hatzalah vehicles have often been held up.) Convenient street-parking formerly available to residents has been usurped by the hall's staff, customers and deliveries. At times, vehicles are illegally parked: in front of or even inside residents' driveways, on sidewalks, in front of hydrants, doubly, or in the unexplainedly instituted "No Standing Zone," which is de facto for the exclusive use and convenience of catering hall associates.

In monetary terms, we estimate the cumulative loss of property value to homeowners at fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000), based on the difference in bids received prior and subsequent to the construction of the catering hall and the commencement of its business operations.

To our knowledge, there has been no permit granted for the construction of the catering hall or for any of the associated disturbing activities. If there is any certificate the hall management claims to posses, we would request and demand a review of how such certificate was granted to them and how it is possible that they are in compliance with the applicable regulations.

We would demand as taanoss mamon that [----] and/or its administrators pay for the costs of damage to property value, quality of life, productivity and pain resulting from their behavior.

Much of the problem might have been mitigated had they not violated the building codes that require by law that buildings - even school buildings that really are legal - have a driveway yard. This is even the minhag among many yeshivas. Satmar, Bobov, Chsan Sofer, Stolin, Kaminetz, Munkatch, Klausenberg, Torah Vodaas , Torah Temimah, etc. - they all have a yard/parking area on their OWN property. [----], however, did not build a driveway and even extended their building to steal from the reshus harabim public sidewalk - without city or neighborhood permission.

Therefore we would also demand as a tviah that they knock down some of their building AS THE DIN AND THE LAW REQUIRE. This would not be a catastrophe for them, as they have a one-story wing of the building that isn't used for much besides a lobby in which ladies can wait for a ride. Even if it would be a catastrophe (and it is not! I repeat, it is not!), Beis Din must consider the rights of the neighbors as the halacha determines. A gazlan does not receive mercy to avoid returning what he stole simply because he wants to get rich at the expense of the victim.

Thank you for your interest in this matter.