Not returning to churches

שו”ת › Category: general › Not returning to churches

asked 3 years ago

Hello Rabbi Michi,
Not returning to synagogues, maybe this is actually a welcome phenomenon?
https://www.ynet.co.il/judaism/article/sytaaw00zs

Greetings, one who did not return

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מיכי Staff answered 3 years ago

I am not dealing with the question of whether any phenomenon is welcome or not. A fact is a fact. The more important question is whether there is something to be done and whether it is worth doing. I really like the courtyard minyans, and I’m very sad that they were discontinued. Like other welcome phenomena that passed with the Corona (like teaching via Zoom). There is a practical implication here: bring it back. I’m completely in favor. Regarding weakening people’s connection to faith and community, I don’t see the relevance of this question. Is there a proposal on the agenda? To cancel Corona from now on retroactively? It’s like asking what I think about the fact that we only have two ears and not five.

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י.ד. replied 3 years ago

Built synagogues (like the appointment of a rabbi for a community) express respect for the Torah. And there is nothing more disgusting than a minyan in a parking lot. A minyan in a courtyard is pleasant in reasonable weather, and terrible and terrifying in hot or freezing weather. A synagogue (like the Temple) is not only a place for prayer on our part but also for encountering the testimony, in our case the Torah scroll (in the Tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant). The term "small sanctuary" is accurate because it captures the central functions that exist in a synagogue and that were in the Tabernacle/Temple - prayer and worship on our part and testimony and Torah on its part. And just as in the Tabernacle there was an interest in making it permanent, so in a synagogue there is an interest in respecting it and making it permanent.