Hello,
I didn’t quite understand—
What about Kaddish, Kedushah, Barekhu, reading from a Torah scroll, the priestly blessing, the repetition of the cantor’s Amidah, and other elements that exist in prayer with a minyan?
And what about the whole concept of a “minyan” (ten people)?
Do we not need all of these, and is praying alone really enough?

All of those are at most obligations for people praying with a minyan. Someone who prays alone is not obligated in them.

I have to understand something.
Is it a Torah obligation to pray with a minyan?
If I want to pray alone, will the prayer not be accepted?
Is it forbidden to pray alone?
Thanks.

Is it a Torah obligation to “understand something”?
If I want not to understand, will my obligation not be fulfilled?
Is it forbidden not to understand something?
Thanks.

Dani, you seem really worked up. I answered that exact question.

Where did you answer? I didn’t see an answer to the question.
Sorry if I’m missing something.

I’m not referring to the parts of the prayer.
I’m just asking in general: when I pray alone, is the prayer accepted?
Or is it forbidden by Torah law to pray alone?
Thanks, and sorry if I missed something. I probably just didn’t understand the answer.

Rabbi, I wanted to ask: if I’m standing at home and open the window toward a place from which I can hear a minyan praying outside in one place, but they can’t see me and I can’t see them—then as far as I know I can fulfill my obligation to answer Amen and Kedushah, because even an iron partition does not separate Israel from their Father in Heaven.
But it isn’t clear that I would be considered as praying with the congregation.
If so, according to your view, is there any point in doing this at all?
Because if I understand you correctly, all the obligations involving the Amens are because of communal prayer, but here I’m only bringing myself into an obligation when the essence of the advantage doesn’t exist at all?

It should read: because **if** I understand you correctly …

Hello Dani.
That was the question at the beginning of the thread, and I answered it in the first response. I wrote there that in my opinion there is no halakhic obligation to pray with a minyan.
The question of whether the prayer is accepted or not is in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He. I don’t think anyone knows how to answer questions like that. I assume that if you act according to Jewish law and pray, then the Holy One, blessed be He, is supposed to accept your prayer.
The question whether this is from the Torah or not is irrelevant. The entire law of prayer, according to most views, is rabbinic.

Y,
For a summary of the laws, see here: https://ph.yhb.org.il/02-02-09/
The statement about an iron partition is regarding answering Amen, not regarding being counted together.
In general, if there is no line of sight and you are not in a place that is defined as one with the place of the minyan, you do not join.
If the minyan is in a building’s parking area, and you are in one of the apartments, there may be room to say that you join even without line of sight (when there are ten without you), because the building, courtyard, and parking area are one domain.

First of all, thanks for the reply.
I thought that prayer itself is, to begin with, Torah-law.
That’s why I asked whether you can pray at home and whether the prayer would “count.”
Because according to a Google search, every rabbi answers that one is “obligated” to pray with a minyan.
I didn’t know that prayer itself is rabbinic to begin with.

So if I understand correctly, this whole matter of prayer is not from the Torah and there is no obligation at all to pray?
Thanks.

My impression is that you aren’t familiar with the halakhic categories. There are Torah obligations and there are rabbinic obligations, and both are halakhically binding. Maimonides holds that the obligation of prayer is from the Torah, and Nachmanides holds that it is rabbinic, but there is no dispute that one is obligated to pray.

Thank you very much, but in my case the situation is a bit more complicated, so I’m interested in what you think about joining the minyan in this case:
I’m in the building opposite the garden of the building where they are praying. And between the two buildings there is a public pedestrian path, so there is absolutely no connection between them.
Now, I can’t see the ten people in the garden, and they can’t see me, but I can see the people praying in the apartments of the building that is attached to the garden, because I’m standing at my window at home directly opposite them. And they seemingly do join the minyan more readily. So if they can be viewed as joining the minyan, can I also join because I have line of sight with them?

It seems to me that yes. If they are counted together, then you have line of sight with part of the minyan, and that is enough.

With respect, the statements above are not supported by the halakhic decisors—not Maimonides, not the Shulchan Arukh, nor the medieval and later authorities.
Even if prayer is rabbinic, I have not seen any rabbi who said that it is permissible to pray alone as an ideal starting point, unless this is a special situation or a pressing circumstance.

What are the sources on which the Rabbi is relying?

This has not the slightest connection to the question whether prayer is rabbinic or Torah-level. We were discussing prayer with a minyan here, and that is a completely different question. If you haven’t seen any rabbi who said it is permissible to pray alone, then apparently you haven’t looked in the Talmud and the halakhic decisors. What they usually write is that it is fitting to pray with a minyan, not that one is obligated to do so. An ordinary halakhic obligation is not set aside in pressing circumstances or special situations.
See briefly here: https://www.etzion.org.il/he/halakha/orach-chaim/prayer-and-blessings/%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F
And of course there is much more.

I wrote “to pray alone as an ideal starting point,” meaning that this is a normal and accepted state, but even though there are certain situations in which one may be lenient and pray alone, this is not a desirable state in the view of the Talmud and the halakhic decisors.

Does the Rabbi have halakhic decisors who say that one may pray alone ab initio? That was really my question.

Ariel, I answered that very clearly. I’m done.

Why does the Rabbi not want to answer my question?
We both agree that praying alone is not the ideal situation, but if the Rabbi meant that there is no halakhic obligation in the sense of saying “better not,” then I’m satisfied; and if the Rabbi meant that it is permitted ab initio, that is what I asked for sources on and did not receive.

Ariel, the Rabbi answered you with a link.
By the way, in my humble opinion:
1. One could say regarding Rabbi Moshe Feinstein that there is a distinction between “heard” and “accepted,” so that even according to his view there would not be an obligation to pray with a minyan, but I can’t go into that here.
2. I’m not completely certain, but the language of Maimonides, “one needs to,” is also not clearly obligatory; rather it may mean fitting and highly worthwhile. For example:
Law 16:
“What is proper intention? One should clear his heart from all thoughts and see himself as if he is standing before the Divine Presence. Therefore, one needs to sit a little before the prayer in order to focus his heart, and afterward pray gently and supplicatingly, and should not make his prayer like one carrying a burden, throwing it off, and going on his way. Therefore, one needs to sit a little after the prayer and then take his leave. The early pietists would wait one hour before prayer and one hour after prayer, and would prolong the prayer for an hour.”
I am not aware—and anyone is welcome to enlighten me—that the Jewish people have treated this as an obligation in practice. And I have seen that Maimonides uses the term “obligated” when necessary, implying that “needs to” is not the same as “obligated”…
3. In any case, in one place the Shulchan Arukh says “he should make an effort” versus “one needs to” in returning to prayer with a minyan, while he too knows how to use the term “obligated” when necessary (for example: “…with the evening prayer that they pray at night, his fellow is obligated to wait for him…”). It turns out that the term “needs to” rather than “obligated” resolves the contradiction in the Shulchan Arukh = he should make an effort; it is very important, to the point that a person should feel that he needs to do it, but it is not an obligation.

Hello Rabbi Michi, regarding the main discussion here—whether prayer with a minyan is an obligation—what would you answer to the Talmudic statement that for kneading and for prayer one goes four mil, and it is explained from this that one must exert himself greatly in order to pray with a minyan?

I would say that this is an assessment of what is expected of me, not of what I am obligated to do.

I would say that this is what is expected of a person, not what he is obligated to do.