Q&A: Shacharit with a Minyan
Shacharit with a Minyan
Question
Hello Rabbi, for some time now I’ve been trying not to get up for the dormitory minyan. This effort stems mainly from boredom, lack of confidence in the need and importance of it, and maybe laziness also plays a significant part.
I usually get up at the time that suits me and pray only the abbreviated text according to Rav Saadia Gaon’s prayer book — ten minutes at most and I’m done.
My question is: from a halakhic standpoint, how problematic is this? And also, is there a moral problem with my being a yeshiva student who doesn’t get up for prayers? That is, does part of the fact that I postponed my army service include an obligation to fulfill all my religious duties? Even though I’m careful about the study sessions and hardly miss a minute, and even add to them.
Answer
It doesn’t seem to me very problematic, so long as you say the required parts. The halakhic status of prayer with a minyan is highly doubtful, and I tend to think it is not an obligation but rather a worthwhile practice.
There is no moral obligation to fulfill all your religious duties, all the more so since it is not clear to what extent you agree that these are indeed obligations. You postponed the draft mainly in order to study and grow in Torah, not in order to pray.
Discussion on Answer
And also, what exactly is meant by “I tend to think it is not an obligation but rather a worthwhile practice”? What does “worthwhile practice” mean? What is its status? What force does it have? What is its source? What is it about?
I assume that if you search online for prayer with a minyan you’ll find discussions, summaries, and sources.
By “worthwhile practice,” I mean a good act that is not a halakhic obligation. Its sources can vary. Its force—there is no such thing (it isn’t an obligation). What it is about is that it’s a worthwhile practice.
[Butting in. Come to prayer like everyone else and open a book (like everyone else). Why make such a fuss? Just saying the words themselves doesn’t cost that much.]
Saying the words costs quite a bit; it can cost sleep time, time from the previous night’s learning, alertness during the morning study session, etc.
And that’s on an ordinary day. Before long we’ll have the miserable Selichot prayers upon us, and the prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, where I really have no idea what I’ll do. Not being there is unacceptable, being there and reading words from the prayer book is mind-numbingly boring, and being there and reading a book will bring angry reactions that I really don’t have the strength to deal with.
Well, not that I’m interfering in your affairs, but from my experience, prayer times can really enrich one’s broad Torah education. When else will you go through all the introductions in Otzar? When else do you leaf through responsa to see interesting discussions? When else do you study the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)? And so on. You get free time without guilty feelings. Whoever has the heart of a lion to study weighty topics during prayer, happy is he and happy is his lot, but the average Jew can absorb lighter material.
A story that actually happened: I gradually deteriorated in the kind of material I allowed myself to read during prayer. One day I was reading a book that really wasn’t so appropriate (Aharon Barak’s Judicial Discretion. I wasn’t impressed at all, by the way. The information density per square kilometer reminds me of Mongolia). Someone came over to me, lifted the prayer book, spotted the book underneath it, and said to me hostilely — though a quarter smiling — “Covering the blood!” I said to him, “If he covered it and it became uncovered, he is exempt,” and went back to my studies. Angry reactions with neither taste nor smell are small change.
With Kedushah, isn’t there a commandment of “And I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel”?
Even if there is, there is no obligation to do it. It is a non-obligatory fulfillment of a commandment.
Thank you, Rabbi.
I thought maybe to actually learn the topic regarding the halakhic status of prayer with a minyan. Could the Rabbi point me to the main and important sources on the subject?