Q&A: Do Not Form Separate Factions Nowadays
Do Not Form Separate Factions Nowadays
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In one of your recent lectures you mentioned the prohibition of “do not form separate factions,” and you said that it is a prohibition against establishing two religious courts and two synagogues in “one city,” and that in practice nowadays this refers to one community. First, I saw in Maimonides that he speaks only about religious courts and not about synagogues. Where did you derive that the prohibition applies to synagogues as well? Second, I noticed that even nowadays people are not careful to avoid establishing two religious courts or two synagogues even within one community. Suppose we take the Sephardic community: I assume they have more than one religious court, and certainly more than one synagogue. So perhaps the definition of the prohibition is different altogether nowadays?
Best regards,
Answer
Indeed, that is also how it appears in the Talmud. But some halakhic decisors expanded the matter to synagogues, and some wrote that regarding synagogues the prohibition is even more severe, because it is more likely to lead to dispute than two religious courts. Others permit it. See a survey, for example, here: https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%91%D7%9C_%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%AA%D7%95_%D7%99%D7%91_%D7%90
Discussion on Answer
One can rely on disputes among the halakhic decisors. First, the very ruling like Abaye in Maimonides is unusual. In addition, many qualifications have been raised because of the rationale for the law (this is a midrashic derivation, and therefore one does interpret the reason for the verse). If the reason is because of dispute, then nowadays there is no such concern. Especially if this is done because of lack of space or because of overcrowding.
What is surprising is that many do this and there is almost no discussion or hesitation about it. A kind of Jewish law that we all trample underfoot, even though on the face of it it is Torah-level.
It seems simply that once the leash was loosened, the destroyer no longer distinguishes between forbidden and permitted. Once the territory is no longer geographic, people simply are not careful about it at all. That teaches you something about the mechanism that requires fences and decrees.
I did not understand what you meant by saying that the definition of the prohibition is different nowadays.
What about the second question?