Hospitals, airports and universities often include interfaith chapels which are intended to accommodate individuals of all faiths for individual or group prayer. This religious accommodation raises an important question: May a Jew pray in a room that also houses non-Jewish worship, potentially even avodah zarah (foreign worship, i.e. idolatry or polytheism)?
I.Mushroom Shuls
To answer this, I turn to an episode that occurred in St. Louis in 1951. The quickly growing Young Israel had rented a social hall in a local hotel in which to hold their High Holiday services. The long-standing Beth Medrash HaGadol objected to this larger venue, which would draw many paying members from the larger and more established synagogue, and brought the issue to the attention of Rav Menachem Eichenstein, the Orthodox chief rabbi of St. Louis. Rav Eichenstein wrote a responsum forbidding the Young Israel from holding prayers in the rented hall. He sent this responsum to leading authorities who replied with their own responsa, generally agreeing with his conclusion. Among the illustrious respondents were Rav Yonasan Steif, Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin and Rav Moshe Feinstein. The exchange of letters takes up the first section of the March 1952 issue of the rabbinic journal HaPardes, and was republished in the 1955 jubilee volume for Rav Eichenstein, titled “Berachah Li-Menachem.” Some of the respondents connected this to the problem of “mushroom shuls,” in which groups would rent theaters and ball rooms for high holiday prayers.
An important consideration is the issue of praying in a place where frivolities and even sins take place. Taz (Orach Chaim 154:1) rules that you may not rent a room for prayer if the room above it is unclean. Doing so shows disrespect to the prayer. Rav Eichenstein explains that “unclean” refers to spiritual, as well as physical, uncleanliness. Rav Eichenstein quotes Rav Moshe Schick (Responsa, Orach Chaim, no. 7), who rules that you may not turn an animal pen into a synagogue because it shows disrespect to the mitzvah of prayer. Disrespect of a mitzvah is biblically forbidden, as we see in Shabbos (22a) regarding the biblical commandment to cover the blood of a slaughtered animal. We are not allowed to push dirt over the blood with our feet because that would be disrespectful to the mitzvah.
Rav Moshe Feinstein (in his responsum, later published as Iggeros Moshe, Orach Chaim, vol. 1, no. 31) quotes the Ba’eir Heitev (151:1) in the name of Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi (16th c., Turkey) as saying that a synagogue does not lose its holiness if someone sins in it (Responsa, no. 81). In that case, a communal functionary had consorted with a young man in the synagogue. Despite the desecration, the synagogue’s holiness remains intact and may continue being used for prayer. Rav Feinstein offers suggestions why that is true but points out that the question assumes that generally we should not pray in a place where sins take place. Rav Yonasan Steif adds that the first verse in Tehillim says: “Blessed is the man… nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” Even when the sinful activity has ended, we may not sit in their seats and certainly not pray there. Since foreign worship is sinful behavior, these authorities would not allow prayer in a room that houses non-Jewish prayer services.
In the responsum mentioned above, Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi rules that a house used for idolatry can also be used for Jewish prayer (quoted in Magen Avraham 154:17). However, Rav Yechezkel Landau (18th c., Czech.) and Rav Moshe Sofer (19th c., Hungary) disagree and forbid prayer in a house used for idolatry (Dagul Me-Revavah and Chasam Sofer, glosses to Magen Avraham, op cit.). That refers to idolatrous prayer in the past forbidding a place today. Our question refers to an even worse situation—ongoing foreign prayer. Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin (in the book mentioned above, republished in Gevuros Eliyahu 1:24) writes that there is only a possibility to rehabilitate the place if the past improper behaviors have completely ceased and the place no longer is referred to as a house for foreign prayer. But if it is still sometimes used for foreign prayer, it is disrespectful to invoke the divine name in such a place.
II. Interfaith Chapels
In 1950, Cornell University asked Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik about the propriety of human images in the stained glass windows installed in a new interfaith chapel. Rav Soloveitchik replied in the negative and ended with his general opposition to prayer in an interfaith chapel. He writes, “I strongly object to the use of an interfaith chapel. The Halachah is unequivocally opposed to it and this prohibition is even more strict than that concerning human images… The idea of a common house of prayer is absolutely irreconcilable with the Judaic philosophy of worship” (Community, Covenant and Commitment: Selected Letters and Communications, p. 8).
More recently, R. Dr. Jason Weiner, the senior rabbi and director of the Spiritual Care Department at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, published an article about Cedars-Sinai’s unique interfaith chapel (“Is One Permitted to Daven in the Chapel at Cedars-Sinai?” in Nitzachon: Adas Torah Journal of Torah Ideas, 5:2 Spring 5778). At Cedars-Sinai, a room is designed and designated primarily as a synagogue but is also used for Christian, Muslim and other groups. The question is whether a synagogue becomes disqualified when it is also used for foreign worship.
R. Weiner received a responsum signed by Rav Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, Rav Nachum Rabinovitch and Rav Yosef Carmel permitting prayer in such a room because it is built as a synagogue (later published as Be-Mareh Ha-Bazak 8:15). Presumably, they follow Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi and the Magen Avraham that a synagogue is not invalidated by foreign prayer. R. Weiner showed this responsum to Rav Asher Weiss, who gave his verbal agreement. However, Rav Dovid Feinstein and Rav Hershel Schachter both disagreed and ruled that you may not pray in such a room because it is an interfaith chapel.
It is important to note that the disagreement is only about a room that is primarily a synagogue. The authorities seem to agree that a room designated for all religions is problematic. R. Weiner also quotes Rav Shammai Kehas Gross who forbids praying in an airport interfaith chapel (Shevet Ha-Kehasi 6:83).
Rabbi Gil Student is the editor of TorahMusings.com. His latest book, Articles of Faith: Traditional Jewish Belief in the Internet Era, is available online and in bookstores near you.
