May these words of Torah serve as a merit le’iluy nishmat Menachem Mendel ben Harav Yoel David Balk, a”h, and Meira Chaya Nechama Beracha, a”h, bat Reb David Mordechai, sheyichyeh.
This week we learned Chullin 122. These are some highlights.
May a Torah scholar skip minyan?
Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked by a Torah scholar about the propriety of skipping minyan for Shacharit and merely davening by himself at his home. This scholar lived in a city in which the local minyan for Shacharit would start very early in the morning. The scholar was devoted to Torah and wanted to stay up late learning Torah. Such late learning would make it impossible for him to wake up early; he therefore asked Rav Moshe if he could regularly pray at home, at a later time, and go to sleep late after using many night hours for Torah study. Rav Moshe derives from our Gemara that the scholar was not allowed to do so and he was obligated to make the effort to regularly attend minyan.
Our Gemara teaches that if a man is walking on the road and would like to rest and has no minyan available, he should keep walking, even for 4 mil (4 kilometers) in order to make it to prayer with a minyan. If there is no minyan on the road ahead, he is obligated to turn back and walk back 1 mil (1 kilometer) to get to a minyan. We see from this law that prayer with a minyan is an obligation. If prayer with a minyan would merely be a recommended improvement to prayer, there would be no obligation to engage in such extraordinary efforts in order to make it to minyan. A traveler needs to walk back a kilometer in order to make minyan; certainly then a person who is comfortable at home must make efforts to make it to minyan. Aruch Hashulchan (Orach Chaim 90:20) and Mishnah Berurah (90:52) both extend the traveler obligation to a person who is home. A man who is home and the nearest minyan is a mil walk away is obligated to walk the mil to make it to the minyan. From these sources it is clear that there is an obligation and a mitzvah to pray in a minyan. One might ask: if there is a mitzvah to pray with a minyan, why does the traveler not have to walk more than a mil back to make it to minyan? Why did the sages only obligate to walk a mil to get to minyan? Rav Moshe answers that positive commands differ from prohibitions. We are never to violate prohibitions. Under virtually all circumstances we are not allowed to perform acts that are forbidden. However, in regard to positive commands there are limits. One does not need to spend more than 20 percent of his wealth to fulfill a positive mitzvah. While it is a mitzvah from the sages to pray with a minyan instead of praying alone, since a man who does not go to minyan and prays by himself is still busy with the mitzvah of prayer, the sages were lenient with him and they established that if the walk back to the minyan would be more than a mil he is considered an anus and he does not need to fulfill this mitzvah. Rav Moshe feels that since his questioner was asking to regularly study late and therefore miss morning minyan, he was not to do so, for the sages certainly do not want an individual to miss minyan regularly. They even mandated a requirement of walking a mil out of the way for the traveler for minyan, so they certainly would not exempt a man who wishes to learn later from the obligation of prayer with a minyan.
Torat Chaim (Siman 90:14) also argues that there is a rabbinic obligation to pray with a minyan. Rav Moshe feels that the reason for the rabbinic mitzvah and mandate to daven with a minyan is the ruling of the Rambam. Rambam writes that the prayer of the community is never rejected. We are obligated to pray with a minyan so that our petitions will be accepted by the Almighty. Torat Chaim feels that the nature of the rabbinic mitzvah is to respond to Kaddish and Kedusha. The sages instituted that these prayers are only to be recited in a minyan. Since these prayers are only to be recited in a minyan, and there is a rabbinic mitzvah to recite these prayers, we are rabbinically obligated to pray in a minyan. Shut Chatam Sofer (Cheilek Vav Siman 86) also writes that there is an obligation to pray with a minyan. (Mesivta)
By Rabbi Zev Reichman
Rabbi Zev Reichman teaches Daf Yomi in his shul, East Hill Synagogue.
