לעילוי נשמת

יואל אפרים בן אברהם עוזיאל זלצמן ז”ל

Question: Before entering my minyan, on time, someone from the vatikin minyan at a neighboring shul begged me to join them, a few minutes before netz. I reluctantly joined. I could not catch up with Shemoneh Esrei, and started Shemoneh Esrei after chazarat hashatz started. Was it right for me to join them?

Answer: Joining would make you sacrifice the following: 1) Not being part of a minyan for Shemoneh Esrei (see Living the Halachic Process V, A-1). 2) Having to skip, daven quickly, start Shemoneh Esrei when you probably should not have (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 109:1) and/or have compromised concentration considering your need to be at good places to answer “devarim shebekedusha.” 3) “Makom kavua,” perhaps (Living the Halachic Process I, A-1).

Your “hosts” gain was only moderate because: 1) Vatikin without a minyan (Living the Halachic Process II, Volume A-5) done in shul (Living the Halachic Process V, A-3) has significant value without a minyan. 2) The level of their tefilla b’tzibur with you lagging behind is questionable (Living the Halachic Process VII, A-2). 3) The likelihood of their having enough people answering all of chazarat hashatz is shaky (Living the Halachic Process I, A-10; VI, A-8). Presumably, most of them could have davened at a later minyan, although we can imagine their inconvenience/disappointment.

There is a broad rule that while we should go to significant lengths to help others, one’s own interests have precedence. Examples: One saves his own life first before another’s (Bava Metzia 62a); one should not sin even a small sin in order to save another from a bigger sin (Shabbat 4a); one should not give more than 20% of his resources to tzedaka (Ketubot 50a); if only a kezayit of matzah is available for Seder night, one should try to get it for himself (Shaarei Teshuva, Orach Chayim 282:1). One would expect, then, that you should not sacrifice your tefillah to improve others’.

What the vatikin minyan had going for them is that halacha gives great weight to the needs of a group of people who are just short of a minyan. The Gemara (Brachot 47b) justifies releasing an eved kenaani—even if that is usually forbidden—so that he can become the 10th man for a minyan, calling the minyan a mitzvah of the rabbim. (Rishonim—including Tosafot, Bava Batra 13a—deal with the apparent contradiction to the rule not to sin for another’s religious gain; this is beyond our present scope.)

Closer to home, the Rama (Orach Chayim 55:22, based on the Rivash 518) rules that one can force a 10th man in town to come to shul to ensure a minyan. The presence of a minyan in a community is powerful and the lack thereof “upsets” Hashem (Brachot 6a-b). Some claim that this is only for the only minyan in town (Aruch Hashulchan, Orach Chayim 55:26). Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe, Orach Chayim III:16) is among several poskim (see Living the Halachic Process VI, A-3) who learn from the following ruling that it is important to strengthen shuls, even when there are other minyanim in town. The Eliyah Rabbah (55:22, brought by the Mishna Berura 55:73) cites a ruling that yeshiva students should daven in the local shul which needs them for a minyan rather than daven in their beit midrash, even though, theoretically, the members of the shul could have gone to the beit midrash. This is particularly instructive because the students were asked to sacrifice both their learning and their davening (see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 90:18). On the other hand, these sources refer to cases where the minyan in need was important for the community and/or the “10th man” had a connection to it (Shut B’er Sarim 34).

So, on the basic halachic level, you did not have to join the vatikin minyan. The “equation” is different if you are recruited to an avel’s minyan, whose creation is a special mitzvah (see Pnei Baruch 10:(32))—even if they will not wait for you to catch up. If a minyan adds something significant to a neighborhood (e.g., it is the only vatikin minyan in a nice-sized community), sacrificing for it from time to time is laudable. Remember also that employing compassion and avoiding angering stressed-out minyan seekers should be quite a “Jewish thing.” It is difficult to spell out clear guidelines.

Rabbi Mann is a dayan for Eretz Hemdah and a staff member of Yeshiva University’s Gruss Kollel in Israel. He is a senior member of the Eretz Hemdah responder staff, editor of Hemdat Yamim and the author of “Living the Halachic Process Volumes 1 and 2” and “A Glimpse of Greatness.”