Unexpected...
While putting together the program for next year the topic of mandatory tefillah has come up. I posted on an educators' forum asking what they thought about mandatory tefillah, explaining a little about the program and the background of the participants. I received a number of responses, mostly asking for more about the program. This response blew me away.
I don't know if it is worth asking:Is it "mandatory" to vote in a democracy? i.e. are benefits of the society contigent upon the participation in the political system such as in voting?
MINYAN
From my extremely limited perspective, participation in a minyan is a unique opportunity. Not really like voting in our secular society which has time and again been shown to be somewhat of a scam, and where violence and "graft" behind the scenes seems to have taken innovative modern forms. If my son had been asked to be present for a minyan after his father died, his whole life at age eight may have been different. In fact ALL the responsibility for the children and our home fell upon me with out any inheritance or support even after their father's long illness. How my son would have learned to stand with other men, to be shoulder to shoulder with them on a day to day basis, to study and pray, to say kadish, ...He was never asked. And now his ignorance of observance, his lack of a yeshivaish background will likely forever be too humiliating to allow him to turn to the male Jewish community. He has "married" a woman who is not Jewish.
As for me I was tired and distracted, but persevered with what I could (the basics of daily living (washing, cooking, cleaning tending to the children's medical appointments,shopping, finishing a "professional" degree while working and then earning medical insurance..
All this to say that from a backwards glance I cannot believe that an opportunity will be bypassed for participating in minyan while in eretz yisroel! Did I say that I had visited in 1958 as a special Bnai Brith emmissary. I was seventeen,and toured for about eight weeks and stopped in everynook and cranny of the new state from Eilat toMetualla. Yet I do not recall prayer as any part of the journey! I recall how much I wanted to stay and not return, yet there seemed no where I could"connect" and I meekly returned to the states and began the four year B.A. program I had prepared to attend. Again in 1968 I was a guest with my children and their father at my father-in-law's home in Haifa. So many opportunities we had to begin to daven with a minyan and so occasions we really needed to be there to say kadish, et al. ...As a professional in the field of psychology, the minyan seems to me an opportunity for me to participate in a "group" and especially in ISRAEL during a summer program there ought to be some group process component (inclusive of tefillah) three times a day! As for the group process, participation of the young people, in planning and reviewing their experiences ... I do not recall that this occrred with any clarity when I was a young person. So I am thinking that in addition to a planned curriculum or itinerary, even more important that visiting tourist sites, is the way the group will digest their daily experiences and integrate tefillah...This is a JEWISH way and to bypass it is to take the soul out of the aliyah.
I don't know if it is worth asking:Is it "mandatory" to vote in a democracy? i.e. are benefits of the society contigent upon the participation in the political system such as in voting?
MINYAN
From my extremely limited perspective, participation in a minyan is a unique opportunity. Not really like voting in our secular society which has time and again been shown to be somewhat of a scam, and where violence and "graft" behind the scenes seems to have taken innovative modern forms. If my son had been asked to be present for a minyan after his father died, his whole life at age eight may have been different. In fact ALL the responsibility for the children and our home fell upon me with out any inheritance or support even after their father's long illness. How my son would have learned to stand with other men, to be shoulder to shoulder with them on a day to day basis, to study and pray, to say kadish, ...He was never asked. And now his ignorance of observance, his lack of a yeshivaish background will likely forever be too humiliating to allow him to turn to the male Jewish community. He has "married" a woman who is not Jewish.
As for me I was tired and distracted, but persevered with what I could (the basics of daily living (washing, cooking, cleaning tending to the children's medical appointments,shopping, finishing a "professional" degree while working and then earning medical insurance..
All this to say that from a backwards glance I cannot believe that an opportunity will be bypassed for participating in minyan while in eretz yisroel! Did I say that I had visited in 1958 as a special Bnai Brith emmissary. I was seventeen,and toured for about eight weeks and stopped in everynook and cranny of the new state from Eilat toMetualla. Yet I do not recall prayer as any part of the journey! I recall how much I wanted to stay and not return, yet there seemed no where I could"connect" and I meekly returned to the states and began the four year B.A. program I had prepared to attend. Again in 1968 I was a guest with my children and their father at my father-in-law's home in Haifa. So many opportunities we had to begin to daven with a minyan and so occasions we really needed to be there to say kadish, et al. ...As a professional in the field of psychology, the minyan seems to me an opportunity for me to participate in a "group" and especially in ISRAEL during a summer program there ought to be some group process component (inclusive of tefillah) three times a day! As for the group process, participation of the young people, in planning and reviewing their experiences ... I do not recall that this occrred with any clarity when I was a young person. So I am thinking that in addition to a planned curriculum or itinerary, even more important that visiting tourist sites, is the way the group will digest their daily experiences and integrate tefillah...This is a JEWISH way and to bypass it is to take the soul out of the aliyah.
posted by 2R at 12:17 AM
5 Comments:
I believe that Minyan is a fantastic opportunity for your group to connect spiritually. I am not saying to make them say everything, but if they are coming to Israel for a purpose they should at least say the Tfilot for Eretz Yisrael. And if others want to continue with additional Tfila, that should be optional. Maybe an explanation Minyan, like in NCSY, although not Kiruv-oriented. (God Forbid)
Thought I'd drop by & add my 10 agarot... Suggestion - on this one see a posek for what is the bare minimum required for you to require. Maybe that's me being old fashioned but then again, that's just me. Tfilla is the ability of and methodology for a person to talk to God, God being the point of the whole Jewish thing. To omit tfilla entirely, or even just to allow for a by rote version occurs to me as a real loss.
I think you should ban tefilla and then theyll do it to rebel.
what if one of the kids is considering making aliya but doesn't want to daven? then you'd associate something he might want to do with something he's really uncomfortable with, and it might discourage him from making aliya.
my high school had mandatory davening. i got "knassed" 10$ everytime i came late, and i had to pay it in front of the entire yeshiva. by the end of 12th grade i had paid 220$, 150 in 11th grade alone. davening is forever ingrained in my head as being associated with shame, humiliation, and hate.
don't do this to the poor kids
Welcome to the show menachem, I have no intention of knassing, or embarrassing anyone...no worries there...I do not know yet how i will enforce anything, but those are both for sure out...
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