Recently I joined my family for Shabbos in Orlando. It was a unique experience. One of my neighbors in Queens, a member who lives a few doors from me, was in the makeshift shul Friday night. When he told me the address of his vacation home, we both realized he was-yet again-just a few doors down from us.
I seem unable to get away from my members!
Over the past several years, a subsection of housing in Orlando has become prime real estate for frum families on vacation. Champions Gate, Reunion and other sections of this housing unit have become very popular among bnei Torah. Each home is built to accommodate large families and comes with a private pool, game room, etc. These can be rented for days, weeks or even months at a time. One family in Queens simply moved there at the start of the pandemic -as their kids were anyway in yeshiva online, and the father had to work from ‘home’. They stayed for over a year. It has now become popular for generations of families to rent the largest of homes together and head there together for Pesach.
The local Chofetz Chaim community along with Chabad has a system down to a science. They rent out houses of their own in the areas where other frum families will be staying. These houses are to act as hubs for minyanim, etc.
In fact, the Shabbos I was there it was announced that there would even be an avos u’banim, which was overflowing. Fathers and sons from across the north-east, almost all of whom strangers to eachother, all had in common in that they were away and wished to learn Torah with their sons.
For me, it doesn’t matter where I go, as long as I don’t have to speak. It’s nice to be away, anonymous and just be one of a crowd.
I heard of one rav from Toronto who was staying in another area of this housing development that same Shabbos. When he walked into shul Friday night, he found half his shul from Toronto there!
Our rented house was more than a half a mile away, and I wouldn’t have made it back in time for maariv if I had gone home to eat. So, I ate shalosh seudos before mincha (something one should do only rarely), and then planned on staying in the minyan-house until maariv. Following mincha, with about fifteen minutes to shekia, a group of bochurim walked in. I heard them talking with the few others there. “Ah, that’s an interesting shailah” I overheard one say.
“It’s a good thing we have a rav here who we could ask,” said another. It was then that I looked up to see who that rav was, only to see them staring right back at me.
The shailah they had was indeed interesting. I was at first apprehensive to pasken, as I didn’t have any sefarim and was not one-hundred percent sure if I was correct. Rabbanim can get nervous too, you know!
Here was the question, a subject that is quite fascinating and comes up frequently, especially on vacation:
These boys had gone to an infirm man’s home to help make a minyan. He couldn’t walk to shul. However, there was no sefer Torah there with which to lein. So, as soon as their small minchah was over, they ran to the makeshift shul to hear their missed leining. Alas, by the time they arrived minchah was over. May they now take the Torah out and lein on their own?
It should first be pointed out that if one is a choleh, it is better to have a minyan b’tzibur than to hear kria (shu’t Minchas Yitzchak 7:6), so this minyan for the choleh was indeed the correct thing to do.
But what should these boys do now?
To start with, leining by mincha is an interesting halacha. It was one of the ten takanos created by Ezra (Bava Kama 82a), added to Moshe rabeinu’s already existing decree to lein tri-weekly. Ezra added it for the benefit of the ‘yoshvie keronos’ -those that don’t come to shul during the week, and even on Shabbos are only found out of their homes in the streets and wasting their time (Rosh, Shaar Hatzion, siman 135). In fact, because of this, the Magen Avraham posits that the requirement for the average male to hear leining by Shabbos mincha is a weaker obligation, as most do not fall under the term yoshvie keronos (siman 143:8). Because of this, some poskim rule that these boys were not at all even obligated to run to shul to try to make-up their missed leining by another mincha (shu’t Vayivarech Dovid 1:27, p. 145, bottom of first column)!
But now, that they are here for this purpose, and we already finished, what should be done?
One may think that there is no issue here for me to reply strictly. Just have them take out a Torah and lein, minyan or not. After all, what’s the harm? However, many poskim urge us not to read from a sefer Torah unless its either at the Moshe/Ezra moments (with a minyan) or to prepare for such an occasion (with exception of accepted minhagim, like sefer devarim on Hashana Rabbah).
Even in the days of chazal, we would write chumashim etc. from which to learn (see, e.g. gittin 60a, and, shu’t Mishneh Halachos 5:33)
In addition, there is the question of if aliyos should be made. Rav Chaim Soloveitchik points out that perhaps it is not enough to simply have a minyan in the room, rather, one would need a majority of that same minyan made up by people who also didn’t yet hear leining (stencil, Chidushei al Shas, Mishor ed., p. 600 #11).
The Chasam Sofer was once travelling for important klal work on a Monday. It was only mincha time when they reached a shul, at which point they leined the morning leining then (shu’t Goren Dovid #5)/! However, this and other sources that do discuss this issue focus, by-and-large, of making up their missed kriah by mincha, mussaf or some other time of structured teffila.
However, in fact, many poskim have the opposite concern. In that one should not lein by another davening slot. Rav Moshe Shternbuch discusses a similar case to the Chasam Sofer’s and explains that such leining is done before mincha begins, so that no one confuses this with a regular time of leining (see shu’t Teshuvos V’Hanhagos 1:145 with Shaar Hatzion #5 to siman 135 where the Chofetz Chaim rules the same).
I know of one wonderful shul that on Simchas Torah they not only duchen by shacharis (which many do), but they also go straight to mussaf, only leining after. This seems problematic, for we do not purposefully manipulate the place of leining (b’deived this would be allowed, say if they had no Torah by shacharis, see shu’t Teshuvah M’ahavah #243).
Back to our case, for all of the above reasons, even b’dieved, the Ashel Avraham does not allow a new leining take place for these boys. Even though there are six of them who did not hear leining (and another four in the room).
However, many others allow it (ibid. #28, Maharil) especially when the reason they missed leining was due to a mitzvah.
In the end, I told them to lein, and make a chatzi kaddish after (another debate).
And then? And then I got out of there as fast as I could so that I could research if I was correct!
I always tell young rabbanim that the halachos of leining, aliyos and kadima (who has first right), are among the most important to know. As when they arise there is often limited time to reply.
Next time, I will eat shalosh seudos at home!
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