Hot answers tagged synagogue
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My Hagbaha Guidelines
Make sure there is an empty chair behind you to sit down on at the end
Roll the torah to a seam in the klaf sections. This is not to aid the one performing it, but helps if one pulls the Torah outward with too much force in the process of lifting it up, that a tear will occur on a seam where it can be repaired instead in the middle ...
13
Well, here's what comes to mind.
Bowing is not reserved for G-d. There are many cases in the Bible when prominent Jews bowed to kings such as the prophet Natan bowing to David (Melachim 1:1:23) and Yosef’s brothers bowing to Yosef (Breishit 42:6). Even Avraham (Breishit 18:2) bowed to strangers whom he suspected of being idolaters (Rashi to verse 4).
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The Rema 139:11 says To say Chazak from the passuk in Yehoshua that says Chazak vametz .The passuk before it says that Torah should not leave your mouth and it will be a blessing for you. So there are those who say Chazak u'baruch and others answer Chazak vametz.
The Kaf Hachaim 139:56 brings down the minhag to say Chazak U'baruch from this Rema.
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Rabbi J.H. Henkin has an excellent essay, going from the Talmudic sources to his interpretation of modern-day requirements. I strongly recommend you start there. (Link is to Google Books; many good libraries have this book in English. I believe this essay is based on material he's previously published in She'elot UTeshuvot Bnei Banim, which is available as ...
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Nusach Ari (as arranged by R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi) counts it before Aleinu. Shaar Hakollel (49:7) explains that this way, the kaddish recited after Aleinu also covers the chapter of Tehillim (Psalm 67) and the verses from the Torah (Lev. 23:15-16) recited after the sefirah.
Mishnah Berurah (489:2) gives another reason: this way it's done as early as ...
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In the back of the Chumash Shai LeMorah, a list and hierarchy of the the people who are obligated to receive an Aliyah to the Torah. He adds parenthetically as follows:
It is written in the Sefer Avodat Hakodesh of the Chida Z"l that there is a custom in Eretz Yisroel that someone whose wife enters her 9th month of pregnancy should be careful to do the ...
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Chabad Houses
As I understand the Shul is generally owned by the Shliach (he sets up a (or uses an existing) non-profit for the legal aspects, but it's almost completely in his hands). This is done for several reasons:
AFAIK, most shuls generally exists by virtue of the community. Baalei Battim who live in a certain neighborhood make a shul, then they ...
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Indeed, the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l (sicha of Shabbos Parshas Ki Tisa 5741 secs. 55-57) called for them to always be depicted as square, in keeping with the Gemara you mentioned. (And Chabad publications long before that, as far back as 1942 at least, followed the same convention.)
He states that shape with rounded tops was popularized by non-Jewish ...
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The Nitei Gavriel - Purim Perek 11 #4 brings from the Yalkut Avraham Siman 686, that the Minhag was to put the משנכנס sign over the Zecher L'Charban area, since it is a Zeman Simcha.
Regarding hanging a Mishenechnas sign in the Shul - see page 262 - that the Minhag was to hang it on the Western wall of the Shul - where often that is where the entrance is.
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Well, what's reasonably walkable? Probably about 2 kilometers or so.
Another significant factor -- if the synagogue's neighborhood has an eruv, it's reasonable for a rabbi to expect people to move within the eruv -- it will be far easier to observe shabbos if you can carry in the neighborhood (especially if most of the locals are used to doing so). Take ...
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Say Ashrei and continue Lecha Hashem haTzedaka. If a Minyan comes during those points, Chatzi Kaddish is said provided some pesukim were said while the minyan was there. Mateh Efraim 581:17, Elef Lemateh. It is somewhat mashma that when the pesukim end and the main selichos start, you wouldn't say chatzi kaddish. If a minyan didn't come until the end, ...
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Rav Moshe in his Igros Moshe EH 2:17 second paragraph he seems to make it clear that for davening it is for sure assur, and even when it is a wedding an Orthodox person should not go. This tshuva was regarding Conservative synagogues; I am guessing that all the more so this would apply to Reform.
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Yes, there are many who still do (though unfortunately a minority today). To name a few, Fifth Avenue Synagogue says the Musaf piyutim as does OZ on West Side (or at least they did last time I was there for Parshas Shkalim about 9 years ago), one or more of the Young Israels in the NY area do (I forgot which one but I know that at least one does it). In ...
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The luchot are a 1 amah cube of sapphire (6x6x6 tefachim) (Baba Basra 14a)
3x6x6 tefachim individually (Baba Basra 14a)
The writing filled each side ("tradition". I think I saw this in a Gemara too)
There are more words in the first 5 commandments, so the letters were a smaller size to fit.(Mabit)
The letters were carved straight through the luchot. (Shmot ...
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(This answer has been moved from the comment section and reworded a little bit.)
I would recommend going to a Saturday morning service over a Friday evening service for a first time experience. Friday evening is very sweet but short, and you won't really be able to get a good sense of what a service is all about. Plus, you get to see the Torah Reading ...
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I believe R' Moshe Feinstein has a responsum regarding an Orthodox rabbi performing a wedding at a heterodox synagogue, in which he says "your job as rabbi is to perform weddings, regardless of location", but I don't recall if he addresses the sanctuary-vs-social-hall aspect. Hopefully I'll find it later?
6
Your first goal should probably be some popularly-attended classes,
which you can expand out from.
Start with one class. Here are some tips for making it popular, based
on my experience in youth programming, scheduling things at Hillel in college, and
participating for a few years now in a weekly Talmud seminar.
Schedule it at an optimal time. Sunday ...
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While it proceeds to list leniencies/exceptions, the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 146:2 states initially that it is prohibited even to speak Divrei Torah even in between aliya's (i.e. while the Torah reading has paused).
One leniency is for one for whom "Torah is his occupation" but the M.B. 9 cites the Elya Rabba (who cites many Rishonim) that no one today ...
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I was at a different shul this morning, and while flipping through Halachically Speaking, vol. 1 by Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits, I saw a paragraph about this very issue. From what I recall, he wrote that while the Zohar discourages people from forming their hands like the kohanim, poskim have taken this to apply only during the time of the kohanim's ...
6
In Tzitzit Halacha LeMa'aseh (Chapter 9, footnote 12), The Leket HaKemach HaChadash (8:16) Is quoted as saying:
The custom in Germany is that the whole congregation only covers their head (with the Tallit) while saying Shema on Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur Katan. However, many of the G-d fearing put a hat on top of their Kippah if they are not covering ...
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In Prague they used to have Shlomo Molcho's flag.
Most Eastern European countries were more feudal than central, and Jews had more to do with the local poritz than with the central government.
Civilian flags were introduced in the 19th to 20th centuries, so it couldn't have been much before that.
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Are you obligated to stay for the next minyan's Torah reading?
According to the Rama (OC 55:2), if you are not the tenth man in their minyan, you are allowed to leave.
What if you're the tenth man in their minyan? The Mishna Berura (there, #12) writes that even if you are the tenth man, you only have to stay to the end of that particular section of ...
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Taame Haminhagim (589–590) explains (in free translation):
If he remains there, he might say it with them, and there's a covenant made with the lips [that what they say is true comes true]. Another reason is that everyone's busy saying Yizkor and he's silent, and it says in B'rachos that it should not be the case that all are busy etc. There's a ...
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Here is a publication titled "The Mechitza according to the Halacha", by Rabbi Sholom Yehuda Gross, Shlit"a, who is the head of the Rabbinical Court of Holmin, (taken from here). It brings many sources with citations you can use for further research.
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While it's not like the one that I've seen in shuls, the cheapest way of doing it would probably be to buy a decent sized screen (20"+ should be great and costs around $150 now) and hook it up to an old computer running this program: http://www.kaluach.com/?page_id=147 (which costs $225). If you have someone with decent carpentry experience, you could make ...
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Each child is obviously different. Rav Shlomo Wolbe wrote in Zeria uVinyan beChinuch that aside from young children disturbing the congregation with their playing, a child needs to appreciate the more mikdash. If a child is too young to feel this, the parent should not bring him. The longer we delay the child's visit to shul, the better his long term ...
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Not really.
Jewish law treats a male as an adult as soon as they reach age 13 (assuming they've also had the onset of puberty). There is no official "bar mitzvah" ritual; you're an adult, you're an adult.
It's become normal to demonstrate to everyone that the young man is an adult by calling up the fellow for an aliyah (i.e. saying the brachas before and ...
5
If I understand correctly, they're offering two options:
For the traditionally-minded, they can just modify the room in some ways that will make unamplified voices carry better (e.g. the right materials, the right angles, occasional some holes in or pipes in surfaces); I can't see anyone finding anything objectionable to this (though it may be expensive, ...
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My understanding is that a community has the right to determine that someone's behavior could be so completely out of line that the person is not to be given any honors in the synagogue, as doing so could be seen as tolerating or endorsing their actions.
Excerpt from a Rabbinical Council of America statement:
Therefore, be it resolved that we must ...
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