The Haftarah ends, and the congregation prepares for the Musaf prayer.
History enthusiasts will be delighted to discover that one of the most important Jewish phenomena that characterized the 19th century is taking place before them, and this should not be taken lightly:
The policy of separating communities.
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It is true that at that time the great men of the generation sought to separate themselves from the Reformers and the Magi who were trying to sabotage God's vineyard, and therefore decreed that a separate community should be established, but the idea itself remains blessed and implementable even in the 21st century in the local shtevel of Modi'in Illit.
The yeshiva students, who make up a significant portion of the minyan, come to the conclusion that it is time to embark on a new path, and they quietly drop out and establish an additional minyan in an additional room.
why?
The instinctive answer is that they want to finish earlier, and not linger during the 'large' and 'central' minyan in which the cantor Helphagot appears with his congregation.
In practice, they finish 6 minutes before the regular minyan, when they play the Kedushah and the Chazarat Shatz in a melody that sheds light once and for all on the words of the Mishnah in Avot: And when you pray, do not make your prayer regular, but supplications before the place, blessed be He.
Are the yeshiva students entirely to blame?
Not sure. More than once, a public messenger sneaks into the Musaf prayer and may suffer from two elements:
A. He is convinced that he is a cantor.
B. He is truly a cantor.
For thousands of years, the Jewish people have lived with one of the most difficult puzzles: How is it that throughout that long exile, and even when we were privileged to immigrate to our land and establish Jewish rule there, no man approached that cantor and whispered in his ear that this was not the time?
Come on man, it's 12 noon, what's going on? In the worst case, the cantor is also God-fearing and when he reaches the section 'And because of our sins we were driven out of our land,' his body trembles and he shouts the words with genuine excitement. Are you convinced that this is the time for body shaking?
As the priests prepare to pray, another prisoner arrives, accompanied by two yeshiva students, and they look at the minyan in astonishment: "The end of Musaf? This is Musaf, not Shacharit?""
Their amazement is amazing every time. For some reason, they are shocked that the public wasn't waiting for them, after all, it's only 12:13.
""Go to Chabad," everyone says. The ultimate solution. The time may be 3 in the afternoon, 4, or 5, but this option will always come up: Go to Chabad, only there is still a minyan there.
Really? At 4 o'clock, it doesn't seem to be happening.
By the way, yeshiva students sometimes take advantage of this opportunity, go to Chabad, join for Torah, and then organize the meninal outside, driving the Chabad gabbai crazy.
The Collector and the Charity Fund: A Jew who everyone knows by his first name, which is followed by the title Rabbi, but no one knows anything about his personal life, other than that he is the collector of the shteibel who rattles the charity box among the minyanim.
The tax collector sells the aliquots: A man who immediately approaches the platform after the 18th prayer and announces in a confident voice - opening 5 shekels. From time to time he scolds the worshippers who do not respond to his call, and dismisses the obvious: I have time, I am not in a hurry anywhere.
The intermediary collector: A person standing at the entrance of the synagogue and addressing everyone entering: Shacharit? Start now in the small room. Torah reading? Right now in the second house. Musaf? Run to the aid of women, finish Kaddish there.
The grumpy tax collector: When the yeshiva youths ask to hold Torah readings or pray additional prayers in another room, the gabbai arrives in a sullen tone and forbids them: "Don't take out a Torah scroll now! I'm not taking out a Torah scroll for 5 people!" If the yeshiva youths have managed to organize a minyan and begin the Amidah prayer, the gabbai appears on the scene and, faced with the deafening silence, announces that this is against the synagogue's regulations. The youths usually ignore him, also because they are in their mid-twenties, and he leaves the site with a frown on his face and the feeling that he put the young men on the spot.
The tax collector who reads: A yeshiva student or young man, usually bearded, who proves that he knows how to read the Torah with taste. He does this repeatedly in minyan after minyan, in a vigorous voice, and responds to the blessings of the "Yesher Ka'ah" with a quick nod as he rushes to the next minyan.
The Lithuanian constant: The diligent Jew in his studies at the Shtibel's large beit midrash. Unsurprisingly, he stands alone on his watch, and the image of him studying Gemara in a place sarcastically referred to as a "prayer factory" is a bit odd. Despite this, the avrach, a Lithuanian Ashkenazi, steadfastly refuses to allow young people to organize a minyan in the beit midrash where he studies.
""We are 18 people and we want to do a supplement here, what do you care?"
No! At this time, the Beit Midrash is intended for study and not prayer, look for another place.
""But there are twenty of us and you are alone"?
I don't care, these are the regulations of the place!
The tax collector who takes over: No one appointed them, but when the Torah reading arrives, they stand confidently at the bimah and distribute the honors to their relatives and acquaintances. Who gave you this authority? What are you taking over?
On the other hand, sometimes such a dictatorship is preferable to the confused householder who spends hours leafing through the siddur to find the "who blessed" for the pilgrim, the sick, the deceased, etc., and accidentally creates a cheerful melody from the Book of Esther that is not always appropriate for the occasion.
People of holiness: The shteibel is almost empty, and only a few individuals are still hanging around in it. Then the God-fearing avrab arrives, who woke up a little earlier and demands that everyone answer him for the kedushah: "Will you answer me for the kedushah, and will you say the kaddish? One minute. Will you answer me for the bercho, are there ten here? Answer.".
We have already prayed.: Where is the organization going, and its organizer approaches the Jew who clearly left his bed just minutes earlier.
Morning? He asks, and the one who is looking at four people who have already been captured answers confidently: I have already prayed. Recommendation: Not reliable, another refusal is preferable, such as, for example, I must prepare one hour before prayer.
In other cases, the latter is answered, and begins to pray until "it is praised." The minyan organizer is busy trying to get ten Jews, and the latter, desperate, breaks through the barrier and slips into the eighteen-hour prayer. Then the minyan organizer returns to the room and sees him standing in the Amidah prayer. He is angry and waves his hand down in anger. He cannot speak because he is in the middle of the prayer, so he uses his hands as mentioned.
People who have broken vows: Rarer, but they do exist. They require worshippers to gather on a regular weekday, to resolve vows, to break curses, and to benefit from dreams. Despite the sublime status, there is no feeling of Yom Kippur Eve in the air, but mainly a strong feeling of wanting to escape the place.
The people of the mikveh: They are a regular fixture around the mikveh establishment that operates there. They are often seen with a towel over their shoulders, chatting casually with the man who came out of the mikveh, entered it, or just a poor passerby who happened to be there and met the mikveh man.
Landscapers: Jews who are there permanently, to the point where they are almost part of the landscape and furniture of the synagogue.
For the most part, these are unconventional people, whose minds are not always settled, and they find in the synagogue a home, or a 'safe place' where they can spend their time. Sometimes they are given nicknames that are not necessarily flattering, with prominent external physical characteristics that remind them of characters from various mythologies.
These people are also known as the tea and coffee people: because no one knows what their role is in the Shteibel, and why they stay there for so many hours. They are always there and can be seen with a cup of coffee or tea sitting at one of the tables. Do they have a house? A wife? A family? No one knows and it seems that they don't want to know either.
""Who here can read?" asks the gabbai • The Complete Shtibel Project, Part 1
• Organized in collaboration with Haredim 10 and the Synagogue Association
