[Avodah] davening on airplanes

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Eli Turkel asked:

> I am confused by the whole issue of davening on airplanes. ...
> I completely agree with Chana that at the root we have the demand
> to (assumedly) daven more properly vs many prohibitions bein adam
> le-chavero, safek pikuach nefesh, less kavanah staying in the
> back etc and somehow this all gets trumped by standing for the
> Amidah and having a minyan against the poskim

I too am confused by these mixed-up priorities. Yet, sad to say, I'm no longer surprised by it. My mind told me that this phenomenon is all too common, but no other examples came to mind.

and then I was rescued by R' Yitzchok Levine, who asked (in the thread titled "A Woman Mashgiach?") - and I presume he asked it sarcastically:

> What is the basis for the assertion that "the woman's place is
> in the home." Are not most kollel wives engaged in working 
> outside of their homes? And, is this not considered laudable?
> If kollel wives did not work, would this not mean that the
> kollels would have to empty out, because the men would have
> to go to work?

If I may, I'd like to add a third example. Has anyone noticed that the complaint we're making about airplanes is all too common in our shuls? So many people seem to prefer davening in the aisle, even when it seems to me that there is plenty of room by the seats.

For reasons which I don't understand, it seems that certain halachos have received undue attention and allegiance. In the examples above, they are davening with a minyan, learning Torah, and stepping back and forth for the Shemoneh Esreh. Far too little attention is given to being a nuisance to the plane's non-daveners; our wives and mothers are taking on far too much of the family's financial responsibility; people are making themselves into a literal michshol against those who need to enter or leave the shul.

I'm sorry that I don't have any practical solutions to this mess. What I *have* done is to offer illustrations of other cases where the same problem seems to be manifesting itself. My hope is that someone else might see the tzad hashaveh, and offer some suggestions.

Akiva Miller

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