[Avodah] Nefilas Apaim in Yerushalayim

[Yaakov Moser]

Elliott Shevin wrote:

> My own rav (Eliezer Cohen of Oak Park, MI) invoked a psak that nefilas 
> apaim should be done wherever one is davening, Yerushalayim or not, 
> sefer torah or not (and, I presume, makom kavuah or not). The logic is 
> simple: you're not petitioning a sefer torah; you're petitioning HKBH, 
> Who is everywhere.
>   
Zev Sero replied: 

> What's his basis for such a psak?  His own sevara?
>
> (See Rema OC 131:2, ultimately based on Yehoshua 7:6).


I note that Rav Soloveitchik had the custom to do Nefilat Apayim even 
when there was no Sefer Torah. [Nefesh HaRav p. 134]. Rav Schachter 
there cites the Taz 131:5. This is a free summary of the Taz:

The Rokeach wrote that there is Nefilat Apayim only where there is a 
Sefer Torah. The Bet Yosef wrote on this that if it is a tradition we 
accept it, but if it is a teaching there is response. The Taz proposes 
that the response is as follows - The Rokeach uses as support the verse 
from Yehoshua where Yehoshua falls "before God". ie there is only 
Nefilat Apayim before God where there is a Sefer Torah. However, the Taz 
says that there is a verse in Shoftim 20:26 where the people cry and do 
Teshuva "before God" - and we cannot say that crying applies only where 
there is a Sefer Torah! Thus we can reject the proof. Additionally, it 
is implicit in the Rosh cited in the Bet Yosef later on the fact that an 
important person can do Nefilat Apayim even in their own home - so we 
see that Nefilat Apayim applies at home, and we cannot assume there was 
a Sefer Torah.
However, the Taz concludes that the Rama rules like the Rokeach.

The Aruch HaShulchan 131:10 questions the Taz, as the verse from Shoftim 
does not mention the Aron, unlike the verse from Yehoshua. However the 
Aruch HaShulchan notes that the main source for Nefilat Apayim is from 
Moshe (Devarim 9:18), and there was no Aron there. And if you want to 
say that Moshe encountered the Divine Presence - so do we encounter the 
Divine Presence everywhere we daven, irrespective of whether there is a 
Sefer Torah.
Thus the Aruch HaShulchan brings the same logic - although he concludes 
that the regular minhag is like the Rokeach as ruled by the Rama.

So we see there is a counter-opinion.

(The verse is of course the source for R' Yechiel Michal Tucatzinsky, as 
brought in his Sefarim, that the whole of Yerushalayim is "before God".)


Danny Schoemann added:
> The Be'er Heitev brings the SKNH"K (who's that?) in the name of the
> Rokeach that "if there are other seforim they have the din of a ST,
> and that's what we rely on nowadays."
>
> The MB doesn't mention this possibility. 

The MB does bring this possibility in 131:11 - he notes that the Eliya 
Rabbah and Derekh Hahayim say that there is no Nefilat Apayim without a 
Sefer Torah, even in the presence of other books. But he notes that 
others disagree (brought in his sources as the Olat Tamid, Sheyurei 
Knesset Gedola and with the Magen Giborim's agreement).

Jason Moser
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