[Avodah] Standing For Qri'at Shma`

[Jay F Shachter]

It may be of sociological interest that the author of the following
remark, in Vol 25, Issue 337:

>
> It reminds me of the Shema. Halachically, if you are already standing  
> then you are not supposed to sit for the Shema,
> and conversely, if you are already sitting, you are not supposed to  
> stand -- having to do with kavannah, etc.
> 

failed to mention the reason originally given for why one should not
stand immediately prior to reading the Shma` -- namely, that there
were people who claimed that one has to be standing for the Shma`, but
that the halakha is that one may be seated, so if one sits until the
Shma` and then stands up, it appears that one is disagreeing with the
psaq, and stating by one's actions that one is obliged to be standing
for the Shma`.  This could lead to everyone's standing for the Shma`,
as a xumra if nothing else, and our Sages did not want the community,
whom they loved, to be subjected to burdensome xumrot.  The primary
concern was not the kavvana of the individual worshiper, it was the
comfort of the community.  That this notion fails to appear in the
above-cited quote may be, as I said, of sociological interest.


			Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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