[Avodah] Chillul HaShem and Davening on Airplanes

[Chana Luntz]

> At 11:41 AM 11/17/2011, R. Meir Rabi wrote:
> >N)     I believe that R ShZA, discouraged or prohibited people forming
> a >Minyan on a plane, due to concerns of ChH. I understood that this was
> true
> >even when all the J were davening in that Minyan and all the other
> >passengers were NJ. If I understand R Zev correctly, he would insist
> that
> >this is a KH.

And RYL quoted inter alia RHS:
> "However, it is still not proper to gather a minyan together near the
> washrooms, disturbing all the other passengers and the stewardesses.
> As much as various Torah giants of our generation have expressed
> their opposition to such minyanim on airplanes[2], their message has
> not yet been accepted."

...
> 3) quotes Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Halichos Shlomo, page 75), Rav
> Moshe Feinstein (Igros Moshe Orach Chaim vol. 4 siman 20), Rav
> Ovadiah Yosef, and Rav Shmuel Wosner all objecting to minyanim on
> airplanes that disturb other passengers

The thing is that there is another aspect that is going on in a plane the
people appear to be barely cognisant about.  The plane is and remains the
property of the airline.  They may sell you a licence to sit in your seat
for the duration of the flight, such licence including reasonable access to
the common areas (such as the passage ways to the bathrooms), but the
property rights remain with the airline.  Holding a minyan on an aeroplane
is really not that different to barging into my house and insisting on
holding a minyan in my playroom, despite the fact that I own my house, and
the playroom is designated for the use of my children.  It is a form of
trespass, a property infringement, and would be even if I granted access to
all ten of you to use the bathroom.

Now of course, if the plane were to be chartered by some frum organisation,
and they included in the contract that between the hours of X and Y,
minyanim would be held in the back of the plane, then the crew would
understand that part of the contract under which they were operating
included allowing for such minyanim, would arrange to schedule their meal
serving and whatever around such minyanim and would not regard such minyanim
as "disturbing" them from their work.  Nor would the passengers object,
since they would have agreed to fly on such terms.  Indeed, they may well
have been attracted to fly with this charter because of advertisements
regarding the presence of minyanim on the flight.

But that is not what happens with a regularly scheduled flight.  Nor is this
a case of ze nehene v'ze lo chaser, because as RHS points out, the other
passengers and stewardesses are disturbed and prevented from doing what they
might reasonably be expected to be allowed to do (such as going to the
bathroom, serving the dinners etc).  So basically what you have is a form of
property theft, the appropriation of the space at the back of the plane
against the wishes of the owners and others to whom the owners have granted
rights.

So any davening in such a minyan would seem to be a mitzvah haba b'averah,
and thus, given that it is done in front of non Jews and non frum Jews,
would constitute a chillul Hashem.  What it says is that frum Jews are not
careful about the property rights of others (think Lot versus Avraham).

> YL

Regards

Chana