[Avodah] Partnership Minyanim

[Prof. Aryeh A. Frimer]

I was disappointed with the suggestion recently floated on-line
that there are no hard Halakhic issues at stake. On the contrary,
Partnership Minyanim are very halakhically problematic. Kindly see:

(1) "Partnership Minyanim," Aryeh A. Frimer and Dov I. Frimer, "Text and
Texture" of the Rabbinical Council of America (May 23, 2010); available
online at http://text.rcarabbis.org/?p=909.

(2) "Lo Zo haDerekh: A Review of Rabbi Prof. Daniel
Sperber's Darka shel Halakha," Aryeh A. Frimer,
The Seforim Blog (12 June 2008). Available online at:
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2008/06/aryeh-frimer-review-of-daniel-sperbers.html.
PDF file of the corrected and reformatted article available online at
http://www.jofa.org/pdf/uploaded/1551-USOB5897.pdf.

In addition, my brother Dov and I are completing a 160 page MS on
the subject which will document why Gedolei haPoskim reject this idea
MeIkar haDin. See the above articles for the gist.

I should note that in a lecture given in July 2009, R. Joshua Shapiro
reported on a conference (held several years before) of the religious
Zionist rabbinic organization "Tzohar." A halakhic forum of leading
modern Orthodox poskim, comprised of Rabbis Jacob Ariel, Shlomo Aviner,
Chaim Druckman and Aaron Lichtenstein (all
Shlit"a), concluded that Kehillat Shira Hadasha has crossed the red
line of what could legitimately be considered Orthodox practice. See:
http://www.yrg.org.il/show.asp?id=33537. R. David Stav, Chairman of
Tzohar (conversation with DIF, Oct. 16, 2009), confirmed the accuracy
of this report.

IMHO the comments in that article were interesting but unguarded, to say the least.

        BeKhavod Rav
                Aryeh

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Dr. Aryeh A. Frimer
Chemistry Dept., Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan 52900, ISRAEL