[Avodah] Davening on Airplanes
Prof. Levine
larry62341 at optonline.net
Thu Dec 7 03:09:25 PST 2017
At 08:12 PM 12/6/2017, R Micha Berger wrote:
>When it comes to kibud, public treatment does indeed matter...
>However, here we are talking about someone in the olam ha'emes. So they
>know that while on the plane you have that actual issur keeping you from
>fulfilling the minhag of saying qaddish...
>So I do not think it's likely the neshamah would mind the lack of kibud
>as much as they would mind the misplacement of values. I would therefore
>not draw any conclusions from the logical linkage of kibud with intent
>and norms.
From The Mussar Movement, Volume 1, Part 2 pages 248 - 249.
On one of the anniversaries of his father's death, R. Israel was in
Memel. He was informed that someone else in the synagogue wished to
say Kaddish. Now R. Israel was very insistent that only one person
at a time be allowed to recite the Kaddish at the services [28]
and apparently this congregation had complied with his ruling.
Reb Yitzchak Isaacson was observing the jahrzeit of a daughter who
had died very young. Now the Halachah gives precedence to a son
observing the jahrzeit of a parent on these occasions, and R.
Israel was obviously entitled to the privilege. Sensing the grief
he would cause the father by depriving him of the opportunity
to say Kaddish for his daughter, R. Israel went up to him and
said: "You sir, will say Kaddish." The worshippers expressed
their surprise. Not only had R. Israel yielded his own right,
but also overlooked the duty of honoring his father, since he
was, by law, obliged to say Kaddish. He explained to them that the
merit of extending kindness (gemi- lut chesed) to a fellow
Jew possessed far greater value than the saying of Kaddish.[29]
[28.] See R. Naftali Amsterdam's will, published in Or Hamusar
No. 13. See Vol. II of the Hebrew edition of this series,
Tenu'at Hamusar, II, Chap. 25.
[29.] Ernile Benjamin, op. cit., p. 25.
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