[Avodah] Minyan Man?

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Joel Rich posted:
> Davened in the bet Knesset in Ben Gurion airport (NATBAG). There
> were about 15 men at various points in their private tfilot. One
> individual walked up to the amud and proceeded to daven out loud
> the entire tfila (kaddish, barchu etc) as if he were a shaliach
> tzibur. People (including new arrivals) answered even though
> they were at different points (if at all) of davening. There
> were possibly two people davening at his pace. Analysis?

My best dan l'kaf zechus is:

This is exactly how this man acts at home, at his local minyan factory, and
he acted the same here by force of habit, not realizing the changed
circumstances. At home, the crowd is probably accustomed to his start time
and his speed, and they know how to pace themselves to reach Shmoneh Esreh
together. He simply didn't realize that the smaller crowd, and their
unfamiliarity with him, would render all that unlikely. I will leave it to
others to analyze whether or not you should have responded to his Barchu,
Chazaras Hashatz, etc.

But regarding Kaddish, I will take this opportunity to compare the above to
another very common situation: Maariv ends, and they all shuffle outside to
say Kiddush Levana. Each person begins when they get outside, even though
there is traffic and some people have already started while others are
still in the shul trying to get out. There is no chazan outside, who says
certain parts out loud so that the others can try to keep pace and be a
unified tzibur. Instead, at some unpredictable point, someone takes it upon
himself to say the last line of Alenu out loud, and expects the aveilim to
say Kaddish.

Is this Kaddish okay or not? Does halacha have a minimum definition of a
tzibur for saying kaddish? (I question whether these people constitute a
tzibur, or whether it's just a bunch of yechidim who happen to be saying
this tefilah more or less at a similar time.) Can a person unilaterally
decide to say a perek of Tehillim on an (all-men) bus and then say Kaddish
out of the blue? Maybe he can. If the Kaddish after Kiddush Levana is okay
as I've described it, then maybe the Kaddish on the bus and in the airport
were also okay.

Akiva Miller

Note: This lack of coordination at Kiddush Levana is a pet peeve of mine; I
feel that Kiddush Levana should be done more like Pesukei Dzimra, with a
chazan saying a line from each paragraph aloud. Yes, I know that in many
shuls, the chazan says none of Pesukei Dzimra aloud until Yishtabach. I
find that incredibly inconsiderate, especially towards guests (unless there
is a sign posted about what time they expect to reach Yishtabach, which is
very rare). One Shabbos, I was visiting a certain yeshiva, where the start
time for Shacharis was publicly posted, but I soon realized that the Chazan
was going to be silent for all of Pesukei D'zimra. So I asked several
locals what time they'll be reaching Shochen Ad, so that I could pace
myself, and/or skip selected paragraphs if necessary. Several people had no
idea what time to aim for, and the one person who did answer me was in
error by five full minutes. If anyone can offer advice for how to daven in
such places, I would really appreciate it.
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