Davening on airplanes

September 14, 2008 3 Comments »

I haven’t posted in a while, perhaps because I haven’t felt particularly passionate about anything. Here’s something I am passionate about, having dealt with it recently on a plane back from Israel:

We all know the feeling. You’re sitting on an El AL plane to Israel, the seat belt sign is on, it’s some ungodly hour and everyone is sleeping as you’re flying over who knows where, when suddenly tens of hat, streimel, and kippa wearing men barrel down the aisle to make a minyan in the back. I always instinctively felt this was wrong, not just on El Al but especially on a non-Jewish plane where no one knows what’s going on. It’s a classic example of losing the forest for the trees and not realizing that one religious value (minyan) can legitimately be overridden by others, such as derech eretz.

Finally, I found an El AL pamphlet which shows that all major Poskim agree with me. Apparently they’re handing these out on the plane now. Basically, the Poskim (Rabbis Moshe Feinstein, Ovadia Yosef, Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, need I go on?) all say to just daven in your seat for a few reasons: 1) Standing is unsafe 2) It could wake people up, which is a prohibition of gezel sheina, and most importantly 3) It disturbs everyone and 4) It creates a chilul Hashem. R. Zilberstein says one is not even yotzei tefillah in such a case because it is a mitzva habaah b’aveira (!). We shouldn’t need Poskim to tell us these things. Our basic seichel should dictate this. I’d like some feedback on this.

Hat Tip: The Hirhurim blog



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  • Marc Lerman

    I agree with you 100%. A few months ago there was a story about a man who was davening Mincha in the back of the plane just before takeoff, and the flight attendants asked him to stop to they could take off. He refused, and he was tossed from the plane. I recall thinking (it’s also possible I posted here) that it was a huge chillul Hashem, and the guy could have davened in his seat. At the very least, when asked to stop, he should have.

  • leah

    certainly on a flight were there are mostly goyim calls fo davening in the back to be unsafe, potentially terrifying, and perhaps disrespectful.

    however with all due respect we know davening as a minyan raises the level of spirituality no matter where you are.

    derech eretz comes first. but are people really bothered by davening? hmm…

  • Moshe Grussgott

    Leah,

    It’s not the davening itself which disturbs others but the standing near the bathrooms in the back (which blocks people from getting in) or in the aisles, sometimes impeding flight attendants from being able to get to people, and also the noise while people are trying to sleep. Presumably, if all these problems can be overcome it would be fine but I think the way airplanes are built it’s simply impossible for 10 or men men not to be obstructing someone if they’re all standing together. From my experience, someone always gets frustrated. But the main issue is that it’s unsafe (and possibly illegal), since the plane could go into turbulence at any moment. Hence, even when the seat belt sign isn’t on people still need to be prepared to go back to their seat at any given moment.