Minyan


I’ll never look at a minyan the same way again. For all these years I had it wrong. It’s not about religion!

On Sunday, I received a call from a nice young orthodox man who asked if we have a daily minyan in Temecula. Jews pray three times a day, and it should be done in synagogue with a minyan (quorum).

I tried to explain to him that Temecula is not so religious and we don’t have a daily minyan. He was having a hard time wrapping his head around it. “So what do you do yourself for prayers?” He asked. I told him that while in a place without a minyan, I’m exempt, but that I’m very particular to pray with a minyan when I’m in a city with one (this is based on the Jewish code of law).

“But I’m saying kaddish for my father!” He exclaimed.

Something about his determination touched my heart, and I told him that I’d try to pull a minyan together, but that my experience is that more than one weekday minyan gets to be too much very quickly in this town.

Sure enough, we had a minyan three times a day for a few days in a row. True, it took a few hours a day, and is not my favorite task, but what really struck me is why people were willing to come. I always thought a minyan was a religious thing, but now I know it’s about loving a fellow Jew. To see Jews of all kinds, sitting for an hour just so another Jew, whom they have very little in common with, can honor his fathers memory, was so beautiful.

The mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel (loving a fellow Jew) has unbelievable power, and I just experienced it in a way that will change how I view many religious rituals forever.

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