Dedicated to my beloved brother R' Avraham Yitzchak ben Esther who was מעורר this post and לרפואת כל חולי עם ישראל...
We are all creatures of habit. A man gets up, showers, shaves, brushes his teeth and on to the car/train to work. He doesn't think about it much. He did it yesterday and will do it tomorrow. It requires little to no thought.
It is important to have habits and routines. However, when our religiosity becomes routinized we are in TROUBLE.
One example: Davening with a minyan. It is a habit. We don't think about it much. Every day - 6:30am shachris, 1:15 mincha, 9pm maariv. It is great that we daven at all and even greater that we daven with a minyan. But this routine removes much of our passion. It is just habit. As the Navi cried
"ויאמר ה' יען כי נגש העם הזה בפיו ובשפתיו כבדוני, ולבו רחק ממני, ותהי יראתם אותי מצות אנשים מלומדה"
Hashem says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on habit."
The Baalei Mussar used this pasuk on countless occasions to remind people that they must never lose their passion.
Another problem of mindless service of Hashem is that sometimes we do things that are AGAINST His will because of our habits.
People like to make minyanim on airplanes. How can we miss minyan? So in the middle of the night, a large group forms and wakes up many in the back part of the plane. The poskim say NOT TO MAKE PLANE MINYANIM.
This is what I wrote almost five years ago:
In a recent post we discussed the notion of being a Bar Daas and briefly expounded. Now it is 1:20am, I hear the crickets, it is very quiet, the children have gone to sleep and the mosquitoes are flying around looking for fodder, so this is a good time to expound a bit more.
The gemara in Sotah [21b] talks about a "chossid shoteh". What is a chossid shoteh? A woman is drowning and she calls out for HELLLLLLPPPPPPP. A very shtark bucher hears her calls but he says to himself "How can I save her. She is a woman and I don't LOOK at women, much less touch one."
He is indeed chossid. He doesn't look at woman. As primitive as it sounds, one should ideally never look at a woman unless one is either a woman or under 13 years of age. But he is also a shoteh - a fool, because in this particular circumstance he must look at her for she is drowning to death and he took an advanced life guard, life-saving course at Camp Ma-na-vu.
We see many instances of chassidim shotim in our world and the only way to be a "chossid peekeach" a wise, clever chossid, is to use one's mental faculties to determine what the proper behavior is in any given situation.
Rav Volbe in his famed "Alei Shur" has a chapter called "Frumkeit". You would think that a really Charedi "mashgiach ruchani" like Rav Volbe would be in favor of "Frumkeit" .... but he is not.
Aha!
Why not? Does he say "Be modern. Go on Whatsapp. Surf the net. Make some fake friends on Facebook"? No. He CERTAINLY doesn't say that.
So what is wrong with Frumkeit? Frumkeit [according to his definition] is the instinctive urge one has to be a religious personality. This is dangerous because it is based on instinct and urge and not on daas and the intellect. One should certainly activate his urge to be "frum" but only after consulting with his brain to make sure that it is the right time and place.
I will give an example. The most natural thing for ten men who haven't davened yet to do is to make a minyan. We do it every day 3 times a day. So when we are on airplanes we also gather a minyan.
How very consistent and laudable.
But how many people think about whether it is actually the right thing to do??
Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach thought about it and ruled that one should daven in one's seat so as not to disturb others! [Halichos Shlomo page 95].
Rav Moshe Feinstein ruled likewise. [Igros Moshe 4/20]
Rav Ovadiah Yosef would daven in his seat on the airplane.
[See more in the She-eris Yosef Vol. 7 page 15-16. He also raises the issue of 9 people not answering the chazan which makes his brachos "almost" li-vatala].
I am not paskening [if the minyan is already happening and your presence won't change anything and you will keep your amens soft, maybe they would agree that you should join. More likely, they would still say to remain in your seat]. I am just saying that these giants used their "da'as" and determined that the very laudable frumkeit of tefilla bi-tzibbur which should never be missed is not the right approach when it will ruin the sleep and comfort of others.
EVERY SECOND of life requires us to activate the discerning powers of our brain to determine what should or shouldn't be said or done. The difference between the greats and the mediocres is gauged by how much da'as is used and how balanced and accurate the da'as is.
Baruch Hashem we have some more da'as and I have indeed been bitten as I wrote this post by the mosquitoe/s. It should be a kapparah for all the times I didn't use my da'as.
This lack of daas will also explain why people insist on going to shul and making minyanim when the DOCTORS AND RABBIS say not to because we are in a life threatening situation. It is habit and people are not ready to let go. Is it the will of Hashem that people endanger their lives AND THE LIVES OF OTHERS for a minyan?
OF COURSE NOT!!
But what does Hashem have to do with davening....?
"ויאמר ה' יען כי נגש העם הזה בפיו ובשפתיו כבדוני, ולבו רחק ממני, ותהי יראתם אותי מצות אנשים מלומדה"
