Thursday, December 14, 2006

Mincha?

When we were last at the zoo, I was impressed when an announcement went out across the loud speakers that mincha (afternoon prayer service) would be held in a few minutes. That was very cool.

In other places around the city, a male will often find himself asked to join a prayer minyan to help make the quorum of ten.

Yesterday, I was downtown shopping and I saw a shirt I wanted to buy at a store and it wasn't until I had already grabbed one, I realized that the store was filled with men who were davening mincha. Several invited me in but I had to tell them that I'd already davened and so I really wasn't someone they wanted in their minyan (because all I could do would be to answer "amen" to their prayers and it's better to have a fresh mincha-free person be part of the minyan). I noticed that men were coming into the shop to pray from many of the surrounding shops. It was very awesome - all these shopkeepers going to join in a mincha minyan in another's store.

I felt a tad uncomfortable standing there, saying "amen" as I waited until mincha was over but within a few seconds one of the guys took my money and passed it down the line to the owner, and then my change was passed back. I would've waited, really - mincha from start to finish takes less than ten minutes and they were already into it by the time I arrived. Oh well.

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