by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the S’fas Tamim Foundation
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QUESTION: We left to the airport for a flight before it was the time permitted to daven Mincha and the flight was to arrive later at night. We were not able to daven Mincha with a Minyan unless we would have arranged for a Minyan at the airport.
If we would have asked the airline customer service agent to let us make an announcement over the loudspeaker that we needed to make a Minyan for Mincha and that all who were interested should come to Gate 17, he would have probably responded with a, “No”. The agent would have probably allowed us to announce “Mister Mincha, please come to Gate 17.” Would this have been permitted, or is this a lie and would have been prohibited because of MiDvar Sheker Tirchak (distance yourself from a false matter)?
ANSWER: Believe it or not, this is not a simple question. There is a leniency that many Halachic authorities say that one may lie to perform a Mitzvah if what one says can be interpreted in another way (so what was said is not an outright lie). For example, in our case, one can say, “Missed a Mincha (which sounds like ‘Mr. Mincha’), please come to Gate 17.” However, it is unclear whether that leniency would be valid here because in this case, you may have been able to get a Minyan on your own if you tracked down enough people yourself – getting on the loudspeaker just made it easier to get a Minyan and do the Mitzvah.
My personal view is that this should not be done. Rav Yeruchem Olshin Shlita advised that it, in fact, is a problem of Sheker (telling a lie) and should be avoided. He further stated it is somewhat disparaging (a Bizayon) to refer to the Mincha service as “Mr. Mincha.”
Rav Dovid Shustal Shlita advised that it would technically be permitted from the perspective of MiDvar Sheker Tirchak because it is lying for the sake of a Mitzvah, but it would not be in keeping with “Dover Emes Bilvavo – one should speak truth in one’s heart” and should therefore be avoided. To be certain, one should ask his or her own Rav or Poseik on how to proceed.
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There is also the issue of a Chillul Hashem should this be misinterpretted to the non Jews. There are other ways to call for a minyan – and l’fee tzaara agra for the added effort of the old fashioned personal invitation. Other examples: using cellphones (newish) feature that sends out your message to nearby devices.
Once upon a time I had a 1pm flight scheduled from California to NY. I knew that we would likely have to board before the earliest time for Mincha and we would arrive in NY too late for Mincha.
As I’m going to the airport I’m thinking to myself, if the flight is delayed by just a half hour we could daven Mincha at the gate before we board and not have to daven on the plane.
And sure enough we get to the airport and the flight is delayed by half an hour. BH.
Many minyanim happen organically, with people walking over to each other, asking to form a minyan, and Hashem makes it happen. So, this article is not about airport minyanim but rather about one particular practice that some might have used to start a minyan in an airport.
Rabbis Hoffman, Olshin and Shustal may be great Talmidei Chachomim, but I don’t think they paskened correctly at all.
There is no chashash of mdvar sheker tirchak. The announcement “Mr. Mincha requested now to gate 17” is not meant to deceive anyone, it is merely code words to gather a minyan. There is no legitimate reason mtzad hadin why the gate agent should be reluctant to make an announcement whose effect is to gather a minyan, thus it could be construed that the man asking for the announcement in this particular wording is doing so for the sake of everybody in the airport who may have a concern about an announcement that would be made in unfamiliar terms. This way everybody who is NOT Mr. Mincha will completely ignore the announcement, and only those who understand it will respond by coming to make the minyan.
There is absolutely no problem.