Post YK Buzz: Daven With a Minyan and Help an Agunah

It won’t actually help her procure a get. It might help her reputation, though, even if she died hundreds of years ago.

Seems that an unfortunate soul by the name of Eliezer disappeared, shortly after leaving town. His wife never heard from him again. He had announced his destination and the route he was taken. Soon after, a non-Jew came forth who testified that he had travelled on that road with a Jew who died on the way. He could not, however, make positive identification.

The sho’el in Shut Mahari Veil #79 offered several arguments to assume that the deceased was Eliezer. One of them is made for today. He argued that we need not fear that a different Jew accompanied the non-Jews other than Eliezer. Impossible, he said. No Jew would possibly take a trip between Yom Kippur and Sukkos that would involve his missing davening with a minyan! (Mahari Veil rejects the argument – but only because it is possible that someone else set off on a trip with full intention of making it to a minyan, and was then prevented by circumstances from reaching a shul.)

Maintaining the post-Yom Kippur high and afterglow would seem to bolster the final (lenient) psak for Eliezer’s wife. It’s the least we can do for her.

If you glibly write off the assessment to a time and madregah we have not seen for hundreds of years, consider this. The Soloveitchik Machzor reports that R. Yoshe Ber Soloveichik zt”l sometimes came home after Yom Kippur in such an ecstatic state, humming nigunim of Neilah, that he could not eat for some time thereafter.

[Kudos to R Aryeh Leib Heller (sometimes known as the Ketzos) for pointing out the Mahari Veil (שב שמעתתא ז:יט) ]

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5 Responses

  1. Guy in Israel says:

    Yasher koiach, as always.

    Perhaps RYA or commenters can give some advice for how to stay on this high during these days when we (at least those of us with several young children and several jobs) are overwhelmed by all that there is to do. There’s a ton of pressure before Sukkos, between kids, work and yom tov preparations, and although this is obviously how it’s supposed to be, it can be very hard to maintain spiritual vigor and enthusiasm.

    Of course not taking off time to read Cross Currents might be a good start 🙂

  2. dr. bill says:

    the rav ztl was indeed in a very festive mood after YK. His rebbetzin prepared a a seudah after YK. While for the tzibbur he paskened like the Gaon without any chumrot as to the end of YK, he would not eat until a brisker achtel (90 minutes) (adjusted for Boston to ~105 minutes around YK) before ending shabbos or YK. I never heard of anyone else who combined brisker chumrot for the end time of the day and then added mathematically precise adjustments based on latitude and season. not sure if that and / or his intense simkha after YK kept him from eating.

    yesterday i repeated the kotsker’s explanation of the tekiah after neilah, reminding us that while YK has ended, its impact should follow us into the new year.

  3. joel rich says:

    IIRC R’ Aharon Lichtenstein reported that if you ever needed to ask The Rav for something – motzai yom kippur was the time to do it for exactly this reason.
    GT

  4. Guy in Israel says:

    As I’m recovering from a cold, this morning I considered sleeping in and missing minyan – and then this post came to mind and it helped me get out of bed for minyan. That’s to your zechus, R’ Adlerstein!!

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