
This past Friday night, I got to Shul just after everyone had begun davening shmoneh esrei. As is known, it is asur to walk in front of someone who is davening shmoneh esrei ("אסור לעבור כנגד המתפללין "
Orach Chaim 102:4, based on
Brachos 27a, as illustrated by
this famous story of Rav Moshe Feinstein). Unfortunately, someone had chosen to start their shmoneh esrei in the back of the aisle leading in from the entrance to the shul, so that the 4 amos in front of this person covered the entire entranceway to the Shul, such that I could not come more than three feet into the Shul.
Whenever this happens, I have the challenge of being "dan l'chaf zechus" that the person is merely affected by the widespread neglect of this din, and but that he is not generally insensitive to others (although in this instance he is inadvertently blocking some from entering the shul or causing others to transgress the isur of walking in front of someone davening shmoneh esrei).
I therefore had to daven mincha as far forward in the aisle as possible so as not to personally block anyone else from entering the Shul. Things began to get humorous though when, after I had finished davening, I wanted to go to my seat on the other side of the Shul. As soon as the first person had finished davening shmoneh esrei in the back of the aisle, another "even-later-comer" had begun davening right next to the first person and so I still could not pass by.
I realized that Hashem was humorously telling me that I had no one to blame but myself for my predicament when, just before the second davener finished his silent amida, another "really-late-comer" had begun blocking the aisle with his shemoneh esrei right beside the second late-comer!
In the end, I think I was finally able to head toward my regular seat in the middle of Kabbalas Shabbos. Not realizing that I hadn't reached Hashem's punchline yet. I was so late getting to "my" regular seat that others had filled the entire row!
Moral of the story: Don't pick on other people's faults. Only late-comers like myself suffer from the unintentionally inconsiderate acts of other late-comers!
Picture courtesy of
saratogachabad.com.
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