For the source text click/tap here: Eruvin 104
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Confession
I was walking on West End Ave one summer erev Shabbat and had some time befor attending Kabbalat Shabbat at my father in law’s shul (Young Israel of the West Side). I past 86th street where Bnei Jeshurun would hold services earlier and saw throngs of people standing in line to enter. What was so attractive about this shul (other than the location of the movie “Keeping the Faith”?
I wondered in to see some 800 people davening together. There was music to accompany the Carlebach melodies, there was a silent moment before Kriyat Sh’ma where you could hear a pin drop, there was dancing after Lecha Dodi…I had never heard musical instruments before during a Shabbat service. I found myself weeping.
What had happened to orthodoxy? Why was this alive in ways I had never experienced before? I was overcome with grief.
How had we come to this place in time and history?
I present some historical framing below as a balance to the Rishonim quoted above.