Reply To: Davening With A Minyan vs. Davening Without A Minyan

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#871558
simcha613
Participant

There is definitely an obligation to daven with a minyan as the Gemara says that one has to go out of his way 1 mil to get a minyan. The question is, and if I may use a mashal, if tefilah is a cake, is davening with a minyan one of the ingredients or is it the icing? Is it an essential component or not? A nafka mina would be is one allowed to go on vacation if he knows he won’t be able to get a minyan. This is a machlokes among the poskim- I think R’ Shlomo Zalman says no but I think Ishei Yisroel brings down shitos who argue.

R’ Herschel Shachter shlita from YU holds it is icing on the cake and R’ Aharon Lichtenstein shlita once said that was young he would miss minyan once in a while in order to help his wife with their young children. R’ Immanuel Feldman shlita, fromer Rav in Atlanta, would sometimes daven Maariv by himself because since the minyan would always wait for him, it put pressure on him and hurt his kavanah. So, once in a while he would daven by himself so he could talk to G-d without any distractions.

But I think all would agree, that if there is no valid reason, one is not allowed to miss minyan. No one would say that he can daven in his house whenever he feels like it.