Jews Can Pray In Mosques - Not Churches

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Jews can pray in Mosques - Not Churches Feb 15, 2011
Rabbi Efrati is quoted in Israeli paper Ynet news that Jews can (and indeed should) pray in mosques when they are available in airports etc - rather than praying in the open, or delaying the prayer.

This is not news - previous rabbis have ruled the same way.

However, interesting to note that Jews aren't allowed to even step inside a Christian Church - let alone pray in one:
he stressed that praying in churches was completely and strictly forbidden. In fact, it is forbidden to step into a church, he said.


I'm sure this news will cause the 'usual crowd' much frustration - for they wish to believe that Jews and Muslims really can't get along and that Christians are the true friends of Jews. But reality and loon hype are rarely on speaking terms.

Pray in mosque, rabbi rules

“It would be better to pray in a mosque and do so with meaning and after the sun rises, rather than at home, at dawn or at the airport and without meaning,” Rabbi Baruch Efrati determined recently in a response posted on the Kipa website recently.

The surprising ruling came in response to a question posed by a web surfer living abroad who travels frequently for work purposes: “Most of the time the flights leave very early in the morning. I manage to put on tefilin at home after daybreak, but I don’t have time to wait until I can complete morning prayers,” he stated.

“On the other hand, if I pray at the airport – I feel extremely uncomfortable, because people stare and I find it hard to focus on my prayers.”

He wished to know how to act – and Rabbi Efrati had a surprising response: “Some airports in Europe and Asia have mosques, and they are usually empty of people who are not praying and so it is quiet,” he noted and suggested that the traveler inquire at the airport.

“Of course, this solution isn’t perfect,” the rabbi added, “but it is the best option. There is no prohibition on praying in mosques (apart for the Ran’s – Rabbi Nissim ben Reuven ruling, which was not accepted).”
Rabbi Efrati noted that an example was the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, which has a mosque.

Either way, the rabbi ruled that if the traveler has trouble praying with meaning in the airport – he shouldn’t pray there. In addition, he stressed that praying in churches was completely and strictly forbidden. In fact, it is forbidden to step into a church, he said.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 44,00.html

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Shafique

shafique
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Re: Jews can pray in Mosques - Not Churches Feb 15, 2011
he stressed that praying in churches was completely and strictly forbidden. In fact, it is forbidden to step into a church, he said.


Shafique, Do you happen to know if there is a particular reason behind this restriction?
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Re: Jews Can Pray In Mosques - Not Churches Feb 15, 2011
I can only quote what Rabbis give as their reasons - and below it apparently stems from a reference in the Talmud (I have to say, to me it doesn't make sense - from a logical perspective - but this is what they teach).

What is fascinating, is that implicitly the reasons for not going to a Church - eg 'that some part of Christianity will enter you' etc. must also apply to Mosques - but that this is ok in Judaism. It may be that Islam is a stricly monotheistic religion whilst Jews and Muslims view the teaching of the Trinity as a violation of monotheism? :

QUESTION: My rabbi says it is forbidden for Jews to enter a church. But if we can't participate in interfaith visits, how can we promote understanding between different faiths?


[Answer]:Rabbi Naftali Brawer
Naftali Brawer is rabbi at Borehamwood and Elstree United Synagogue.


Your rabbi is correct. The rabbinic consensus, based on the Talmud (Avodah Zara 17a,) is that it is forbidden to enter a church, even if just to admire the architecture or artwork. This body of opinion spans the generations and comprises leading medieval Sephardic and Ashkenazi rabbis such as Maimonides, Rashba (Rabbi Solomon ben Aderet), Ritba (Rabbi Yom Tov ibn Asevilli) and Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel), as well as contemporary halachists including Rabbis Moshe Feinstien, Ovadia Yosef and Eliezer Waldenberg.

While at first glance this approach appears disrespectful to and even disdainful of other faiths, I believe it reflects just the opposite. Judaism sees faith, any faith, as something very powerful. A Christian house of worship in Jewish eyes is more than just a building. It is a place where Christianity is palpable. It pervades the very walls and space of the church and gives it its unique character. This is no different to how Judaism sees its own faith manifested in the very space of a synagogue.

To a person of faith, this has serious ramifications. One cannot simply enter a church without some aspect of the church entering you. To put it another way: by entering a church, one enters into a Christian religious experience. No matter how subliminal this experience is, it is inconsistent with Jewish faith and practice.

Those who argue that a church is nothing more than a building underestimate the potent atmosphere of a house of worship and, in so doing, they trivialise it.
...


http://www.thejc.com/judaism/rabbi-i-ha ... r-a-church
shafique
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Re: Jews Can Pray In Mosques - Not Churches Feb 15, 2011
So Jews should pray in a mosque but are forbidden from entering a church? Well that does seem inexplicable.

If entering a church causes someone to experience Christianity, why would entering a mosque not cause someone to experience Islam?
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Re: Jews Can Pray In Mosques - Not Churches Feb 15, 2011
^I agree blueshift.

The only logical conclusion is that Islam is closer to Judaism than Christianity is - for the Rabbi in the OP explicitly says Jews can (and indeed should) pray in mosques rather than in public, but that it is forbidden to enter a Christian church.

Cheers,
Shafique
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Re: Jews Can Pray In Mosques - Not Churches Feb 16, 2011
I think when the article mentions 'mosques' I think it refers to non-specific prayer rooms rather than exclusively Muslim rooms. Airports owned by a secular European government, I don't think would have rooms dedicated to a particular faith as this would be against their charter. Public prayer rooms would tend to be used almost entirly by Muslims as other faiths tend not to pray to rigid schedules.

Anyway, the idea of Jews and Muslims (and other faiths as well) praying in the same room appeals to me.
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Re: Jews can pray in Mosques - Not Churches Feb 16, 2011
The Rabbi was quite specific about praying in Mosques and the fact Jews are forbidden to pray in Churches.

“It would be better to pray in a mosque and do so with meaning and after the sun rises, rather than at home, at dawn or at the airport and without meaning,” Rabbi Baruch Efrati determined recently in a response posted on the Kipa website recently.
..
He wished to know how to act – and Rabbi Efrati had a surprising response: “Some airports in Europe and Asia have mosques, and they are usually empty of people who are not praying and so it is quiet,” he noted and suggested that the traveler inquire at the airport.


Given the ruling that Churches are forbidden to Jews - it would be an interesting supplementary question to learn whether generic prayer rooms that Christians (and others) use were forbidden to Jews or not.

However, the Rabbi is making the distinction between mosques and churches, and is specifically talking about airports which have mosques in his example (not just generic prayer/meditation rooms).

Cheers,
Shafique
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Re: Jews can pray in Mosques - Not Churches Mar 08, 2011
In Islam, we are allowed to pray in a Jewish Kanisa or a Christian Kanisa. (Knisa is a semite word means a place to gather, here refers to a church). The Islamic ideology states that these places be it Jewish or Christian were set there & built for one purpose, which is to whorship God, thus it's a place of spiritual purity regardless any conflicts between the 3 religions.

When Jerusalem was conquered by the Muslims, the local Christians invited the Khalifa Omar to pray in the Church of Resurrection after having to agree on the peace treaty, known as the "Omari Treaty". Omar refused to do so, and when they questioned him, he replied that he fear someday the Muslim might claim it, so he prayed in a place next to it.
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Re: Jews Can Pray In Mosques - Not Churches Mar 09, 2011
Thanks so much that your thintank can overpower that of the Wahhabis. You have true understand of the Islam without any hatred to Jews or Christian.
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