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Thought for the Day: A Choice Between Two Mincha Minyanim

For various reasons, I would prefer to daven mincha g'dola; that is, soon after is it time to daven mincha, instead of right before sh'kiya. I recently discovered there are two mincha g'dola minyamin near my "office", aka home. One offers a full mincha -- silent shmone esrei followed by the reader's repetition... but no tachanun. The other offers tachanun, but does a "heiche k'dusha". Follow link to OU site provided for complete explanation and history.

Both options are less than optimal. Before getting to the p'sak halacha, though, I think it is very important to appreciate that both of these customs -- which seem to fly in the face of halacha -- are practiced by kosher congregations around the world. Moreover, they have been practiced for some time and are not "new inventions." How they got started is one question. But the fact that they are both kosher and reputable now is indisputable.

Here is the lore I have heard about heicha k'dusha -- it is common in yeshivos and Lakewood style community kollels. The idea is that the was originally instituted before sidurim were available and many people didn't know how to daven by heart, so the shalich tzibur -- aka shatz -- would say the entire shmone esrei out loud to enable the congregation to fulfill their obligation. Nowadays that we all know how to daven (we all have siddurim), so there is less/different need for the reader's repetition and when time is short one may use the heicha k'dusha. Why do yeshivas and kollels use it even when time is not short? Some say to make an impression of the importance of learning Torah and to squeeze out every available second. Be that as it may (or not), the reason now is because it has become a custom.

What about skipping tachanun? Some say because mincha as in some/many chassidishe shuls started later, which meant that by the time they got to the part of the mincha where they should say tachanun, it was already too late. We don't say tachanun at night, you see. I have also heard that they intentionally pushed mincha later so that it would be too late for tachanun because tachanun is such a powerful t'fila, but arouses HaShem's trait of strict justice -- they feared that, so pushed mincha later. Be that as it may (or not), the reason now is because it has become a custom.

So what do I do when faced with a quandary such as this? You know the answer to that. R' Fuerst said it was better to daven where they do a full silent shmone esrei followed by the reader's repetition and miss tachanun.

You know me, I asked a follow up question: Am I allowed to say tachanun myself, or is that separating myself from the congregation? (A grave sin itself.) R' Fuerst told me I could say it myself after aleinu. (A chiddush to me, as it's place is really directly after shmone esrei.) Then I asked a final follow up question: Should I say it after aleinu? On that, I was told -- no the custom is not to say it, so you have no obligation. (I know the rabbi said "no obligation"; but I didn't tell you that answer in a vacuum, I told you the question to which that was the response.) So... I shall be planning to daven at the mincha g'dola minyan that has full silent shmone esrei followed by the reader's repetition and no tachanun.

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