Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

Okay, question number four.

If there is a house of minyan on one's block, is it still preferable to daven in a shul?

So there's the short answer and the long answer.

The short answer is, yes, of course it's preferable to davening a shul.

So then people say, come on, you're making that up, you're just a shul rabbi, and you're only saying that because it serves your interest, and rabbis just want to make people's lives difficult, and that's why they don't want people davening a houseman on them, because they're afraid it's going to weaken the rabbi's control and power.

So let me explain to you why the yes.

Let me give the long answer.

The Gemara quotes a passage in the 14th parak of Mishle that when a person does mitzvot b'rov am hajras melech it is the greatest covet to the Rebbe to do mitzvot b'rov am with a larger crowd.

The B'yarei Lachan even says better to learn in a Beis Medrash than to learn privately because b'rov am hajras melech.

and therefore says that a person should always try to daven in a shul with the tzibur.

In fact, the Magan Avram says, even if you have a minion not on your block, not next door,

Even if you have a minion in your own house, you should daven in shul, because there's a larger crowd in shul, so you should go to shul.

That means, assuming it's not going to cause a major sholom ba'ister, but your dad runs a minion in the den where there's a large screen TV and whatever else there,

You should go to shul.

You should go to shul.

Now, the second issue is, and perhaps the bigger one, is the Gemara in Brach HaStav Ches says that anyone who has a Beis HaKnesses in their city and is not Nikh Nesham L'Hispalel is called a Shechin Ra.

is called a bad neighbor.

Shulchan Aruch quotes this, you have a base of Knesset in your city, and you don't go there, you don't go there to daven, you're a shachin, you're a shachin ra.

The Mishra Bruin points out, that the Prima Gadim even raises the possibility, that if there's no minion in shul, you're still a shachin ra, if you don't go daven in the shul.

That it's worth it to daven in the shul.