FYI young Israel of Deerfield beach letter

Read the letter, they were not thrown out of the shul. However ,for going against the Rav’s psak the participants were: 1. stripped of any positions they held within the shul 2. Were banned from receiving any kibudim 3. Could not be a baal tefikah, baal kriyah or maagid shiur

NEWS FLASH: Florida allows all houses of worship to operate, so there is no issue of dina demalusah and this happens off premise of YI so frankly its non of the their business. Its all about a bunch of grumpy old men on power trips.

as I asked in the comments section on the main page, were the shul members warned in advance of the possible consequences of conducting a non-sanctioned minyan?

It’s obvious from the comments that most people aren’t familiar with this shul and think it’s just another Young Israel.

Century Village is a gated retirement community located in Deerfield Beach, FL with 30,000 senior citizens residing on its square mile property. The Young Israel of Deerfield Beach, located just outside the gate, is the only shul serving that community. Rabbi Yisroel Edelman, a Lubavitcher chasid, has led their 1,200 members for more than a decade with great dedication, especially to the health and safety concerns of his aging membership. Two months ago, the Rabbi and the Board wisely decided that they must close the shul and forbid all private minyanim since all of their members are at-risk seniors. Any breach of social distancing presents an imminent threat not only to their lives but to those of tens of thousands of other senior residents, many of them Jews.

The breach that occurred has no similarity to what might be happening in any other community. One can only imagine the nightmare scenario if ch”v the virus would begin to spread there. The Rav and the Board were correct to send this letter informing their members that such dangerous behavior has serious consequences and can’t be tolerated.

The sore loser who decided to publicize this letter beyond the shul membership will have to answer for it.

What this will do is encourage the break away minyan to be permanent. Since they already have a minyan it’s not hard for someone to use a garage or basement to make it permanent. If any of the members of the rogue minyan are popular, such as former officers of the YI,, they can recruit others to join their minyan. YI has a mortgage and salary expense for the rabbi, the lose of income during the pandemic plus the loss of income from the loss of members will push them closer to bankruptcy. People who join a backyard or porch minyan regularly go to shul and the loss of these members from YI may make it harder for YI to maintain a daily minyan.

The Rogue Minyanmachers are 100 percent entitled to participate in their own minyan contrary to the psak of the Rav of this shul. Likewise, the Rav (with support from the Board of the Shul) is entitled to exclude them from any kavod in that shul. Since they obviously disagree with the Rav, perhaps make their rouge minyan permanent.
Actions have consequences.

Abba S., I sincerely hope you are better informed in other cases than you appear to be here.
There are no basements or garages. Century Village is a gated community of owner occupied Apartments. There is a limit of how many people can squeeze into an apartment, even if the Homeowner rules allowed it, which they don’t.
The Young Israel, when it’s open, gets hundreds of men to it’s daily minyanim so your concern is unwarranted.

Benephraim, I don’t understand you. When we say Yiftoch we are not excluding Shmuel but even Yiftoch who was not learned certainly Shmuel.

Dear Joseph,
So, how an opinion is presented to the public reflects more than personal actions?

replying to n0mesorah:
You sound terribly similar to one of the main characters in Parshas Korach. Please do your soul a favor and research who what were and when is considered by halacha to be Torah authority. STOP YOUR DANGEROUS LETZUNUS!

(And I’m relating this because I truly care4U !!)

Commonseychel, to buy an apartment in Century Village you have to be no younger than 55 ( unless your spouse is over 55) and the average age of the residents is probably in the high 70s. Many snow birds are still in Florida and it would be virtually impossible on a Shabbos to socially distance 1500 to 1600 mispallim. Again, we are talking about a shul where everybody is in the most vulnerable category living in a community of 30,000 senior citizens.
Setting up a breakaway is not so simple and, despite what Abba says, it’s not cheap. You can’t have it on the Century Village property and whatever property you rent has to be close by and within the eruv. The expenses have to be spread out among fewer people. Besides, they would have to hire a lawyer to form a legal entity to be responsible for the lease because a landlord has to have someone legally and financially responsible. When you start talking money , watch how soon the rogue minyan dissipates. Aldo, if you’ve davened either nusach Ashkenaz or Sfard ( the YI has a Sfard minyan concurrent with the main minyan ) for 70 years, are you really going to feel comfortable switching to Nusach Ari and Chabad minhagim?
There is another important issue. In a a shul the size and age like Century Village, unfortunately illness, hospitalization and RL, death, is alot more common. Early in its history, when it was a lot smaller, the shul relied upon members who were retired rabbonim. However, as membership grew and with it, the need, it became unfair to the retired rabbonim so the shul hired a rav. So, what happens when the rogue minyan has a member in the hospital, confined at home or loses someone to illness, who do they call? Who supplies a shiva minyan, the chevrah kadisha? The shul they will no longer be supporting.
What I’m saying is that it’s not as simple as people are making it out to be.
BTW, small Friday night minyanim have always been allowed in pre Corona times because if you’re 82 and using a walker, it was too physically draining to walk a mile round trip to shul for a relatively short davening.

n0m. exactly my point, the Lakewood rabbonim were talking as a group, the 5 town rabbonim were talking as a group, same with Passic. Your not going to get everyone to agree but you can get a general consencus for the local area.
Sorry but there is nothing out there from ORB or Vaad of Miami on shuls during corona.

All what that rabbi accomplished is that there is going to be competition now with a new shul and new rabbi

@godal Just out of curiosity, if the Rav in YIDB would have said no one who go to a mixed pool is allowed to go the amud or that women who don’t cover the hair even while not in shul would have the membership revoked would you still feel that way?

Those who are pointing out the correctness and justification (and it certainly sounds that the punishment may have been well justified and appropriate) of the shul stripping these members of their rights and kibbudim, would certainly also agree that if a Rov ruled that it is mandatory for everyone to wear a skirt that’s minimally 4 inches below the knee and isn’t tight, sheitel that isn’t too long, etc., that it would be entirely appropriate and he’d be fully justified to punish the women violating that as well as their husbands/fathers who permitted it by stripping them of any honors, rights and kibbudim.

@anonymous, read what I wrote, neigher Vaad of Miami OR ORB put out an a statement closing shuls, the reason I referenced both is because those are the two local boards of rabbis for South Florida.
PS I drove from NMB to Deerfield during non rush hour and it took 28 minutes

Dear Care,
Thank you! You are very kind. Been there, worked on that. (No such thing as done.) Maybe you can point me to something new. On a different post I wrote that I am have respect for all Rabbonim. That was not my point.

My point is, this is an issue of social conflict. People who follow their own paths away from the community, have to be amicable about it. If the Rav is for or against is not a factor. People have to answer to themselves first.

Abba: Without addressing any other point, it is illegal for a condo, coop or local zoning ordinance to outlaw, prevent, preclude or otherwise inhibit a religious gathering, as such would be a clear violation of the First Amendment.

Joseph, I’m not an attorney, and neither are you However, just like Abba and others, , you are making statements without ever having seen Century Villsge.
Century Village is a private gated community and as such, may not be subject to the First Amendment. All the roads in CV are private, as is all the land. State universities are subject to the first Amendment, private colleges are not.
Abba, as of 2018 dues in that YI are $1250 a person, not between 2 and 5 thousand.

Joseph, please don’t distort. You davening maariv in your house is not the same as establishing an organized shul/church/mosque in your apartment. This discussion is about establishing a breakaway from the YI of Deerfield so, if your comment was in general, it was irrelevant.

Define “establishing an organized shul/church/mosque in your apartment”. If someone invites his friends over for lunch in his dining room and afterwards, or even instead of lunch, he and those friends pray in his dining room, he is doing a personal and religious protected activity. No different legally than if he had invited those same people to play Solitaire, Stratego or Bingo in his living room. If there’s no law or regulation prohibiting friends from gathering in the living room for a game of solitaire or for lunch then legally there can be no regulation or law against praying, instead, in the living room.

Joseph ,You’re not inviting ten people to your home 3 times a day ,7 days a week to play solitaire. Chances are than ten people in your home, not creating a disturbance , would not be an issue. But, if a neighbor found out that you were holding services on a regular basis ( defining the establishment of a shul ) they could report you to the Home Owners Assoc and create a problem. In any event, you cant get more than 15 people in the apartment. Where would their wives daven?