Davening at School Remains Optional For Time Being

 

By Gideon Miller-

At the beginning of this year due to the novel coronavirus, Ida Crown did not mandate that students daven at school. On October 19, ICJA reintroduced mandatory mincha at school, but davening shacharit at school remains optional. It is unclear when davening shacharit at school will become mandatory again. Although Rabbi Matanky, the dean of ICJA, said that the “expectation is that we will have shacharit again at school,” he does not foresee this happening until at least the beginning of the second semester.

In order for davening at school to become mandatory, the ICJA administration would have to find a safe way for both davening and breakfast to happen. The logistics of how to daven shacharit safely will probably be similar to those for mincha, but finding a safe way to have breakfast is yet to be fully worked out.

Currently, the minyan at Ida Crown is small and can daven with everybody in the gym. There is no breakfast system for those who attend, but they can eat outside after davening. Yaakov David, a sophomore boy who regularly attends the school shacharit minyan, often does not eat then though he does occasionally eat outside.

Breakfast is a challenge because halacha dictates that one cannot eat before davening, and in order to have breakfast in school, the fifteen minutes that students are allowed to be with others unmasked each day (which is currently used for lunch) would have to include the time for breakfast as well. Many find the fifteen-minute time constraint on lunch challenging already: eating two meals in that time would only be harder.

After reaching out to both halachic authorities and Ida Crown’s medical committee, the administration did not see a feasible way to deal with the challenge of breakfast for the time being. Once the weather warms a potential solution to the problem of breakfast would be to eat outside. Also, if the Center for Disease Control (CDC) were to revert their guidelines back to how they were before Oct. 21 and not have the fifteen minutes that one can be unmasked with others be cumulative, breakfast would be able to be indoors.

While davening shacharit at school remains optional, Rabbi Matanky has repeatedly stressed that davening is mandatory. The extra time gained in the mornings that students do not have to be at school for davening should still be used for davening even if away from the school.