Simple Pleasures: The Minyan

Have you ever davened [prayed] with a weekday minyan?

Jewish prayer is intended to be a three-times-daily every day affair. While I usually say my prayers at home by myself, early on Tuesday mornings there’s a minyan that meets at the congregation where I am a member. As with many such minyanim, it’s a group of mostly-older, mostly-retired, mostly-men, with a sprinkling of working folks and women.

We are accustomed to one another. The songs are always the same. If anything is sung in tune, it’s strictly by accident. The Hebrew is rapid, because when we began, there was no parking lot and the meter readers would descend and ticket us if we ran long. Now it’s rapid because some folks need to get to work, and the retired folks need to get to coffee and discussion, which convenes immediately after the service, down the street at Posh Bagel.

It’s no-frills prayer. There are few variations in the service from week to week. You’d think it would be boring, but it’s not. There is the sweet comfort of familiar faces and familiar voices. There is friendship. Everyone is invited to coffee after, and they arrange it so that no one with a tight budget is embarrassed.

If you ever have access to a morning minyan, try it out. Give it a few tries. They may or may not be friendly at first, but my experience of such minyanim has been good. If you don’t know how to speed-daven, just “Amen” at the right places and it will be OK. You’ll pick it up – that’s how most people learn.

I left the minyan this morning for a meeting, carrying the warmth in my heart.