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Can one join a Minyan or fulfill the audible Mitzvot via skype, telephone or other voice-transmitting devices?
By Rav Yosef Fund / Posek for the Bet HaVa’ad, Lakewood
Since the advent of voice-transmitting technology, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Poskim have grappled with the prospect of fulfilling Mitzvot using such methods. Can one hear Megilla, join a Minyan or answer Amen over the phone? How about using a microphone or listening via radio, skype, facetime and the like?
The First Telephones
The Minhat Elazar[1] (Rav Hayim Elazar Shapira זצ”ל of Muncacz, Hungary 1871-1937) was asked about someone who celebrated a Simha, and called his friend on the phone to share a virtual “L’Hayim”. Can the listener answer Amen on the Beracha of Bore Peri HaGefen he hears over the phone?
In his answer, the Minhat Elazar points out that if we were to consider listening via telephone as if one is hearing the actual voice for the purpose of fulfilling a Mitzva, we might need to be concerned about the following statement of the Shulhan Aruch[2]: “If ten men are in one place, and are reciting Kaddish and Kedusha, even one who is not with them may answer. However, there are those who say that there may not any uncleanness or idol between them”. Would we worry that there may be uncleanliness in between the one listening and the one reciting the Beracha?
The Minhat Elazar asserts that this is not an issue, since the telephone signal is carried in the telephone wires, which, at the time of the Minhat Elazar’s response, ran at a height greater than 10 Tefahim above ground. Such wires would be considered to be in a domain of their own. [This reasoning may not necessarily be applicable in the case of modern-day cell phone or internet communication which is often carried by waves through the air rather than through wires.]
Still, with regards to hearing Shofar, the Minhat Elazar writest that one cannot fulfill the Mitzva over the telephone [the discussion with regards to Shofar is largely a theoretic one, since the obligation to hear Shofar would always be on Yom Tov]. His reason is that one must hear the sound of a Shofar, not the sound of an echo. He describes the sound of a person over the telephone as a weak sound – not entirely similar to the sound of the one talking. So too, the sound of the Shofar would not be true to the original.
Live vs. Recording
However, Rav Nattan N. Schlissel[3] זצ”ל, a student of the Minhat Elazar, differentiates between a phonograph or other recording devices and a telephone. He asserts that when hearing a voice over a telephone one is hearing the actual speaker’s voice, immediately and without any Hefsek. This is not the case with a phonograph where the sound is stored and heard at a later time. He compares hearing over a telephone to hearing Shofar with the aid of an ear-trumpet, something which Rav Yaakov Hagiz, in Halachot Ketanot[4], allows. Rav Shlissel writes that his teacher’s response in Minhat Elazar was published in the year 5667(1906) and may have been actually written even earlier. In the ensuing forty years, telephones had improved, and while voice is not always transmitted clearly, Shofar and trumpet sounds are always heard clearly, a point which he reports he confirmed many time through experimentation.
General Perception
Interestingly, he quotes a responsa found in only some editions of Teshuvot Sha’are De’ah (Levitan)[5] where it is written that in case of difficulty there is basis to consider the sound heard over a telephone as the sound of a Shofar, since “it is generally accepted amongst those who have a telephone and make use of if that the sound heard over a telephone is the voice of the speaker without any change”.
It is not entirely clear what the Sha’are De’ah is attempting to prove by citing the popular perception. It is difficult to say that he is citing the popular perception to establish the facts[6]. It may just be that the Sha’are De’ah is relying on the perception of the public, in order to establish the Halachic perception of voice over the telephone. Since users perceive the voice they are hearing as that of the speaker, therefore we ought to treat it Halachically as the same.
Rav Auerbach’s Position
However, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach[7] זצ”ל takes the position that all sound heard over a telephone, or even a microphone, is not considered the sound of the Shofar or the original speaker, but rather the sound of the loudspeaker. Rav Auerbach explains that it is like when one inserts a record into a gramophone where the needle rubbing against the record is causing the sound coming from the speaker. It is not the sound of the voice which was recorded, but rather the sound of the needle’s interaction with the record. Similarly, when a person talks or blows a Shofar into a microphone, the sound heard from the speaker is not the original sound, but a new sound.
Therefore, according to Rav Auerbach, one cannot fulfill Mitzvot or Berachot through hearing sound over a microphone.
In a footnote, Rav Auerbach adds that, after the original article was published, he had occasion to talk with the Hazon Ish. The Hazon Ish stated that in his opinion “it may be that since the sound heard is created through speech, and is heard immediately as is normal speech, possibly this is considered as hearing from a speaker” [it may be that this argument is what Sharei Deah intended by referring to popular perception]. Rav Auerbach added, that he did not understand the position of the Hazon Ish.
It is worth noting that Rav Henkin[8] זצ”ל writes that one who can, even with difficulty, hear without a hearing aid should not use it [on Shabbat and/or for the performance of other Mitzvot] since there are those who consider sound heard through it as sound heard through an echo.
Skype Minyan
What about participating in a minyan from afar, and hearing the prayers using modern distance communication methods?
As mentioned earlier, the Shulhan Aruch[9] rules that if ten are in one place and reciting Kaddish and Kedusa, even one who is not with them may answer, and there are those who say that there may not be in between uncleanness or an idol. The Mishna Berura comments that the Shulhan Aruch means to include even one who is found in a different house quite far away. When a quorum of ten are in one place – the Shechina dwells amongst them. Therefore, even an iron curtain would not block any who wish to join them from connecting with HaKadosh Baruch Hu on this higher level. Certainly, one cannot be counted towards a Minyan if he is not in the same location as the other. However, can he listen to a minyan using Skype and answer Amen?
Rav Aurbach[10] writes that perhaps only one who is standing near a synagogue and hears the prayers over a loudspeaker may answer Amen, but someone who is standing at a distance and only hears a blessing from loudspeakers should not answer Amen. His reasoning seems to be that to answer Amen there must be a connection between the one who recites the Beracha and the one who answers. Similarly, the Avne Yashefe[11] quotes Rav Elyashiv[12] as saying that one who answers Amen to a Beracha heard over the radio is comparable to one who answers Amen upon receipt of a telegraph that somewhere in the world someone recited a blessing.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An expanded version of this article, relating especially to hearing the Megilla via microphone and hearing aids will be published B”H in our upcoming Adar Edition of the Sephardic Halacha Journal. Stay posted!
Sources:
[1] 2:72
[2] OH 55,20
[3] Printed in Yerushat HaPeleta 5766, Siman 10 pg. 28
[4] Volume 2, 45.
[5] Volume 1 siman 2. He mentions that some editions have a completely different response printed in the same siman. See also Sharei Deah vol.1 siman 194.
[6] See Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach in Meorei Eish edition 5770 vol. 2 Shaar 4 page 564 who writes that he feels the need to disabuse of their notion those who believe that the actual voice of the speaker is transmitted over telephone wires or radio waves.
[7] Me’ore Esh, ibid. pg. 561
[8] Edut L’Yisrael pg. 122
[9] OH 55:20
[10] Ibid. pg. 563
[11] Vol. 1 OH 9
[12] Avne Yashefe does not identify Rav Elyashiv by name; Otzar Teshuvot L’She’elot HaMetzuyot, Siman 40, attributes the quote to Rav Elyashiv.