A MOURNER LEADING PRAYERS ON PURIM

A Mourner Leading Prayers on Purim

Rabbi Gil Student

Is a mourner, within a year for a parent or thirty days for another close relative, allowed to lead synagogue prayers on Purim?

A man who is in mourning is expected to lead weekday prayers in the synagogue. Of course, this is only for those who have the necessary skills and talents. Not everyone is good at leading the prayers. Someone who cannot do so should decline any invitation to lead the prayers and should just say Kaddish, which is a fine commemoration of the deceased. There is also a middle position suggested by Rav Moshe Isserles (16th cen., Poland) that a mourner can lead the very end of the Shacharis (morning) prayers — from the second Ashrei to the end (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 376:4). Even for those who can lead the entire prayers, there are days when they should not do so. On Shabbos and Yom Tov, the clear custom is that a mourner should not lead the prayers except under unusual circumstances (ibid.). On lesser holidays, the rule is less clear and customs differ.

Rav Yitzchak Dov Bamberger, known as the Wurburger Rav, was one of the leading German rabbis of the nineteenth century. Five of his six sons became rabbis. One of these important rabbinic sons, Rav Simcha Bamberger, writes that when he was in the year of mourning for one of his parents, he led the morning prayers on Chanukah and Purim only from the second Ashrei to the end (Responsa Zeicher Simcha, no. 79). To understand his practice, we have to go back four hundred years.

Different German Customs

There seem to be conflicting customs in fifteenth century Germany on this subject. Rav Yisrael Isserlein, the author of Terumas Ha-Deshen, offers a fairly strict view. Rav Isserlein does not allow a mourner to lead Shacharis prayers on a semi-holiday, nor Minchah (afternoon) prayers on Rosh Chodesh and not even Maariv (evening) prayers on Chol Hamoed (Leket Yosher, vol. 2, p. 95). Rav Ya’akov Moelin (Maharil) writes that a mourner should not lead the Shacharis prayers because they include Hallel, which is a joyous recitation, or the megillah reading on Purim (Responsa Maharil, no. 22). Because of the joyous part of the Shacharis service, a mourner should not lead any part. He seems to imply that a mourner may lead Minchah or Maariv. 

Rav Moshe (Maharam) Mintz allows even more. He writes that he personally witnessed great rabbis who, as mourners, led Shacharis of Rosh Chodesh through the silent prayer and then someone else took over and led from there. In this way, the mourner did not have to lead Hallel or recite publicly the special Ya’aleh Ve-Yavo addition for the sacred day. He also saw a great rabbi lead Maariv on Chanukah after which someone else lit the Chanukah candles in the synagogue (Responsa Maharam Mintz, no. 43).

It seems that Rav Yisrael Isserlein does not allow a mourner to lead any prayers on joyous days. He might allow a mourner to lead Maariv on some semi-holidays when there is no clear joy at night but not on Chol Hamoed when there is a mitzvah to rejoice even at night. Maharil is concerned with any service that includes Hallel or megillah and therefore allows a mourner to lead Minchah and Maariv on semi-holidays which lack those joyous recitations. Maharam Mintz is concerned only with a mourner saying joyous passages out loud and therefore allows a mourner to lead Shacharis through the silent prayer. 

In early nineteenth century Lithuania, we find a similar divergence of customs. Rav Avraham Danzig writes that on semi-holidays, a mourner may lead Shacharis up to, but not including, Hallel (Chayei Adam 138:4). This seems to follow Maharam Mintz and take it a little further. Rav Danzig adds that he believes his saintly mechutan, the Vilna Gaon, does not allow a mourner to lead Shacharis at all, which seems similar to Maharil’s view. 

Different Customs Today

Rav Yisrael Kagan (20th cen., Poland) writes contradictory rulings in his Mishnah Berurah. In one place, he writes that a mourner may lead Minchah and Maariv on Chanukah but not Shacharis, like Maharil (671:44). Elsewhere, he writes that a mourner may lead Shacharis if someone else says Hallel, like Maharam Mintz and Chayei Adam (681:7). And in a third place, he writes that a mourner may not lead any prayers on a semi-holiday (Bi’ur Halachah 132: Ma’amar Kaddishin). Rav Simcha Rabinowitz (cont., Israel) suggests that these contradictions indicate that Rav Kagan did not decide between the different views and left it up to local custom (Piskei Teshuvos 683:2).

Rav Rabinowitz writes that today, Chasidic synagogues tend to have a strict custom that mourners do not lead any prayers on semi-holidays and Ashkenaz synagogues allow mourners to lead Minchah and Maariv, some even Shacharis up to Hallel (ibid.). However, the Dirshu Mishnah Berurah (682, n. 4) quotes Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Chaim Kanievsky as saying that a mourner should not lead even Minchah and Maariv on semi-holidays and Rav Moshe Halberstam as saying that Chasidim differ on whether a mourner may lead Minchah and Maariv on such joyous days. Rav Chaim Elazar Shapiro (20th cen., Hungary) argues that the day of Purim (and not the night) is stricter than other semi-holidays because there is a special mitzvah to rejoice on Purim (Minchas Elazar 2:32).

In short, customs differ. While all the above relates to Ashkenazim, Rav Chaim David Halevi, the late Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Tel Aviv, writes that customs differ among Sephardim as well (Mekor Chaim 291:14). Rav Simcha Bamberger, with whom we began this discussion, seems to have found a new middle ground between the customs so he could lead the prayers but avoid any joyous passages by starting from the second Ashrei. Each family and each community should follow its own custom.