{"id":6317,"date":"2010-01-17T18:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-01-17T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=6317"},"modified":"2018-05-24T11:46:53","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T08:46:53","slug":"02-17-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/02-17-18\/","title":{"rendered":"18 &#8211; It Is Forbidden to Pass in Front of People Reciting the Amidah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is forbidden to pass within four <i>amot<\/i> in front of a person reciting the <i>Amidah<\/i>, since one who passes in front of him is likely to disturb his concentration. There are those who say that the reason for the prohibition is that a person who is reciting the <i>Amidah<\/i> is standing before the <i>Shechinah<\/i> and one who passes before him offends the respect for the\u00a0\u00a0<i>S<\/i><i>hechina<\/i><i>h<\/i>.<sup><a id=\"_te02ftnref17_16\" class=\"aup1\" href=\"#_te02ftn17_16\">[16]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The <i>poskim<\/i> disagree regarding the question of where precisely is it forbidden to pass. According to the <i>Eliyah Rabbah<\/i>, the prohibition only applies to passing directly in front of the face of one reciting the <i>Amidah<\/i>, since only then will passing by disturb him. In other words, if the width of a man is approximately half a meter (1.64 feet), one may not pass in that half meter in front of his face for a distance of four <i>amot<\/i> (approximately 2 meters or 6.56 feet). However, according to the <i>Magen Avraham<\/i>, it is forbidden to pass anywhere the person praying can see within his four <i>a<\/i><i>mot<\/i>, since passing there is likely to slightly disrupt his <i>kavan<\/i><i>ah<\/i>.<br \/>\n<a style=\"color: #ff4b33;line-height: 24px\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/home\/tiporgil\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/11.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6326\" src=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/home\/tiporgil\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/11-300x193.png\" alt=\"1\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>They disagree further. According to the <i>Eliyah Rabbah<\/i>, a person is permitted to come and stand within the four <i>amot<\/i>\u00a0of a person praying and remain standing there. This is because he only disturbs the person when crosses through the four <i>amot<\/i> directly in front of his face. However, if he comes from the side and remains standing before him, he does not disrupt him as much. Still according to the <i>Magen Avraham<\/i>, it is forbidden to enter into the four <i>amot<\/i> in front of a person praying at all.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6327\" style=\"font-size: 12px;line-height: 18px\" src=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/home\/tiporgil\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/21-300x145.png\" alt=\"2\" width=\"300\" height=\"145\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<div><a id=\"_te02ftn17_16\" href=\"#_te02ftnref17_16\">[16]<\/a>.\u00a0The <i>Mishnah Berurah<\/i> 102:15 and <i>Bei\u2019ur Halachah<\/i> s.v. \u201c<i>Assur<\/i>\u201d write that the reason for the prohibition is the disturbance it will cause to the person praying. That is the opinion of the majority of <i>poskim<\/i>, and so writes the <i>Ma\u2019amar Mordechai<\/i>. However, the <i>Chayei Adam<\/i> maintains that the reason for the prohibition is that one who passes in front of a person reciting the <i>Amidah<\/i> interferes with his connection to the<i> Shechinah<\/i>. There are practical halachic differences (<i>nafka minot<\/i>) between the reasons. If the reason is disruption, then if the person praying covers his eyes with his <i>tallit<\/i>, one may pass in front of him.\u00a0 However, if the reason is because of the honor of the <i>Shechinah<\/i>, one is forbidden to pass. By contrast, if there is a partition with a height of ten <i>tefachim<\/i> in front of the person praying, then if the reason is the honor of the <i>Shechinah<\/i>, the partition is considered a divider and he may pass. But if it is because of distraction, he is prohibited from passing, as cited by the <i>Mishnah Berurah<\/i> 102:2. The <i>Bei\u2019ur Halachah<\/i> writes that it is proper to take into consideration the reason that the <i>Chayei Adam<\/i> presents as well. Still, according to <i>Eshel Avraham Butshatsh<\/i>, both reasons are mutually dependent, and only when there is a distraction to the person praying is there also an affront to the honor of the <i>Shechinah<\/i>. (This dispute is not contingent upon the disagreement between the <i>Magen Avraham<\/i> and <i>Eliyah Rabbah<\/i>, which is brought further in this chapter, because the <i>Magen Avraham<\/i> 102:6 also mentions that the reason for the prohibition is the disruption to the person praying. Furthermore, even according to the <i>Eliyah Rabbah<\/i> one could explain that the affront to the honor of the <i>Shechinah<\/i> is only when one passes directly in front of the person praying.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is forbidden to pass within four amot in front of a person reciting the Amidah, since one who passes in front of him is likely to disturb his concentration. There are those who say that the reason for the prohibition is that a person who is reciting the Amidah is standing before the Shechinah [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-amidah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>18 - It Is Forbidden to Pass in Front of People Reciting the Amidah - Peninei Halakha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/02-17-18\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"18 - It Is Forbidden to Pass in Front of People Reciting the Amidah - Peninei Halakha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is forbidden to pass within four amot in front of a person reciting the Amidah, since one who passes in front of him is likely to disturb his concentration. There are those who say that the reason for the prohibition is that a person who is reciting the Amidah is standing before the Shechinah [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/02-17-18\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peninei Halakha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-17T16:00:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T08:46:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u05e6\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05ea\u05e8\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u05e6\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05ea\u05e8\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ph.yhb.org.il\\\/en\\\/02-17-18\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ph.yhb.org.il\\\/en\\\/02-17-18\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\u05e6\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05ea\u05e8\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ph.yhb.org.il\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8822293bfa4f7cd35b44a3c311851b63\"},\"headline\":\"18 &#8211; 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