Mikolot Mayim Rabbim

One morning last week, a young man was flying with his sister from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Kentucky. The young man, being an observant Jew, wanted to recite the morning prayers on the plane, as he had not had the opportunity to do so before going to the airport. This, he did just like in the synagogue, and as countless flying Dutchmen Jews before him, by praying while wearing tefillin. Unfortunately, that particular crew did not know what tefillin are, and in this post-shoe bomber, post-underwear bomber era, the crew grew suspicious, and after conferring with the pilot, they made an emergency stopover in Philadelphia, where a SWAT team “welcomed” the brother and sister team, arrested them, escorted them out of the plane, and treated them like wanna-be leather-straps-on-arm-and-forehead-bombers.  Of course, it didn’t take too long to figure out that this was an innocent pair, though for the convenience of flight crew training, I am including a graphic (hat tip: R’JF) that should hammer this point home rather clearly. A video news report is included at the end of this post.

Anyway, ever since this incident, the blogosphere and mailing list are alight, discussing whether or not one must pray with tefillin even when flying, what the alternatives are, if any, whether we should expect such reactions in the future and hence should as much as possible abstain from praying with tefillin while flying, in this post-shoe bomber, post-underwear bomber era, and whether the crew was properly trained. These issues have already been discussed extensively elsewhere.

While the security issues are new, Jews have faced the issues with praying while travelling since time immemorial. Over a hundred years ago, a similar discussion was aired in the German Jewish press. A certain Chief Rabbi J. Kahn of Treves / Trier wrote an article attacking the practice, and suggested that travellers put their tefillin on before leaving home, even if that was before day break, when the tefillin should ordinarily not be worn. R’ Esriel Hildesheimer responded in his usual learned, witty, slightly acerbic manner. Below, I am excerpting some relevant passages.

For the benefit of the practically minded, I shall give some practical tips at the end of the post. Read the rest of this entry »