ARK OPEN DURING SERVICES

QUESTION:

The local congregation has the following custom: The Ark is opened at the beginning of the Friday night service and remains open during the entire service. Is this practice justified by tradition? (Asked by Rabbi Richard A. Zionts, Shreveport, Louisiana)

ANSWER:

THE QUESTION of when the Ark is open is not strictly a matter of law. For that reason there are variations in customs on this matter. Some congregations close the Ark immediately after the Torah is taken out to be read. Others keep the Ark open during the entire time that the Torah is read. This latter custom has given rise to legal discussion which has some bearing on the question asked here.

It is a law that when the Torah is being carried, all present must rise. From this custom many have developed the practice of remaining standing if, after the Torah is taken out, the Ark remains open, because the other scrolls are visible. This custom of remaining standing as long as the Ark is open is the subject of discussion among the authorities. The matter is dealt with to some extent in Reform Responsa, page 43 ff. To Yore Deah 242:18, the Taz (Samuel of Ostrow) records the fact that some people stand while the Ark is open. But, he adds, there is no legal necessity to do so. However, two premier Hungarian authorities, Meir Eisenstadt and Moses Sofer, both say that the people should stand as long as the Ark is open. Eisenstadt, in Panim Meiros, Volume I, 74, and Moses Sofer, in Chatam Sofer, Choshen Mishpot, 73, in fact say that it is actually forbidden to sit down as long as the Ark is open. Furthermore, the important later authority, Jechiel Epstein, in his Aruch Ha-Schulchan, to Yore Deah 282, par. 13, says that whenever people rise at the open Ark, the whole congregation should do so also, although this custom is not a law.

Thus it is clear that many eminent authorities insist that the whole congregation should remain standing as long as the Ark is open. Clearly, from this point of view, it would be preferable if the Ark in your congregation were not open during the entire service.

However, since to remain standing is not strictly a law, a modern Reform congregation might not be impressed with the requirement to remain standing as long as the Ark is open. Yet there is another consideration which would appeal to a modern congregation. It is a custom, which we in Reform congregations also observe, that at certain solemn moments in the High Holiday services, the Ark is opened and the congregation stands. If the Ark is open all year, then this impressive action on the High Holidays is not only physically impossible, but even if the Ark is then closed in order to open it, the ceremony has lost its solemnity because it is a commonplace in this congregation for the Ark to be open.

However, inasmuch as all that I have mentioned above is not strict law, then it would be advisable to be careful in trying to change it. If, for example, the congregation insists that this local custom is precious to it, then a minhag which has persisted for a long time, and which is not patently absurd, always has a respected status. If, however, the congregation will not mind the suggested change, then for the reasons stated above, it would be advisable to change it in conformity with the practice of most congregations.