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CCAR RESPONSA

New American Reform Responsa

15. A Televised Jewish Service in a Hospital

QUESTION: A neighboring hospital which does not have a Jewish chaplain has decided to make televised shabbat and holiday services available to Jewish patients. The services would be provided on a cable channel and be transmitted several times on the appropriate day. Is it permissible to provide a religious service in this fashion to bedridden patients? May a morning service be shown at another time of the day? (Karen Halperin, Boston MA)ANSWER: A public service requires a minyan, but that is not possible for those who are ill and who may pray individually, they should be encouraged to do so. We may properly consider the service broadcast over the cable network as a stimulus to individual prayer. Those who are capable of participating in prayer at the same time as the broadcasts occur should do so with their own prayerbook, and perhaps with members of the family present to be part of that private service. Certainly such prayer would be much enhanced by being part of a larger group through television. Furthermore, for those individuals who are very ill and therefore unable to use a prayerbook, a broadcast service may lead them to direct their thoughts toward prayer. Previously such services could only be broadcast directly from a synagogue and there were Orthodox objections which dealt with the shabbat prohibitions (Mishpetei Uziel Orah Hayim #5,21). We, however, are dealing with a prerecorded and presumably abridged service and in any case we as Reform Jews would have no objection to recording such a service on shabbat or on the holidays. The Orthodox could record such a service on another day when there would be no objection. As far as broadcasting the service a number of times in the day, we should ask the hospital to limit the broadcast of a morning service to the morning hours. It should be possible for almost all the patients to listen to a complete service during that time, and therefore to have a feeling that they are participating in a service at the appropriate time of the day. The broadcast of such services should be encouraged as a way of enabling Jewish patients who are seriously ill to participate in religious services.October 1989

If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.