Q:
In the shul that I daven, people are always talking and making noise. Should I try to make some sort of quiet by making a scene about it, or should I just leave and find a quieter shul?
A:
The best thing to do is to leave that place altogether. Unless you’re a very important personality there. Otherwise, you’re not going to change them.
It’s a great tragedy, this tragedy of talking in the synagogues. It’s a בזיון, a disgrace for Hakodosh Boruch Hu. If a gentile, lehavdil, would come into a shul and see what type of place it is, he’d lose all interest, all respect. You have to realize that it’s a great cancer of our nation, chas veshalom. It’s a terrible cancer. And if you can not heal it, you can’t go get into a fight with them, then find a better place, and at least rescue yourself.
TAPE # 774 (March 1990)
