Sunday, January 28, 2007
In the Wee Hours, Worship and More
AT 10 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, the corner of 53rd Street and 13th Avenue in the heart of Borough Park was bustling with traffic. In this neighborhood, an ultra-Orthodox stronghold for the past decade, a sea of religious Jews clad in traditional black and white garb scurried in every direction for late-night prayer, shopping or something to eat. This corner of Brooklyn never sleeps, or so it seems.
The main attraction is Congregation Shomrei Shabbos, a 24-hour synagogue where a service begins every 15 minutes. What started more than three-quarters of a century ago as a tiny congregation has grown into a mainstay of this community: transit hub, soup kitchen, community center, bookstore and prayer hall all in one.
The late-night traffic generated by the synagogue has spilled onto the streets, so much so that over the past few years a neighborhood has literally grown up around it. Restaurants and stores are open long past midnight. Peddlers vie for street space in the wee hours. Religious music streams from a small boombox. Men stop their cars in the middle of darkened streets to announce the birth of a child.
Even in a city renowned for the hours it keeps, the late-night liveliness here is remarkable.
“Some people here have begun to call this corner a mini-Times Square,” said Alexander Rapaport, a longtime resident of Borough Park who attends the synagogue.
Standing outside the synagogue one recent evening at 11:30, he pointed across the street to the neighborhood’s first large billboard, a bright green ad that arrived two months ago and hovers above this corner. It advertises a concert by the popular religious singer and entertainer Lipa Schmeltzer, outfitted in a fur hat, side locks and thick glasses.
Men coming home late from work, passing through on business or returning from a wedding know that at Shomrei Shabbos they will be guaranteed a minyan, a quorum of 10 men required by Jewish law for communal prayer, until 2 a.m. — a major benefit for observant Jews who pray together three times a day. Unofficial services continue through the night. Thanks to this nonstop traffic, much of it generated by the synagogue’s embrace of worshipers of various Orthodox groups, the building resembles nothing so much as a busy bus station, with people wandering in and out at all hours of the day and night.
Between 10 p.m. and midnight, the place is so crowded that it is hard to find space to sit or even stand. Men come at night to daven Maariv — recite the evening prayers — which can be done any time from sundown to sunrise. Religious men who work often miss the window of opportunity at synagogues where services are held only once an evening.
“Other shuls only have a minyan at certain times,” said Moshe Metzger, who has volunteered at Shomrei Shabbos for 35 years. “Here you can come whenever.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/nyregion/thecity/28hour.html?ref=thecity
AT 10 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, the corner of 53rd Street and 13th Avenue in the heart of Borough Park was bustling with traffic. In this neighborhood, an ultra-Orthodox stronghold for the past decade, a sea of religious Jews clad in traditional black and white garb scurried in every direction for late-night prayer, shopping or something to eat. This corner of Brooklyn never sleeps, or so it seems.
The main attraction is Congregation Shomrei Shabbos, a 24-hour synagogue where a service begins every 15 minutes. What started more than three-quarters of a century ago as a tiny congregation has grown into a mainstay of this community: transit hub, soup kitchen, community center, bookstore and prayer hall all in one.
The late-night traffic generated by the synagogue has spilled onto the streets, so much so that over the past few years a neighborhood has literally grown up around it. Restaurants and stores are open long past midnight. Peddlers vie for street space in the wee hours. Religious music streams from a small boombox. Men stop their cars in the middle of darkened streets to announce the birth of a child.
Even in a city renowned for the hours it keeps, the late-night liveliness here is remarkable.
“Some people here have begun to call this corner a mini-Times Square,” said Alexander Rapaport, a longtime resident of Borough Park who attends the synagogue.
Standing outside the synagogue one recent evening at 11:30, he pointed across the street to the neighborhood’s first large billboard, a bright green ad that arrived two months ago and hovers above this corner. It advertises a concert by the popular religious singer and entertainer Lipa Schmeltzer, outfitted in a fur hat, side locks and thick glasses.
Men coming home late from work, passing through on business or returning from a wedding know that at Shomrei Shabbos they will be guaranteed a minyan, a quorum of 10 men required by Jewish law for communal prayer, until 2 a.m. — a major benefit for observant Jews who pray together three times a day. Unofficial services continue through the night. Thanks to this nonstop traffic, much of it generated by the synagogue’s embrace of worshipers of various Orthodox groups, the building resembles nothing so much as a busy bus station, with people wandering in and out at all hours of the day and night.
Between 10 p.m. and midnight, the place is so crowded that it is hard to find space to sit or even stand. Men come at night to daven Maariv — recite the evening prayers — which can be done any time from sundown to sunrise. Religious men who work often miss the window of opportunity at synagogues where services are held only once an evening.
“Other shuls only have a minyan at certain times,” said Moshe Metzger, who has volunteered at Shomrei Shabbos for 35 years. “Here you can come whenever.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/nyregion/thecity/28hour.html?ref=thecity
Comments:
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE "CRAZY" TO DAVEN THERE.... BUT IT CERTAINLY HELPS!!!
Post a Comment
Comment Credit ---This article posted by 
: January 29, 2007 2:44 PM
: January 29, 2007 2:44 PM
