Your Virtual Minyan Awaits

 
Oy when I woke up the day after Thanksgiving I was still suffering from a tryptophan hangover from eating way too much turkey the day before. I didn’t want to do anything but drink a cup of coffee and read the local newspaper and go back to sleep. Unfortunately since I was the low man on my department totem pole I had to go to work and hold down the fort. So after a second cup of my wife Linda’s delicious coffee I gathered up my brief case and my tallis and tefillin and headed off to the office. I figured no one would be there and I could take my time and daven in my office.
 
When I arrived at what my colleagues affectionately call the Crystal Palace, located in Tyson’s Corner Virginia, the building was virtually empty and there were only three people on my entire floor. So after putting a few things in order I got ready to do the morning davening and thank Hashem for the many blessings my family and my congregation enjoy. But before donning my tallis and tefillin I decided to log onto my favorite website 770live.org!
 
If you’ve never been to 770live.org before you’ve missed a real treat. The website is loaded with more Jewish information then you could ever hope for. From information about when to daven, to how to light Shabbos candles, to an in-depth discussion on that week’s Torah portion, it’s all there with a click of a mouse. While I enjoy the entire website, my favorite part of the site is the direct video and audio feed directly into 770, which is the location of the World Headquarters and main Shul for Chabad.
 
Yes six days a week, 24 hours a day, a video feed takes you right into the heart of the Shul. So if a loved one is davening and you want to see them, one click and you are with them. If there is a speaker talking about a complex issue pertaining to Jewish law, one click and before you can say “More kugel please” you are there listening. And if you are like me and you are davening alone on the eighth floor of a deserted glass and metal high rise, one click and you are davening with hundreds of other men in a virtual Minyan!
 
While you are not technically part of a Minyan, you still get to feel the energy and zest for life that permeates the entire gathering. With tens of Minyans going on at any given time you can’t help but see and hear one that has just started or is in the middle of a great melody. Men and boys can be heard singing and davening with the kind of zeal and excitement that many of us can only dream of.
 
Within seconds you find yourself transported to 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn New York and you are in the middle of a joyous commotion. Amens fill the air as a Chazzan chants Kaddish and without a moment’s notice the quiet, lonely room in which you are physically davening is filled with a cacophony of song and prayers.
 
The small speakers attached to your monitor suddenly tremble as hundreds of men finish davening and spontaneously start to dance around the Shul. You can’t help but feel the energy and the excitement as this virtual Minyan swirls around you. Without warning your mundane morning suddenly transforms into a joyous celebration of the Jewish people and their traditions. What started as a quiet moment, alone in your office, becomes a celebration of the love you feel for Hashem. No other site on the web can provide so much for so little.
 
When you are finished davening it is almost impossible to click off and go back to work.  You see the members of your virtual Minyan engaged in passionate discussions about Torah, young Yeshiva students debating the finer points of their Talmud studies, and most of all you see young and old alike sharing in one of the great joys of life, worshipping together.
 
No yoga class, aerobics class, or marathon can produce the endorphins you get from this spiritual high. This is the real deal and it is very difficult to disconnect and sign off. But eventually the world intrudes and indeed it is time to click off and go back to work. But the beauty is, with the exception of Shabbos, your virtual Minyan is always ready to welcome you back with open arms.
 
When I was done davening that morning and I went back to work a colleague from across the hall approached me. She said “I was walking by and I heard some strange tunes coming out of your office, what exactly where you doing in there?”
I explained that I was Jewish and that when I daven at work I usually click on this special website that allows me to pray with other Jews. She laughed and told me that she hadn’t heard tunes like that or people shouting Amen with such vigor since she was a little girl and went to her Grandfather’s Shul in New York!  She said she has a frume daughter and son-in-law and wondered if I would mind meeting them and taking her son-in-law to Shul the next time they came for a visit? I told her it would be an honor to bring him to Shul and maybe we could even arrange a Kosher Shabbos dinner at her house.  She loved the idea and we hope to bring everyone together soon.
 
With a huge smile on my face I went back to work. I couldn’t help but wonder at the idea that a simple thing like davening online with my virtual Minyan could release Holy Sparks right here in Tyson’s Corner Virginia, while simultaneously releasing long buried memories in the mind of a Jewish colleague. Coincidence……I think not!