The Free Market and the Minyan https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/religion-holidays/2025/01/the-free-market-and-the-minyan/

January 9, 2025 | Francis Nataf
About the author:

After seeking out the perfect minyan (prayer quorum) with which to recite the morning service at the Western Wall (Kotel) early one morning, and being a tad disappointed in his choice, Francis Nataf reflects on the market for public prayer, and the reasons rabbinic tradition prefers it to private meditation:

If most people are better able to focus on their prayers when they are alone, then group prayer must be more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps it is the very acquiescence to a communal version of spirituality that edifies us and brings us closer to God.

Since today’s Jews are more heavily concentrated in cities than ever before, the vast majority are able to choose from many nearby synagogues. In fact, . . . we are almost all buyers looking for just the right minyan, knowing that if the one in which we find ourselves is not completely to our liking, there may be a more suitable one just down the road. Although good for a free-market economy, such an attitude is not necessarily the right mechanism by which to make our spiritual decisions.

Read more on Jewish Press: https://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/parsha/redeeming-relevance-in-the-bible-francis-nataf/the-minyan-market/2025/01/02/