Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Despite the heavy snow that fell in Canada, nevertheless, the Mincha prayer services were held outdoors. I asked Rabbi Mordechai from Thornhill to share his thoughts on his "snow minyan" experience:
"Public prayer is not only about the relationship between man and God, but also about the relationship between man and man. Each person praying strengthens the other members of the minyan, increasing the force and the focus of their prayers as well. In the past we did not always feel this when praying in the synagogue. We simply got used to being surrounded by others, and we did not feel that we were part of a common purpose. But in this special minyan, in which we stood out of our own free will in the snow in order to pray together with the public, each person felt important and precious to each other. We were keenly reminded of the fact that public prayer is also between man and man.
May we be privileged to return soon to pray inside the synagogue and experience the same thing there and, even more so, may we be privileged to soon be praying, all of us together, in Jerusalem."
