My most likely reason to become Orthodox is . . .
Yes, it's a problem on weekdays, too--BZ and I discussed that in the comments to this post:
- Shira Salamone said...
No, now that you mention it--I hate that, too, since a ringing cell phone distracts from the sanctity of a service. But on Shabbat or Yom Tov, when one isn't even supposed to be using a phone at all (barring a life-threatening emergency), a ringing cell phone is even worse. One day of the week, we should be free of the incessant demands of never-out-of-reach modern communication technology.
In my former synagogue, there was a pay phone on the floor above the social hall. Anyone who absolutely insisted on making a phone call on Shabbat/Sabbath could at least be discrete about it. In my current favorite egalitarian synagogue, there seems to be a policy that no phone calls are permitted within the building on Sabbath or Chaggim (holidays), resulting in the rather distressing phenomenon of people standing on the sidewalk in a tallit while talking on a cell phone on Shabbat. Honestly, I don't know which is worse, offending the congregants or offending a good chunk of the neighbors. (In both cases, there's an Orthodox synagogue on the next block, making it quite likely that an outdoor offender would be caught in the act by some local frum folk.)
Obviously, I'm the queen of hypocrites. I benefit from the fact that many non-Orthodox Jews have a very lax attitude toward Jewish observance, yet I'm upset, or sometimes even offended, by that same lax attitude.
I wish we non-Orthodox Jews would take our observance a bit more seriously. It would be nice to see a full house in synagogue on a weekday holiday morning (even if some of the people in attendance went to work afterward--sigh), instead of having to pray that we got a minyan. (Our all-time low--thus far--was 13 people). It would be nice for my husband and me not to be the only people eating in the synagogue's sukkah on Erev Shabbat Sukkot/the Sabbath Eve during Sukkot (when the kosher restaurants in whose sukkot we eat are closed). It would be nice for us to give out roughly 20 mishloach manot packages and get more than two in return, rather than having our synagogue's seniors regard the giving of mishloach manot as something that they remembered from childhood but that didn't applied to them. (I don't think we've ever gotten more than six mishloach manot packages at this synagogue). It would be nice if some of the same folks who object to women having aliyot in our local synagogue wouldn't call us on Shabbat and leave messages on our answering machine. It would be nice if everyone who showed up for seudah shlishit between Minchah (Afternoon Service) and Arvit/Maariv (Evening Service) also showed up in time for Minchah.
Okay, shutting up now.
The chief drawback is the relative lack of shared observance. I hate it when people's cell phones ring in shul on Shabbat!There are reasons beyond "observance" that cell phones ringing in shul are inappropriate. Would it be ok if their cell phones were ringing during weekday minyan?