Worship in the Cloud 67

different situations. Personal obligations might not require physical presence; minyan does. And, the codified halakhah® reflects this

We do have to ask whether it is appropriate to apply these texts in our situation. When thinking of what it meant to be out of physical proximity, our sages could not have imagined the virtual closeness which we are able to create. Is it possible that, had they known of webcams and video chatting, they would have had a different approach? Are we reading too much into an ancient text?

Its impossible to answer, of course, but, the fact that the Rabbis were willing to allow distance praying for some rituals, but not for communal prayer, does give some weight to the presumption that, no matter what the technological realities were, they would not have accepted anything less than physical presence for communal prayer.

Building off of these texts. Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner, in the RAs responsum, finds other flaws in the idea that itis possible to be present via the Internet. First, he points out that it has been decided, across the spectrum of Judaism , that online versions of sacred texts are not sacred..”® How could we then claim that online texts are not sacred, but online prayers are? What, he asks, about someone in a different time zone? Can someone participate in Kabbalat Shabbat if it is still Friday afternoon in their local area? Can someone daven shaharit if its already evening where they are? What would happen if a person had two livestreamed services running at the same time? Would they be part of both minyanim? All of these quirks and contradictions act as a reducto ad absurdum for Reisner, showing that itis nonsensical to understand the