DEDICATION OF A SYNAGOGUE

QUESTION:

Is there a fixed tradition and ceremony for deconsecrating an old synagogue about to be abandoned or sold and, following that, a ceremony of dedication of a new synagogue? (Asked by Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn, Boston, Massachusetts.)

ANSWER:

THE QUESTION that you ask about “deconsecrating” the old synagogue and dedicating the new one is especially interesting (in a negative way). There is almost no discussion of such dedications (and deconsecrations) in any of the codes. One would expect that from the earliest days there would be a well-established custom, with all its details and ritual firmly established by now. After all, Scripture devotes a great deal of space to the dedication of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the eight-day dedication ceremony of King Solomon of the Temple in Jerusalem. Also there is a Psalm (# 3 0) “A Song for the Dedication of the House”; and all eight days of Chanukah are a reconsecration feast for the Temple.

Now, inasmuch as the synagogue is deemed to be the substitute for the Temple (until Messiah’s time) and since, indeed, the synagogue is called in the Talmudic literature, Migdash Me-at, “the small sanctuary” or “the small temple,” one would imagine that by now there would be an established ritual for this event; yet there is none, and that is surprising.

As for deconsecration, a synagogue can be sold for any secular purpose, provided it is the synagogue in a small town where all the original contributors or their descendants are available to agree to its sale. Once it has been sold, it may be used for any purpose. In fact, a term analogous to “deconsecration” is used: “Yotzo L’Chulin, ” i.e., it has now lost its holiness. See Orah Hayyim 153:9: “When the men of the village sell their synagogue, they may sell it as a permanent sale (i.e., an unconditional sale) and the purchaser may do what he wants with the building.” However, the money received for the sale retains some sanctity and must be used for a sacred purpose such as buying Sefer Torahs, etc. (see Orah Hayyim 153:2). However, there is serious question in the law as to whether there is any permission at all to sell the synagogue of a large city. That is because the presumption is that visitors from distant countries may have come to the city and contributed to its building and, therefore, it cannot be sold without their permission which is un-available. Hence one might say that the synagogue of a large city can never be “deconsecrated.” But in recent years new decisions have faced the realities of the changing faces of the large cities, and based upon a landmark decision of Joshua Hoeschel of Cracow (1578-1648) in his responsa P’ne Yehoshua, (Vol. 1, #4) and the recent decision of Moses Feinstein, chief of the Agudas Ha-Rabbonim, in his responsa Igros Moshe (Orah Hayyim #50), we now consider the members of a large urban synagogue as being as much its sole owners as if it were a small city; and therefore they may sell it, as mentioned above.

Just as there is no required ceremony for the consecration of a synagogue, so there is no ceremony of formal deconsecration. When the synagogue is sold and the Torahs removed, the building is just a building, and the purchaser may do with it as he wishes.

As to consecration, while there is no legally prescribed ritual, there can be no doubt that some such ceremony was frequently observed. We can judge this from certain incidental discussions in the Halacha. For example, Moses Sofer, the great Hungarian authority, in his responsa (Orah Hayyim 156) discusses the technical question of whether it is permissible to recite the blessing She’echionu at the dedication of a synagogue. The great compendium of Chaim Medini, S’de Chemed, in the section on “Synagogue,” #45, discusses the rule “not to mingle one joy with another” (which is applied to the Orthodox prohibition of marriages on Chol Ha-Moed, which would be a mingling of the joy of a wedding with the joy of Yom Tov). He raises the question whether this principle of not mingling joys should not prohibit the dedicating of a synagogue on the holiday. So, clearly, they did have synagogue dedications. This is evidenced by these arguments in the Halacha; but as I have said, no fixed ritual ever developed in past centuries.

The article in Ozar Dinim U-Minhagim on dedication of the synagogue gives in detail the ceremony which was developed by Rabbi Lehmann when he dedicated the famous synagogue in Mainz, on the 24th of Elul, 1856. Evidently this was the first detailed record (cf. also Meir N’siv, Tel Aviv, 1966). I will mention the essence of it because you will see that it involves both the old synagogue and the new one.

The ritual was as follows: After the afternoon service in the old synagogue, the congregation recited Psalm 132; the rabbi preached a “sermonette of departure;” the elders took the Sefer Torahs from the Ark and carried them in procession to the new synagogue, led by the Rabbi, the Cantor, and the choir, and followed by the people in regular line of march. At the gate of the new synagogue, they recited Psalm 122 and the Cantor chanted, “Open to me the gates of righteousness,” etc. The President then took the key and opened the door of the new synagogue. Those who carried the Torahs lined up on the platform in front of the Ark and they recited, “How lovely are Thy dwelling places,” and Psalm 84. Then they marched around the synagogue with the Sefer Torahs seven times, as on Simchas Torah. Then they placed the Torahs in the Ark and the Rabbi preached a sermon of dedication and the people recited the Psalm of the Dedication of the House, Psalm 30.

The likelihood is that this ritual described here is so naturally suitable to the occasion that it must have been followed substantially for many generations. All that Rabbi Lehmann did, then, in 1856, was to write it down and elaborate it. At all events, this is practi-cally the ritual that we follow; but since it has no defi-nite Halachic mention in the codes, you may, of course, vary it to suit your needs.