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Не всё же чужие истории post...
Jun. 10th, 2003 02:51 pmOn the second day of Shavuot there were no kohanim in the shul, and thus no one to dukhan. I remarked to a fellow davener: "I guess we'll have to rely on the kohanim in other shuls!"
Later, I started thinking about it. The Shulhan Arukh does say that if there are no non-kohanim present in a shul, they must dukhan anyway, and their brakha is for the women and children at home. This implies that the brakha is not confined to the shul, but rather radiates outward. However, it also says that those who stand behind the kohanim are not covered. Thus, there's a sort of a "dead zone" behind the kohanim; so what about the Jewish homes located in that zone? Clearly we can't say that they're excluded, thus we're forced to conclude that the dead zone ends at the shul wall.
This would seem to indicate that the spread of the brakha is governed by wave physics - an obstacle in the path of a wave sufficiently close to the wave source distorts the wave pattern, but doesn't entirely occlude it, IIRC. What happens, however, if there are two shuls in town and the kohanim dukhan simultaneously? Where the brakha wave fronts meet, there can be regions where the waves overlap, but also regions where they cancel out, again creating brakha-free zones.
Maybe you want to say that brakhas obey particle physics? Then you still have the kasha of the area behind the backs of the kohanim. However, this implies the existence of a brakha particle. What properties might this particle, or brakhon, have? What is its mass, spin, charm, etc.?
Later, I started thinking about it. The Shulhan Arukh does say that if there are no non-kohanim present in a shul, they must dukhan anyway, and their brakha is for the women and children at home. This implies that the brakha is not confined to the shul, but rather radiates outward. However, it also says that those who stand behind the kohanim are not covered. Thus, there's a sort of a "dead zone" behind the kohanim; so what about the Jewish homes located in that zone? Clearly we can't say that they're excluded, thus we're forced to conclude that the dead zone ends at the shul wall.
This would seem to indicate that the spread of the brakha is governed by wave physics - an obstacle in the path of a wave sufficiently close to the wave source distorts the wave pattern, but doesn't entirely occlude it, IIRC. What happens, however, if there are two shuls in town and the kohanim dukhan simultaneously? Where the brakha wave fronts meet, there can be regions where the waves overlap, but also regions where they cancel out, again creating brakha-free zones.
Maybe you want to say that brakhas obey particle physics? Then you still have the kasha of the area behind the backs of the kohanim. However, this implies the existence of a brakha particle. What properties might this particle, or brakhon, have? What is its mass, spin, charm, etc.?
