Praying on the plane

A Hasidic Jew was taken off an Air Canada plane getting ready for take off from Montreal to New York last Tuesday after a passenger complained.

“He was clearly a Hasidic Jew,” said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. “He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.

“He wasn’t exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth,” Faguy added.

The action didn’t seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous.

“The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn’t a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave,” Faguy said.

The man, who spoke neither English nor French, was escorted off the airplane.

The Yiddish term for rocking is ‘shokeling’, the prayer style called Nusach Sepharad.  Hasidic Judaism originated in Eastern Europe.

An especial form of communion with God is prayer. In order to render this communion complete the prayer must be full of fervor, ecstatic; and the soul of him who prays must during his devotions detach itself, so to speak, from its material dwelling. For the attainment of ecstasy recourse may be had to mechanical means, to violent bodily motions, to shouting and singing.

 

 

What I find interesting is this man didn’t speak English, French or a language distingishable to passengers. He found his way onto the plane he needed to be on just fine.
Hasidics traditionally wear a white shirt with all black clothing.  He would have been wearing the tradtional prayer belt called a Gartel. His language of prayer is dependent on his ethnicity. How he covers his head during prayer would also be dependent on his tradtion. His Payot (sidelocks) would also distinguish him.

B’nai Brith Canada has offered Air Canada crews sensitivity training.