Question:
Question:
If a son does not talk to his father , is it ok for him to be in the same shul as his father? if no, then who is supposed to change his shul considering it is the shul the son has been going and his father just moved in the neighborhood and likes that shul?
Answer:
Before answering, I need to know why are you not talking to your father? Is it because you don’t want to talk to him or he doesn’t want to talk to you? After I know a little bit of what happened I will be able to understand where you are coming from better in order to answer you. If you want that this correspondence should remain private I will do so.
Sources:
Joseph Davidson
2:57 PM (8 hours ago)
to dinonline
Thank you so much for responding.This is regarding my brother, D. and my father. My brother does not talk to my father and the rest of the family because for whatever reason he thinks that my mother and my other brother betrayed him. I have to write for pages to explain his reasoning. But even according to my brother D., my father was not involved in the betrayal. My father moved from Iran after so many years and goes to the the same Persian shul as D. who does not want to talk to him . My father tried to talk to D. but D. wants to be left alone. My question is according to halacha the son has to change the shul or the father or it is OK for both of them to the same shul even though it is not kuvod for my father to be in the same shul. Let me know if you need any other information
Thank you
Answer:
This sounds like a very uncomfortable situation for everyone. Halachically your father does not have to move shuls, and even your brother wouldn’t have to move, even though you are very right that it is not kavod for his father that people should see that his son doesn’t want to talk to him . From a practical angle, it would be wise for your brother to go to a different shul for his sake and also not to embarrass his father. However I am not aware of any specific halachic prohibition for him to daven in the same shul.
As a side point if D. is also not talking to you, then the whole question is only theoretical, because it would not be wise for you to tell this to him, because he most probably won’t listen to you in any case.
