Question:
I was in a shul with ten people where one already davened. I told the rav (and he already knows from before) that I need asara mispallelim. The rav was willing to accommodate me (because he knows that if he doesn’t I won’t come again), so he sent his gabbai to go fetch a tenth person from another shul. One of the mispallelim complained that this is wasting his time and that the minyan is good enough, etc. and spoke rudely to the rav. (This is a person who is not aware of the halachic issue at hand.) What should I do? My insistence led to a machlokes but at the same time I feel that I have the right to insist on having a full minyan, and the rav himself said that he will accommodate me.
Answer:
All fights start with each person feeling that he has the “right” to whatever his claim is, and to a degree you are correct for wanting to have a minyan. On the other hand, a machlokes is also far from l’chatchila, and something that H-shem hates. Therefore, there are times that we must forego what we want, for the sake of shalom. In this situation, if it was the first time that such a thing happened, so it was hard to know in advance that it would be so. However in the future, I would say that it would be better for you to be give in, and you have the option not to daven there, which we have already discussed a number of times.
Best wishes
