Mid day madness

Is it really me, or are people just totally clueless? I am sure that the opinionated masses will set me straight here, but I don't think I am wrong.


First some background. I went to daven Mincha today at an office type place downtown. It is a room dedicated to Mincha and shiurim during the day. There are actually two rooms, a main one, and a smaller one behind it. There is a shiur in each room before Mincha, then the large room davens Sfard and the back room davens Ashkenaz. I was with someone who davens Sfard, so I was planning to do that.


Just as Mincha was about to get started, people were trying to go to the back room, but either they saw that that shiur was running late, or the people in there, very into their shiur, were sort of blocking the door from being opened. I was near this door but wasn't paying that close attention, so I am not sure, but from the sounds of the door slamming shut, I am leaning towards the latter.


So the first Minyan starts, and just as they get to Shmone Esray, I am overcome by this insane ( in retrospect) feeling to ensure that the back room HAS a minyan, since they seemed to be rebuffing people as they came in, and no one went back there once the first minyan started. So I poked my head in, and they gleefully informed me that I was number 10. What these yahoos were planning to do if I had not ventured in, I have no idea.

Well, now I was stuck, but I always like to help out a minyan, with the hope that it will be reciprocated for me if I need one, so i stayed. now you would think that these people, being a mid-day downtown type minyan, might have someplace to go, but they still took teir sweet time starting, and then someone gets up to daven who was clearly unfamiliar with the words, as well as the procedure, such as putting your feet together for kaddish and not leaning on the shtender during davening. I figured he was a chiyuv, so what could I do.

Then Shemone Esray started. There were 9 other people there. It was the noisiest silent shemone esray I have ever heard,with mutterings all about quite loudly. Then the chazzan finished ninth, and we waited for the tenth. And waited. And waited. You , again, might think that someone who KNOWS he's the tenth migh have some derech eretz for the tzibbur and move along a bit, but that would be against everything else that had gone so far.

Then the Chazzan finally got through the Chazoras Hashatz, and after Oleinu DID NOT SAY KADDISH. Which means that this gentleman who is so unfamiliar with the davening justs likes to go up an daven. Well, if it is that important to you, PRACTICE A LITTLE, for goodness sake!

I finally finished about 5 minutes after the other minyan, and felt that I had to share this. Where is the derech eretz to a Tzibbur, that one person alone is not so important that everything revolves around them?