Clearing the Air

Boruch: Wow – you’re really in the clouds. First, you’re appealing to secular law. Second, that principle has gone the way of hot air. If it held water, anyone could ground airplanes over their house! In 1926, Congress enacted the Air Commerce Act, declaring U.S. navigable airspace a public highway open to all – no shutting the door on our sky-high ambitions.

Reuven: Point taken – I shouldn’t rely on outdated secular precedent. But you’re building castles in the sky with that daf. If the Beis HaMikdash’s kedushah ascends, surely the synagogue’s kedushah does as well. How can you dilute that holiness by tucking an office up there in the stratosphere?

Boruch: You’re quoting the Gemara out of thin air! In my edition, the matter is unresolved – left literally “up in the air” whether the Beis HaMikdash’s sanctity floats skyward.

Reuven: Even so, in cases of doubt we rule stringently to protect kedushah. Moreover, Tosafos interprets the Gemara to show that the Beis HaMikdash’s holiness certainly ascends, and only the duration of a tamei person’s stay – before obligating a korban – remains under discussion.

Boruch: On the flip side, the same daf notes that the roofed sections of the Temple were never sanctified above – so one could not eat a korban on the roof. A roof stops kedushah from ascending. That’s why a second-floor partition could serve secular needs: it acts as a first-floor roof, grounding the holiness below.

Reuven: A valid point, but the Raavad clarifies that a roof severs kedushah only if it was part of the original plan. If the space was initially open, even a later-built roof cannot pressurize the ascent of sanctity.

Boruch: Practically speaking, the Maharsham rules exactly as I propose: a community which outgrew their shul, built a floor in the rear of a shul for an Ezras Nashim, reducing the sanctuary’s height without a second thought.

Reuven: They didn’t diminish kedushah – the women still daven there! That’s the same purpose that part of the shul was used for. You’re talking about allocating that floor to mundane offices – letting secular paperwork blow through.

Boruch: Yet the Beis Shlomo himself addresses this scenario – bisecting a synagogue’s airspace with a floor for office use – and finds it permissible. It seems his ruling really takes off.

Reuven: Let’s keep our voices down; no need to air our disagreements publicly. Still, the Imrei Yosher tackles this identical question and rules that a synagogue’s airspace is inherently holy – one may not insert a new floor into an existing sanctuary’s dome of kedushah. I think your plan is full of hot air.

Boruch: Clearly, Beis Shlomo and Imrei Yosher diverge on this. With the rabbi retired, we’ll have to pose this question to his heir and hope we can finally clear the air.