Find a Fifth

Erev Rosh Hashanah is approaching, which means it’s almost time for hataras nedarim, which means that at some point near the end of Shacharis, the people around you will start mentally calculating how many people are in the minyan and if that total is divisible by four. If it’s not, it means at least one group will have an extra person, and trust me, you don’t want to be a fifth guy at hataras nedarim.

You need three to serve as dayanim, along with the one who is actually seeking the hatarah: That’s four. Number five is unnecessary, which means that he’s forcing the other four to sit through one more recitation of the text and, apparently, after a two-and-half-hour Selichos and Shacharis, it’s those four minutes that will ruin the day.

So as you do the math in your shul and make the same mental kabbalah as last year — to find out what nezirus Shimshon actually means before next Rosh Hashanah — here’s a story for you.

Rav Dovid Trenk, who left us just a few months ago, befriended the other mispallelim at the k’vasikin minyan in which he davened each day. One of them, a recent baal teshuvah, recalled that on Erev Rosh Hashanah, near the end of davening, Reb Dovid searched him out, and set himself up at the same table, ensuring that they were in the same “hataras nedarim chaburah.”