For reasons beyond my control, I’ve lived in exile my whole life and in Flatbush for the past eighteen years. While the Brooklyn community has grown on this out-of-town boy in some ways, I am still puzzled by certain practices. One that continues to astound me is the direction in which people pray. Shlomo promised that people who pray toward the Temple is Jerusalem will find their prayers answered (1 Kings 8:35,44,48). Based on these verses, Jews from antiquity have prayed toward Jerusalem (Berakhos 30a). In New York, that means toward the east.
This rule is codified in Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim 94:1) without dissent. Even many non-religious Jews recognize that we pray toward the east. Yet in Flatbush, which I pick on only because I am familiar with the neighborhood, many of the finest synagogues and yeshivas pray to the south or north. This includes the popular minyan factory, built relatively recently, and the prominent yeshiva nearby. It also includes synagogues across the spectrum from Agudah to Jewish Centers. Even when the ark is in the north or south, perhaps to avoid placing it on a wall with a door, the proper direction for prayer is the east (Magen Avraham 94:3). This is, to my knowledge, undisputed (see Mishnah Berurah ad loc., 9; Arukh Ha-Shulchan ad loc., 12).
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