Halacha Date: 6 Tammuz 5778 June 19 2018
Answer: The Torah states, “And your camp shall be holy.” We derive from this verse that one may not pray, recite a blessing, or any other words of holiness when there is something repulsive, such as excrement or a foul odor in the area.
Thus, one may not pray when a child is running around with a soiled diaper, for this certainly causes an unpleasant odor. If one prays while there is human excrement in the area, one has not fulfilled his obligation.
The Magen Avraham writes regarding a place where there was an unpleasant odor emanating from as a result of excrement and the like but was later cleaned, however, the odor has not yet completely dissipated that one may not pray in such a place until the odor dissipates completely. Based on this, even after a baby’s diaper is changed, one may not pray in this location until the odor disappears completely.
The following are the words of Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch (Chapter 90): “If one was standing and praying and a child entered the synagogue and relieved himself there, one must pause and be silent until one can continue or move forward, to the side, or leave the synagogue entirely and conclude one’s prayer.”
We can learn from here that if one is praying and senses a foul odor emanating from a child, one must stop praying immediately until the child leaves the area or until the one praying moves to another room where there is no foul odor in which case one may resume one’s prayer.
In the next Halacha we shall discuss how long one may pause in the middle of the Amida prayer without continuing to pray. Clearly, if one pauses for a prolonged amount of time, this constitutes an interruption and one cannot just resume where one left off; rather, one must begin the Amida prayer anew, as we shall discuss.
