20. Waste Matter Found After Prayers

5:9 If excrement was found in a building where a congregation was praying, the shaliach tzibbur (prayer leader) needs to stop and wait for it to be removed because it is inevitable that someone will be within smelling distance of it. Even if it doesn’t affect the shaliach tzibbur reciting the prayers, it will affect some of those who need to pay attention and reply to those prayers. (The Mishnah Brurah-79:8-says that if there really is no one in the immediate vicinity of the waste material, they may continue to pray but there are certain issues to doing so that would necessitate deeper study.) 5:10 If it was discovered after the fact that there was excrement in the place where prayers were just recited (and there is was reason to believe that it was there while the prayers were being recited), the Shema and Shemoneh Esrei must be repeated, though not the blessings that come before and after the Shema. (Mishnah Brurah 76:31 rules that one does repeat the blessings before and after Shema.) No other prayer need be repeated in such a circumstance, not even bentching (grace after meals), which is a Biblical obligation.(There is some difference of opinion on the subject of bentching – see Mishnah Brurah 185:7, et al.) If urine is found in the place, even if there is reason to expect it was there, one does not repeat any prayers, not even Shemoneh Esrei.