"If You Want Quiet, Go To A Church".

Yesterday afternoon, one of my friends had an encounter with visitors from another shul who had come to our shul to listen to the Rebbe's afternoon hashkafah shiur and stayed for mincha.

They started talking at the beginning of mincha and simply didn't stop.

Now, it is well known that our shul is "the no-talking shul". Over the years, especially in the early days, many people made fun of us (noting that our membership application included the requirement that members sign a no-talking pledge) and others envied us. Many accused us of being rude (the old Aishhhh Kodeshhhhh line) while trying to maintain decorum (and there was certainly a handful of kanaim who were rude in the early days). But, at the end of the day, most people respected us and some even tried to copy us. But I digress.

In any event, my friend politely tried a couple of times to get our visitors to stop talking, to no avail. Finally, he klopped on his shtender and made a 'finger-to-the-mouth' gesture, hoping that this would get their attention.

It did. One of the talkers wagged his finger at my friend and said, "If you want quiet, go to a church".

What can you say to that?