Igros Moshe (OC I # 45) Question Can a blind person who has a seeing eye dog in order to go walking and he needs to bring it into the synagogue when he goes for prayers and to hear kadish and kedusha as well as Torah reading or Megila reading and similar things even though it is disrespectful to bring a dog into shul which is a holy place? From the Yerushalmi, it was permitted to bring one’s personal donkey into shul and it compares this with the permission for a talid chachom to eat and drink and sleep in shul this is agreed by a number of authorities including the Magen Avraham, Tur, Shulchan Aruch and the Vilna Gaon. It is as if the use of a shul outside of Israel is permitted for all people for these and similar activities if needed. For a slight need for a mitzva such as eating seudas shlishis in Shul, even though it is not a great urgency since everyone can eat at home shul, nevertheless it is a widespread custom to permit it as well as to make a feast for the alyiah of a chasan or bar mitzva even it is not clear that these are mitzvos . Chasidim go even farther and permit things which are not mitzvas such as eating and drinking on a yahrzeit. It would seem clear that it is permissible to make conditional use of a shul in order to eat and drink even though there is no real need even though this seems to be a relatively new custom. Nevertheless in times of great need there is no problem following this view according to everyone. Thus since we see that bringing in a donkey into shul is not considered worse than eating and drinking and sleeping, we should permit the conditional use of our synagogues when needed. There is no question that a dog is not worse than a donkey and there is no greater need than the blind person who otherwise would lose the ability to go to shul the rest of his life. Thus it should be permitted for a blind man to bring his seeing eye dog to shul However it is best if he remain next to the doors as to noy upset the congregation. However it is possible that there is actually no degradation at all to bring an animal except when done for no reason or into a shul in Israel. The shul of Israel requires further study while there is no question that it is permitted in shuls out of Israel. .
There's a teshuva by Rav Menachem Kasher which forbids this, then a response from the Lubavitcher Rebbe who refutes the teshuva and says the psak of Rav Moshe is valid.
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