פירוש על ברכות 53:1

COME AND HEAR: THE ADDITIONAL PRAYER [MAY BE RECITED] ALL DAY. RABBI YEHUDA SAYS: UNTIL SEVEN HOURS AFTER SUNRISE. AND IT WAS TAUGHT: [IF] THEY WERE BEFORE. The Gemara is presenting R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about when one must say the Musaf prayer. As we will soon see it is Tosfos opinion that R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about musaf does not appear in the Mishna. Tosfos must therefore emend the text of the Gemara to reflect his opinion. See the Mishna on 26a, there R’ Yehudoh’s opinion appears in parentheses. The text does not follow Tosfos opinion. In our Gemara when R’ Yehudoh’s opinion is introduced with the words אימא סיפא I will quote the end of the Mishna, the Gemara is quoting the Mishna on 26a. Tosfos replace the words אימא סיפא with the words תא שמע as we can see in the lead words of the Tosfos.
And we do not have the text אימא סיפא ושל וכו' and I will quote the end which refers to the end of the Mishna, because this is not in the Mishna. For the words of R’ Yehudoh who said that musaf may only be said till seven hours are not in the Mishna. And there are books of the Talmud that inserted those words in the Mishna, however all the old books do not have those words.
Assuming that Tosfos is correct that the words about the conclusion of the time for musaf do not appear in the Mishna we must know, why not? And if you ask: why did Rebbe the Prince, author of the Mishna not mention it, R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about the musaf, in the Mishna. And we can answer: because he does not agree with his opinion on this matter that he, R’ Yehudoh, says that musaf may only be said till seven hours.
In this Mishna Rebbe is quoting the opinion of the minority only if there is some practical use for that opinion.¹See sefer תעלומה מגיד who explains that the Gemara knew that in this Mishna, the minority opinion is presented only because there is some relevance as far as the halochoh is concerned, because the Mishna did not mention R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about musaf and he did mention his opinion about shacharis and minchoh. This implies that the opinion about musaf was not mentioned because it is irrelevant for practical purposes. His opinion about shacharis is mentioned because that is the halochoh as can be seen from the Mishna in aiduyos. His opinion about minchoh must be mentioned because it has relevance, otherwise it would not have been mentioned as his opinion on musaf is not mentioned. The Gemara does conclude that his opinion on michoh is relevant for one who does as R’ Yehudoh has done well and one who has done like the Rabanan has done well. But in that which he, R’ Yehudoh, says that shacharis can be said till four hours, he, Rebbe the prince, holds as he, R’ Yehudoh, does, since the Mishna teaches in the selected Mishnayos, (aiduyos), as he, R’ Yehudoh, says that the limit for shacharis is till four hours.
Why does Rebbe mention R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about the limit for minchoh prayers? And in that matter of the half minchoh limit, he, Rebbe, also mentions R’ Yehudoh’s opinion because that opinion is also relevant in halachic practice, as the Gemara later says one who does like this master has done well and one who does like this master has done well. For this is the meaning of that Gemara: One who does as R’ Yehudoh, who says that after the half minchoh is night time, and usually says maariv after the half minchoh period has done correctly, and for this reason, since has acted as if it is already night, he cannot say minchoh after the half minchoh, since he has considered this period night time by usually saying maariv at that time. But one should not explain that the entire statement is discussing minchoh prayers and is teaching us that one who does like R’ Yehudoh and said Minchoh before the half minchoh has done correctly, for it is plain that the Rabanan agree that one can say minchoh during the time allowed by R’ Yehudoh. Their argument is only about the limit that R’ Yehudoh places on the last time for minchoh, not about the beginning of the time for minchoh.

And he did not interrupt the prayer of - That is to say, he did not make a break between Rabbi Yirmiyah and the wall in order to pass before him and sit in his place, rather he stood at his post.

THAT RAV PRAYED THE SHABBAT [PRAYERS ON] THE EVE OF SHABBAT. The Gemara shows that one may act in accordance with R’ Yehudoh’s opinion and say maariv immediately after the half minchoh. This can be seen fro Rav, who said the Shabos maariv prayers on Friday afternoon after the half minchoh period. This is acceptable only according to R’ Yehudoh. The Rabanan do not allow for saying maariv early. Tosfos raises another problem with saying maariv early on Friday afternoon. This is bewildering. For the Gemara says in perek Bameh Madlikin (Shabos 23b) when discussing the proper time to light the Shabos candles, provided that one should not light too early before nightfall or too late. When one says the maariv prayers at the half minchoh, he is going to light the candles before he begins to pray, it seems that this would be too early, and the Gemara clearly states that one should not light the candles too early.
And we can answer; that there in Shabos 23b where the Gemara says that one should not light too early, it is speaking of when one is not accepting the Shabos upon himself, he is lighting the candles but expects to continue working. It is only then that we are told not to light the candles too early, but here in our Gemara, we are speaking of when he accepts Shabos and stops working immediately. Therefore, it is not considered too early to light the candles even though it is well before nightfall.
And the reason that it is acceptable to say maariv immediately after the half minchoh is because he, Rav, holds like R’ Yehudoh. And so too, the others mentioned later that said the Post-Shabos prayers on Shabos after the half minchoh, that is because they hold like R’ Yehudoh as far as the evening prayers are concerned, that it can be said an hour and a quarter before nightfall.
There is much disagreement about the correct text of the next portion of the Tosfos. We will follow the text that appears in the Tosfos HoRosh on this subject. This is by no means a declaration that this is the correct text; it is merely the simplest one to follow in the context of how Tosfos is presented. Even though, we say that one who usually says maariv after the half minchoh cannot say minchoh at that time, this is only a ruling that applies to prayer not to other areas of halochoh and it is not prohibited for one to do work erev Shabos immediately after the half minchoh when he did not accept Shabos by saying maariv.
And so too, as far as the issue of adding to Shabos and Yom Tov and Yom Kipur, that it is established for us that the obligation to add some time from the previous day to the Holy day by discontinuing our work prior to the exact beginning of the Holy Day is a Torah obligation, even so it is not required to have such a great amount of time as from the half minchoh till nightfall. It is certainly sufficient to add a relatively small period to the Shabos or other Holy Day to fulfill the Torah obligation to add some time. It is certainly not necessary to begin the holiday at the half minchoh time, even according to R’ Yehudoh.

It is a principle of the Jewish ritual that what is constant takes precedence of what is not. The afternoon Tefillah is to be said daily, whereas the additional only on special occasions.

Assuming that "until" means excluding, then according to R. Judah the additional Tefillah may be said until noon. But that of the afternoon only commences at 12.30 p.m. ; how, then, could the two Tefillot clash?

This conclusion contradicts that arrived at in the preceding paragraph.

See p. 175 n. 10.

I.e. when R. Judah declares the afternoon Tefillah maybe read until the middle of the afternoon, be gives "until" the inclusive meaning; but be refers to the first half, which is 4.45. Up to that time he permits it, whereas the Rabbis allow it to be read the whole afternoon. Hence it is shown that although "until" means including, the opinions of R. Judah and the Rabbis differ.

And he did not interrupt the prayer of Rabbi Yirmiyah, as he did not step in front of him - And we learn from this that it is forbidden to pass in front of people praying, and specifically in front of their faces, but regarding their sides we aren't worried about just passing by.

M. adds : b. Isaac.

That "until" means including.

Special circumstances of a rather complicated nature are implied here ; see Rashi.

To prove her husband's death in a foreign country. For all other matters two witnesses are required.

I.e. the law of the goring ox (Exod. xxi. 29) was extended to all animals.

The wine of the drink-offering must be at least forty days old, otherwise it is not called "strong drink" as required by Num. xxviii. 7.

This is in agreement with R. Judah's view that tbe morning Tefillah may be said until the fourth hour.

Lit. "selected" — the name given to the Tractate 'Eduyyot in the fourth Order of the Mishnah, containing a collection of legal decisions and opinions of ancient Tannaim.

A distinction is drawn between tbe phrases "heat of the day" and "heat of the sun." The latter means the places in the sun are hot but those shaded cool; whereas "heat of the day" means that the heat is general, as at noon. "Heat of the sun" refers to the fourth hour, because before 10 a.m. even the sunny places are not excessively hot.

But although tbe Israelites were commanded to gather the manna "morning by morning," which according to R. Judah means up to 10 a.m., by that time it had already melted. The gathering had therefore to be done in the third hour.

They understood "morning by morning" to mean half the morning was for gathering the manna ; and since they consider the morning to be from 6 a.m. to noon, this would mean in the first three hours and the other half would be for melting.

They gathered the manna within the four hours, but they anticipated the commencement by one hour, thus finishing in the third hour of the day.

M. : Rab Nahman b. Isaac.

With reference to the morning Tefillah.

With reference to the afternoon Tefillah.

Because he taught that the afternoon Tefillah may be said until the middle of the afternoon, after which time the evening prayers may be recited.

By passing in front of him to resume his seat.

Although it is not yet dusk.

In praying behind his teacher.