0

I've been to various minyanim in my neighborhood. I gather that a minyan is allowed to daven Ma'ariv once shki'ah has occurred.

What I have seen is that both minyanim began Mincha before shki'ah and ended after shki'ah. One minyan, consistently begins Ma'ariv immediately, while in the other, the rav gives a 5-10 minute shiur, and he almost always announces, "it's not yet time to daven Ma'ariv."

I'm not sure what he means by "not yet time", as they daven Ma'ariv between Shki'ah and tzet, which is about an hour span. But, I'm curious if there is technically any halachic requirement to wait between Mincha and Ma'ariv at all, assuming that it is the permissible time to daven Ma'ariv.

DanF
  • 70,416
  • 8
  • 59
  • 244
  • 1
    Need some more context to work out the exact minhag of the shul, but in general: There is a preference that if davening maariv before nightfall, mincha should be before plag and maariv after, to avoid tarti d'sasri (-halachic term for self contradicting activity; in this context, relying on the opinions that it is still day to daven mincha, but relying on the dissenting views that it is already night to daven maariv) – chortkov2 Jul 11 '19 at 19:05
  • To actually finish Mincha before sunset and start Maariv after without a break would be miraculous. – Double AA Jul 11 '19 at 19:16
  • @DoubleAA Is there anything wrong with having sunset happen in the middle of aleinu, or kaddish after aleinu? – Heshy Jul 11 '19 at 19:27
  • @DoubleAA he specifically stated that both minyanim finish after sunset – רבות מחשבות Jul 11 '19 at 19:28
  • @Dan he may mean that they won't yet daven maariv because they usually have a shiur. Alternatively, he may want to for some reason wait for the 9-minute shiur of Tzeit/Bein Hashmashot (see https://www.yutorah.org/_cdn/_shiurim/The%20Earliest%20Time%20to%20Perform%20Sefirat%20Ha%27Omer.html). – רבות מחשבות Jul 11 '19 at 19:31
  • 1
    @Heshy is there anything wrong with skipping those entirely? A hundred years ago most places didn't say Alenu at Mincha if continuing into Maariv – Double AA Jul 11 '19 at 19:35
  • @DoubleAA I don't think so, but most shuls say them, and they give you a 1-2 minute window so that you can finish mincha before sunset and start maariv afterwards without a break. No need for a miracle. – Heshy Jul 11 '19 at 19:38
  • @Heshy *with a break. An Alenu break. – Double AA Jul 11 '19 at 19:40
  • @DoubleAA yes, fine you can call it that, but we both know that that's not what the people in an average shul are thinking and it's not what the question meant. – Heshy Jul 11 '19 at 19:43
  • Are these the same time every day and only changing weekly? If so it's likely that at the end or beginning of the week the gap is longer, so a shuir is used to ensure maariv never starts too soon –  Jul 11 '19 at 20:30
  • @Heshy, I believe it is still the practice in some places as in Alsace, north east of France, not to say Aleinu if mincha and maariv are done one after the other with plag or sunset inbetween. – Eli83 Jul 11 '19 at 22:30
  • @Eli83 that makes a lot of sense! Still, most places don't. – Heshy Jul 11 '19 at 22:37
  • @Heshy ok then it'd take a hidden miracle not an open one. Printed sunset times are only accurate to a minute or two. – Double AA Jul 12 '19 at 00:38
  • I'm not sure where and how my question confuses people. It seems, this is generating a lot of "chatter" comments. The two minyanim practice the same format every evening. In short - both start mincha just prior to shki'a and finish a few minutes after shki'a. The difference is in starting Ma'ariv. Both begin in the span between shki'ah and tzet. One has a break, the other doesn't. Please ask me anything else that's unclear. – DanF Jul 12 '19 at 01:53
  • @Orangesandlemons See ^^^. The difference for shki'a is never more than about 7 minutes between Sunday and Thursday. It's not significant enough that Mincha would end before shki'a, anyway. – DanF Jul 12 '19 at 01:57
  • Related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/13046/5275 – DanF Jul 12 '19 at 01:59

0 Answers0