[Avodah] More on Not Waiting to Daven Maariv on Shavuous Night

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from the Artscroll Shavuous Machzor pages 68 - 69. I 
have placed these pages at 
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/shavuous_as_night.pdf

Widespread Acceptance Although the custom of remaining awake the 
entire night of Shavuous was first recorded almost two millennia ago, 
it was observed only by small groups of scholars. Widespread 
acceptance of this custom was not realized until about four hundred 
years ago, when it was popularized by the scholars and kabbalists of 
Tzefas, who were inspired by the following incident that involved at 
least two of them, R' Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (Salonika, Turkey, 1505 
Tzefas, Eretz Yisrael 1584) was a paytan (Lechah Dodi), commentator, 
a leading kabbalist, and member of the circle of R' Yosef Karo, 
author of the Shulhan Aruch. The two had first met in Turkey, 
where  R' Shlomo became a disciple of R' Yosef. R' Shlomo's account 
of a Shavuos night Torah study session while he and R' Yosef were 
together in Turkey, is recorded by the Sh'la (Maseches Shavuos):

         Let it be known that the Chassid [pious man - R' Shlomo 
called R' Yosef Karo
by this title] and I, his servant, along with some of our colleagues, 
decided to
remain awake the entire night of Shavuos. Thanks to Hashem we were able to do
so. We did not cease [our studies] for a moment ...

R' Shlomo then lists the portions of Scriptures that they studied. 
After that, they began learning Mishnayos. They had completed the 
first two tractates exactly at midnight, and the following took place:

[You may see the rest on the above link.]
_______________________________________________________

Now let's assume that they waited 72 minutes after Shkia to daven 
Maariv.   (The calculations below are for this year, but I assume 
that things were not all that different when it comes to zemanim for 
the year in which the above event took place.)

 From http://www.chabad.org/calendar/zmanim.asp?tDate=5/29/2009&c=614 
Shkia on 6 Sivan this year in Istanbul is 8:27 PM and Chatzos is 1:01 
AM.  (I am not really sure were the event described above took place, 
except that it says that it happened in Turkey.) Assuming that R' 
Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz and R' Yosef Karo waited 72 minutes before 
starting to daven Maariv means that they started Maariv at about 9:40 
PM. They certainly did not daven Maariv quickly, so let's say it took 
them a half hour to daven Maariv and then about 10 minutes to go home 
to eat. This means that they began to eat about 10:20. Let's give 
them an hour for their Yom Tov Seudah and the return to shul. This 
means they began to learn at about 11:20 PM. Could they in reality 
have studied "portions of" the Scriptures and "the first two 
tractates of Mishnayos" by "midnight" (Chatzos) which was about 1 AM?

Unless they "davened"  through their learning, I have to assume that 
it would have taken them longer than an hour and 40 minutes to study 
this body of material. If so, then I must conclude that they did not 
wait 72 minutes to daven Maariv on the first night of Shavuous!! They 
must have davened Maariv early!!!! Only by doing so could they have 
finished davening, eaten and learned what they did by Chatzos.

All of the above is, of course, speculation on my part.

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