[Avodah] Tefillas Mincha Voluntary?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 11:58:12AM +0300, Tal Moshe Zwecker wrote:
: The Tosafos Yom Tov (in his commentary to Mishnah, Berachos 4:1) also asks 
: this question, and he answers that it is called minchah because it is the 
: time when the sun retires ??? when there is menuchas hashemesh.

The Yerushalmi (Berakhos 4:1) relates the zemanei tefillah of Minchah
to the Qetores. (In particular, on erev Pesach, when the afternoon was
busy so the Qetores was pushed as early in the afternoon as possible.)
That discussion is the Tosafos Yom Tov's source (not that I saw the TYT
inside, but it /is/ on the same mishnah). Minchah gedolah is because
that is when the sun starts its decline.

Making the name a reference to the time of day would be consistent to
the names of the other two daily tefillos.

I don't see how one argues that arvis, which the gemara calls a "reushus"
(whatever is meant by that), is more mandatory than minchah. Tzarikh iyun.

And not every minchah was voluntary -- e.g. the tamid (Bamidbar 28:4),
as we say in qorbanos, the mussaf for Shabbos (v. 9) and RC (v. 12).
For that matter every (?) animal qorban included "soles leminchah".
So the voluntary nature of those other menachos isn't inherent in the word
"minchah".

About RLK's citation of R' Hai Gaon about Shema and Shemoneh Esrei being
seperatable WRT maariv...

The Y-mi makes it clear that many were nohagim to say Shema after
Shemoneh Esrei for Maariv. This places it more "beshokhbekha". Our
practice, like our saying Ashrei before Shemoneh Esrei at Minchah,
is to daven from within the context of learning. Whether or not that
is a distinct reason from semichas Ge'ulah leTefillah, or whether the
learning by Maariv must be bedavqa Ge'ulah, is a machloqes rishonim.

But the arguable nature of semichas ge'ulah letefillah in maariv may
explain why the Gra's position of omitting extra tefillos is not minhag
Yisrael.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
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