[Avodah] minhagei EY vs chul

[David Cohen]

R' Eli Turkel mentioned 3 practices that are common in chu"l but not in
Eretz Yisrael:
1.  Davening both mincha and maariv between pelag and sheki'ah on Fridays
2.  Davening maariv, during the week, right after shekiah
3.  Waiting until 3 small stars are visible before ending the minor fasts

My comments on these 3 items:

1.  There are acharonim (albeit not the Mishna Berura) who allow this
lechatchila, and hold that the special heter to daven maariv early on leil
Shabbos has nothing to do with siding with R' Yehuda regarding the latest
time for mincha.  That being said, I assume the practical reason that
diaspora communities are more likely to rely on these opinions is that in
chu"l, unlike in EY, most people are working on Friday afternoons, and
while they would like to make Shabbos early, they don't have the luxury of
coming home on time to be all ready for Shabbos and in shul for mincha
before pelag.  Keep in mind that in Teaneck (latitude 41 degrees N), and
even more so in Vienna (48 degrees N), the amount of time between pelag
(according to the Levush, Gra, etc.) and sheki'a in the spring/summer is
greater than it is in EY.

As an aside, "early Shabbos" in general is far less popular in EY than it
is in the northern U.S. and Europe.  I have no solid statistics, but my
theory is that is largely an Anglo import, and exists primarily in
Anglo-heavy neighborhoods.  (Even in my relatively Anglo-heavy
neighborhood, the early minyan is far less crowded than the "regular time"
minyan, whereas I recall the opposite being the case in the U.S.)  As to
why it didn't catch on in EY to the same extent, this is probably partially
because even at its latest (the last few weeks), Shabbos never gets as late
(on our clocks) in EY as it does at more northern latitudes.  Also, trends
(and minhagim) are built up over decades, and with the exception of 2.5
years, there was no Daylight Saving Time in Israel from 1958 through 1983.
 Going back further, when the Yishuv haYashan used the "sha'on Eretz
Yisrael" ("Arab clock") that reset itself every day at sunset, Shabbos was
perceived as starting at the same time throughout the year!  After decades
of nobody having any *need* to daven maariv early on leil Shabbos, it is no
surprise that many communities and poskim felt that was not the minhag
hamakom in EY to do so, even once Daylight Saving Time was reinstituted.


2 & 3.   In general, the gemara's shiur of 3/4 mil for bein hashemashos is
not on the radar screen as something relevant for practical use in the more
northern latitudes.  This is probably because the difference between this
amount of time (13.5 or 17 minutes after sunset) and when you can actually
see stars is more pronounced, so it's just not used.  (Presumably, the
assumption -- whether correct or not -- is that this shiur was *not* meant
to be adjusted for latitude and season by being understood as whenever the
sun is 5.3 degrees below the horizon.)  So the "Shabbos ending" time is
taken to be tzeis hakochavim for all purposes.  On the one hand, this can
lead to leniencies -- since it's not practical for people to wait around in
shul for 45 minutes between mincha and maariv (as opposed to 20 minutes,
which is doable), they might as well daven right away at sheki'ah.  It can
also lead to stringencies, as in the case of the time a fast is over.

-- D.C.
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