[Avodah] Tea before Shacharis

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, October 1, 2007 11:29 am, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: I'd like to note what I saw in the Halichos Shlomo (psakim of
: RSZAuerbach) Chelek "Tefilah" 2:2:
: "One who feels a need to drink before davening may drink coffee with
: milk and sugar, but it is probably best [ach yitachen shenachon] to
: say a Davar Bakasha beforehand, such as Shema Hashem V'Chaneni etc."

: The notes there add that when RSZA personally did this, his choice was
: to say the psukim from "Aylecha Hashem Ekra..." to "...Hashem Heyeh
: Ozer Li." (Tehillim 30:9-11)

Vehaarev na has me covered, as does Ana Bekoach. Whew!

There is another distinction possible: desires vs needs.

How much tzorekh is "feels a need".

Say we're talking about someone who used to not even swallow water
before minyah, but due to damage caused during radiation theory would
be in significant pain trying to talk for extended time without a
drink -- preferably a hot one. (For that matter, he sometimes drinks
more tea during the derashah, and I'm sure his shulmates think him odd
for it, among other things.)

Would the fact that this hypothetical person ;-) chose a gourmet green
tea (cooked, if "cooked" is the right term, in a keli sheini, not
bederekh bishul) to satisfy his taste buds make it less of a refu'ah?
Here the question is different than for berakhos. Here the question
isn't hana'ah which was a side-effect in and of itself, it would be
whether the hana'ah constitutes a distraction for pre-tefillah.

My guess is that's the question being implicitly answered with the
mechabeir being careful to include "milk and sugar" in repeating
RSZA's pesaq. The difference being that I'm not sure the bakashah is
needed when the tzorekh for drinking before tefillah is greater.


While whining about my hypothetical person's inability to go all of
davening without a drink beforehand, here's a related (even more
maudlin) question:

He used to enjoy being a sha"tz, and when not, singing along with the
chazan was a big part of his tefillah on Shabbos and YT. Now, it's
painful to make it all the way through one or more tefillos without a
break, meaning frequently declining being sha"tz, and singing only
snippets rather than the entire keta. So, for the Avodah question:

Can someone put his mind at ease by proving that the mashal of an eved
hamozeg kos lerabo veshafach lo specifically applies to Sukkah?

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv