[Avodah] Tea before Shacharis

[Chana Luntz]

RMB writes:

>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?

Somewhere or the other I have (but unfortunately cannot find) an article by
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein which he wrote on his father becoming blind, and
hence, of course, al pi the straight understanding of the gemora, becoming
patur from mitzvos.  I confess I don't remember the details, although he (or
perhaps it was his father) took great comfort from the statement by Milton
that "They also serve who only sit and wait".

However, even if the case of eved hamozeg was more generalisable to other
mitzvos, I would not have thought by any stretch it could be generalisable
to your case.  Because sitting in a sukkah is a mitzvah, and if it rains,
one is then patur, and cannot perform the mitzvah (arguably analogous to
going blind).  However, being shatz and even more so singing along with the
chazzan is hard to describe as an actual mitzvah, in cold halachic terms.
At most I would have thought it could be described as a hiddur mitzvah, or
one that enables you (and others) to perform the mitzvah of tephilla more
easily or better.

I could, of course, give you the standard lines that are regularly trotted
out to women who love coming to shul and davening with a minyan and then
have a baby and cannot come (something they also often feel most acutely
this time of year).  I am sure you can fill in the details yourself, so I
don't need to do so here.  Perhaps however, given this context, you can more
easily understand why such standard lines can come across in a very cruel
manner.  And another reason why I am not crazy about these kinds of
statements, is because I truly believe that ruach nachoach is an important
concept, and that is what your singing is all about (as it is for women who
love attending shul).  But there comes a time to all of us when we can no
longer do what we were previously capable of.  For some of us earlier than
others (due to radiotherapy or other reasons).  And some of us have it at
first more temporarily (every time I get pregnant, and see myself getting
more and more helpless and dependent on others, it always strikes me that
pregnancy is a little bit like getting old, only much faster and with it all
suddenly disappearing once the baby appears and one can get back to being in
control of one's body again).  And that gets us into much deeper
philosophical territory, as to why we age the way we do, and why the last
portion of life (if one is lucky) is about surrendering the hard won
independence that we achieve in our adulthood.  You are just having aspects
of it much earlier than your contemporaries, but the same questions remain.

>SheTir'u baTov!
>-micha

Regards

Chana