[Avodah] Mincha and Z'rizin Makdimin

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

It is clear to me from many places, that in general, a delayed Mincha is preferable to an early Mincha. For example, all else being equal, davening during Mincha Ketana is preferred to an earlier davening during Mincha Gedola. Also, I will give an example below, which shows that a later part of Mincha Gedola is preferable to an earlier part of Mincha Gedolah.

(In addition, I think I've heard of people who prefer to begin Mincha either *at* Shkias Hachama, or even *after* Shkias Hachama. I presume that these people hold that Bein Hashmashos does not begin until some time after Shkias Hachama, and they daven Mincha during the gap between the two.)

What happened to "z'rizin makdimin b'mitzvos"? This principle says that it is generally best to do a mitzvah at the earliest opportunity, and not to delay it.

The *application* of this rule is subject to a lot of discussion and exceptions, especially when there are good reasons to delay the mitzva. For example, Bedikas Chometz can theoretically be done any time in the 30 days before Pesach, but Chazal told us to wait until the very last night before Pesach. Mishne Brurah 436:4 (and others) explains why the last night is better than the earlier 29 days, so I don't want to get sidetracked onto this particular example. My main question in this post is to look for *other* examples. The only one I can think of is Mincha.

The simple answer is that our Tefilas Mincha is modeled after the Tamid Shel Bayn Ha'arbayim, and that Korban Tamid was delayed until very late in the day. The exception was that on Erev Pesach, because of the many people who had to bring their Korban Pesach *after* the Tamid, the Tamid was done earlier than usual, at 7 1/2 hours into the day (~1:30 pm). But when Erev Pesach was on Erev Shabbos, because of the many people who had to bring their Korban Pesach after the Tamid, AND roast it before Shabbos, the Tamid was done at the very earliest time, at 6 1/2 hours into the day (~12:30 pm).

This is the case I referred to above, where it seems that a later part of Mincha Gedola is preferable to an earlier part of Mincha Gedolah. It was only when Erev Pesach was Erev Shabbos that they pushed the Korban Tamid to its absolutely earliest time. But on a regular Erev Pesach, the Tamid was early, but not *that* early.

So the question is: Why was there this push to delay the afternoon Tamid? Why not do it early on a regular basis?

One possible answer which I found comes from the Rambam in T'midin U'Musafim 1:3 --

"They shecht the Tamid Shel Bayn Haarbayim once the shadows are clearly getting longer, which is from 6 1/2 hours until the end of the day. On a regular day, they wouldn't shecht it until 8.5 hours, and then they were makriv it at 9.5 hours. Why did they delay it for two hours after the beginning of the time for shechting? Because of the korbanos, whether of individuals or the tzibur, because it is assur to be makriv any korban at all before the morning Tamid, nor to shecht any korban after the evening Tamid - except for the Korban Pesach alone..."

>From this Rambam, it seems that *theoretically*, the afternoon Tamid could be brought at any point in the afternoon (between 6.5 hours and the end of the day), and it is only *practical* considerations which dictated this particular schedule.

Specifically, it seems to me that although the afternoon Tamid could have been brought even later in the day than it was, they really did not need to delay it. On a normal day, all of the other korbanos could be taken care of by mid-afternoon, so that they could shecht the Tamid at 8.5 hours, and be makriv it at 9.5 hours, and still have plenty of time before the day was over. Z'rizin makdimin *was* a factor - they brought the Tamid as early as they could, but it was not practical to bring it any earlier than this.

On Erev Pesach, though, additional factors came into play. Someone has to bring a Chatas? Well, they had better not dawdle, because we have to do the afternoon Tamid early, so that everyone can do their Korban Pesach! (Not really much different than nowadays, when Erev Pesach is one of the busiest days of the year.) And if Erev Pesach is on Erev Shabbos, it is even more critical to take care of your Chatas early in the day. (Again, not very different than today, where if the Seder is Friday night, there are things to prepare which on a regular year could've been done on Yom Tov.)

>From all this, it seems to me that there was never any intrinsic halachic reason to delay the Korban Shel Bayn Ha'arbayim past 6.5 hours (12:30 pm), and that in fact, it WAS brought as early as possible, once all other prerequisites had been taken care of.

So how did this morph into a preference for davening at Mincha Ketana? It is true that as a matter of historical record, the afternoon Tamid was generally brought in the late afternoon, but it seems to me that this is merely a historical record, NOT a halachic preference. What happened to z'rizin makdimin?

And, by the way, can anyone think of other examples where we seem to abandon z'rizin makdimin, and prefer delaying the mitzvah?

Akiva Miller

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