[Avodah] 2 maariv minyans due to the snowstorm (

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Joel Schnur wrote:

> According to the Gaon, it is better to daven bizmana b'yichidus
> than with a tzibur after the zaman. I know that some may find
> this shocking but that is how he paskens. A zman is a zman and
> it must be adhered to.

This sounds so obvious, and indeed it is. Of course one must not go past
the zman! But you speak as if "zman" had one simple meaning, while in our
context it has at least two different meanings: The zman of Krias Shma goes
to the end of three hours, and the zman of Shmoneh Esreh to the end of four
hours. These zmanim must be adhered to, and if someone says a standalone
Shma in the early morning, and a full Shacharis a little later, he *has*
adhered to these zmanim.

> In addition to the Beur HaGra and the MR already cited in the
> back and forth Avodah emails, look in the biur halacha at the
> end of Siman 46 where the Gra on saying Krias shema with
> birchoseha is discussed.

When I read this in your post, I wondered why you tell us to look at the
Beur Halacha, rather than quoting it. So I looked - "Ki L'faamim" on pg 150
in my edition. It seems that the Beur Halacha was not at all certain of how
the Gra held on this issue: "The Gra holds ... [that] if he sees that the
tzibur will miss the Zman Krias Shma, it is better to have kavana to be
yotzay [with the first Shma after brachos] so that he is not left without
Krias Shma ... OR it is possible that the Gra holds that even in such a
case, it is better to say Shma on time with its brachos and daven without
the minyan... Tzorech Iyun." And the rest of  the Beur Halacha discusses
other difficulties in understanding what the Gra meant.

I guess there were other poskim who were confident that they understood the
Gra's shita to be like RJS described.

Akiva Miller
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