[FOR] A SEFER TORAH, HE MAKES FOR HIMSELF A PARTITION. R’ Yehoshua B’ Laivee says that it is insufficient to place a Torah in a vessel that is in another vessel. One must have a partition between his bed and the section of the room where the sefer Torah is kept. This is not necessary for t’filin and most other holy books. They may be put in a vessel that is within a second vessel. And this ruling that there must be a partition in the room was said specifically for a sefer Torah. And also for chumoshim¹ one should be stringent as with a sefer Torah, but for other books, it is sufficientto cover them with **any minimal covering.**²

footnotes: ¹ Tosfos is talking about chumoshim that are written sefer Torah style on parchment and wrapped around a post. They are called chumoshim because they only contain one of the five s’forim of the Torah, not the complete Torah. Tosfos is not referring to the printed chumoshim that we use today. They are like other s’forim and need only be covered. ² Tosfos use of the phrase בעלמא כסוי seems to mean a minimal covering. This is a bit perplexing, because we have learned that t’filin and other s’forim require a vessel within a vessel. Perhaps Tosfos is referring to the second vessel, as we have seen about the garment placed over a closet. That garment is the second vessel. It is not really a proper vessel for a sefer but it is acceptable. Perhaps that is what Tosfos means with the phrase בעלמא כסוי.

THE MORNING PRAYER [MAY BE RECITED] UNTIL NOON ETC.; THE AFTERNOON PRAYER [MAY BE RECITED] UNTIL THE EVENING. Tosfos wonders about why the Mishna uses different phrases to describe the same time period. **And if you ask: why doesn’t the Mishna use the phrase “all day” in reference to minchoh prayers as it does in regard to musaf prayers?**¹ Tosfos explains that the previous question is based on an error. And we can answer: that the time for musaf is all day long, even from theearly morning, for the musaf sacrifices can be offered immediately after thedaily **tomid sacrifice. If so,**since the prayers are in place of the sacrifices, **the musaf prayers can also be said immediately from the morning. This is not true of minchoh,**which can be said only after six and a half hoursof the day have passed. Tosfos offers proof that musaf can be said all day, even in the early morning. And so tooit is evident from **the first perek of Avodoh Zoroh (4b),**where the Gemara says: one should not pray the musaf prayers during the first three hoursof the day on Rosh Hashonoh privately etc.² It is exclusively on Rosh Hashonoh that one should not say musaf during the early part of the day. We can see from this that on the other days of the year one can praythe musaf prayers during the first three hours of the day. Now that we know that the time for musaf prayers starts before minchoh prayers, why does the Mishna speak about minchoh before musaf? And the reason the Mishna precedes the discussion of minchoh prayers³before the discussion of musaf prayers is because minchoh is constant, every day, even thoughthe time for musaf starts earlier.

footnotes: ¹ It seems that Tosfos in his question understood that musaf prayers are recited after midday as are the minchoh prayers. If so, Tosfos question is quite understandable. Minchoh and musaf have the same exact times for starting and ending. Why doesn’t the Mishna use the same phrase for minchoh as it does for musaf? What we must ask is why Tosfos originally thought that musaf starts at midday. תעלומה מגיד by R’ Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov suggests that since the Mishna discusses musaf after minchoh, it is an indication that musaf does not start before minchoh and Tosfos is justified in his question. ² The Gemara there explains that because of the nature of Rosh Hashonoh as a day of judgment, the early part of the day is an inopportune time for an individual to say the musaf prayer. ³ See note 1. It is precisely because the Mishna mentions minchoh first that we thought the time for starting musaf is the same as the time for starting minchoh. Now that we know that musaf prayers can be said at the beginning of the day, we must have a new reason for the Mishna discussing minchoh before musaf.