COME AND HEAR: THE ADDITIONAL PRAYER [MAY BE RECITED] ALL DAY. RABBI YEHUDA SAYS: UNTIL SEVEN HOURS AFTER SUNRISE. AND IT WAS TAUGHT: [IF] THEY WERE BEFORE. The Gemara is presenting R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about when one must say the Musaf prayer. As we will soon see it is Tosfos opinion that R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about musaf does not appear in the Mishna. Tosfos must therefore emend the text of the Gemara to reflect his opinion. See the Mishna on 26a, there R’ Yehudoh’s opinion appears in parentheses. The text does not follow Tosfos opinion. In our Gemara when R’ Yehudoh’s opinion is introduced with the words אימא סיפאI will quote the end of the Mishna, the Gemara is quoting the Mishna on 26a. Tosfos replace the words אימא סיפאwith the words תא שמעas we can see in the lead words of the Tosfos. And we do not have the text אימא סיפא ושל וכו' and I will quote the endwhich refers to the end of the Mishna, because this is not in the Mishna. For the words of R’ Yehudoh who said thatmusaf may only be said till seven hours are not in the Mishna. And there are booksof the Talmud that inserted those words in the Mishna, however all the old books do nothave those words. Assuming that Tosfos is correct that the words about the conclusion of the time for musaf do not appear in the Mishna we must know, why not? And if you ask: why did Rebbethe Prince, author of the Mishna **not mention it,**R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about the musaf, in the Mishna. And we can answer: because he does not agree with his opinion on thismatter that he,R’ Yehudoh, says thatmusaf may only be said **till seven hours. In this Mishna Rebbe is quoting the opinion of the minority only if there is some practical use for that opinion.**¹ **But in that which he,**R’ Yehudoh, saysthat shacharis can be said till four hours, he, Rebbethe prince, holds as he,R’ Yehudoh, does, since the Mishna teaches in the selectedMishnayos, (aiduyos), as he,R’ Yehudoh, saysthat the limit for shacharis is till four hours. Why does Rebbe mention R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about the limit for minchoh prayers? And in that matter of the half minchohlimit, **he,**Rebbe, alsomentions R’ Yehudoh’s opinion because that opinion is also relevant in halachic practice, as the Gemara later says one who does like this master has donewell and one who does like this master has donewell. For this is the meaningof that Gemara: **One who does as R’ Yehudoh,**who **says that after the half minchoh is night time,**and usually says maariv after the half minchoh period has donecorrectly, **and for this reason,**since has acted as if it is already night, he cannot say minchohafter the half minchoh, since he has considered this period night time by usually saying maariv at that time. But one should not explain that the entire statement is discussing minchoh prayers and is teaching us that one who does like R’ Yehudoh and said Minchoh before the half minchohhas done correctly, **for it is plain that the Rabanan agree that one can say minchoh during the time allowed by R’ Yehudoh.**Their argument is only about the limit that R’ Yehudoh places on the last time for minchoh, not about the beginning of the time for minchoh.

footnotes: ¹ See sefer תעלומה מגיד who explains that the Gemara knew that in this Mishna, the minority opinion is presented only because there is some relevance as far as the halochoh is concerned, because the Mishna did not mention R’ Yehudoh’s opinion about musaf and he did mention his opinion about shacharis and minchoh. This implies that the opinion about musaf was not mentioned because it is irrelevant for practical purposes. His opinion about shacharis is mentioned because that is the halochoh as can be seen from the Mishna in aiduyos. His opinion about minchoh must be mentioned because it has relevance, otherwise it would not have been mentioned as his opinion on musaf is not mentioned. The Gemara does conclude that his opinion on michoh is relevant for one who does as R’ Yehudoh has done well and one who has done like the Rabanan has done well.

THAT RAV PRAYED THE SHABBAT [PRAYERS ON] THE EVE OF SHABBAT. The Gemara shows that one may act in accordance with R’ Yehudoh’s opinion and say maariv immediately after the half minchoh. This can be seen fro Rav, who said the Shabos maariv prayers on Friday afternoon after the half minchoh period. This is acceptable only according to R’ Yehudoh. The Rabanan do not allow for saying maariv early. Tosfos raises another problem with saying maariv early on Friday afternoon. **This is bewildering. For the Gemara says in perek Bameh Madlikin (Shabos 23b)**when discussing the proper time to light the Shabos candles, provided that one should not light too earlybefore nightfall **or too late.**When one says the maariv prayers at the half minchoh, he is going to light the candles before he begins to pray, it seems that this would be too early, and the Gemara clearly states that one should not light the candles too early. And we can answer; that therein Shabos 23b where the Gemara says that one should not light too early, it is speaking of when one is not accepting the Shabos upon himself,he is lighting the candles but expects to continue working. It is only then that we are told not to light the candles too early, but herein our Gemara, we are speaking of when he accepts Shabosand stops working immediately. Therefore, it is not considered too earlyto light the candles even though it is well before nightfall. And the reasonthat it is acceptable to say maariv immediately after the half minchoh is because he,Rav, holds like R’ Yehudoh. And so too, the others mentioned later that said the Post-Shabos prayers on Shabosafter the half minchoh, that is because they hold like R’ Yehudoh as far as the evening prayersare concerned, that it can be said an hour and a quarter before nightfall. There is much disagreement about the correct text of the next portion of the Tosfos. We will follow the text that appears in the Tosfos HoRosh on this subject. This is by no means a declaration that this is the correct text; it is merely the simplest one to follow in the context of how Tosfos is presented. **Even though,**we say that one who usually says maariv after the half minchoh cannot say minchoh at that time, this is only a ruling that applies to prayer not to other areas of halochoh and it is not prohibited for one to do work erev Shabos immediately after the half minchohwhen he did not accept Shabos by saying maariv. And so too, as far as the issue of adding to Shabos and Yom Tov and Yom Kipur, that it is established for usthat the obligation to add some time from the previous day to the Holy day by discontinuing our work prior to the exact beginning of the Holy Day is a Torah obligation, even so it is not required to have such a great amount of timeas from the half minchoh till nightfall. It is certainly sufficient to add a relatively small period to the Shabos or other Holy Day to fulfill the Torah obligation to add some time. It is certainly not necessary to begin the holiday at the half minchoh time, even according to R’ Yehudoh.