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December 1956

R. Lamm Response to Rabbis Wolf and Shoham re: Late Friday Night Services (1956)

Practical Halacha Kehillat Kodimoh
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Letters to the Editor re: R. Lamm's Article about Late Friday Service (1957)

Dear Rabbi Weiss: I’ve enjoyed your column “Modor Hahalacha.” Rabbi Norman Lamm’s latest contribution was very interesting reading. The thought is whether you are doing justice to the concept of a “Modor Hahalacha” by printing under its masthead a research paper, no matter how brilliantly or scholarly written. Even secular research has established a style and format of its own. Certainly halacha and sheilot u’teshuvot have a style of their own. If this was a sheilah it should have been addressed to the gedolim — if it was a chidush or teshuvah then writing Torah has a definite style — lashon hakodesh. Rabbi Lamm’s piece was a very fine bit of research, so should it not be labeled as such? Again, the wise are to be careful with their words, and to put into printed English the choice of making a choice between Maimonides and Tosafot does seem a bit risky. (Rabbi) Freddie Wolf, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Dear Rabbi Weiss: First, I should like to congratulate you on your decision to accept halachic articles from our musmachim for your column “Modor Hahalacha.” This should stimulate greater halachic interest and activity on our part. If I may, I would like to voice my disagreement with the basic premise of Rabbi Lamm’s article in the September issue of Chavrusa — namely, the equation of the question of late Friday night services to Maariv of motzaei Shabbat said beshabbat. By praying the Maariv shel motzaei Shabbat beshabbat, you necessarily preclude the possibility of tosefet Shabbat by the content of the Maariv shel chol. However, by praying the late Friday service, you don’t preclude the possibility of tosefet Shabbat. One can be mosif Shabbat without Maariv shel Shabbat also. I strongly believe that this objection definitely invalidates Rabbi Lamm’s premise and hence his entire thesis, which — according to him — seems to involve so many halachic authorities from Amoraic times through the period of the Ashkenazic and Sephardic Rishonim who presumably aligned themselv…
Practical Halacha Kehillat Kodimoh

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The Late Friday Night Service - Response (1957)

Rabbi Norman Lamm is to be commended for dealing boldly and in a Halachic manner with a subject of practical importance to every rabbi. This attests to our frequently affirmed belief that all topical questions must be treated Halachically and must be resolved only within its disciplines. In the first phase of his exposition, Rabbi Lamm compares the late Friday Night Service with the early Saturday Night Service which is permitted by the Talmud (BROCHOS 27b) but is regarded as an unfitting practice by Tosafos. The fears of the elimination of Tosefos Shabbos and Chashash M'lacha raised by Tosafos should, therefore, equally be applied to the late Friday Service. Rabbi Lamm posits, however, that the tacit approval of the early Saturday Night Service by the Rambam should be carried over to our question. Now if this approach is correct, it is fair to mention that the Shulchan Oruch (O.Ch. 293-3) adopts the view of Tosafos which should be for us Halacha Lemaseh. Even when a clear doubt exists the rule is to follow Sugyon d'alma (see 33a Sanhedrin) and the traditional practice all over is not to hold the Saturday Night Service before it is night. Rabbi Lamm may be correct in his suggestion that the Rambam does not object to the early Maariv on Saturday because he does not require Tosefos Shabbos. Then, it is an oversimplification to resolve our problem into a controversy between the Ashkenazic and Sephardic Rabbis, since the Rambam and the Tur stand alone (see Bes Joseph 261) in their silence of Tosefos Shabbos. All the other Rishonim including such non-Ashkenazim as Rav HaGaon and Ray Alfasi agree that Tosefos Shabbos is mandatory. But I think that the “din" of the early Shabbos Maariv would apply also to Yom Kippur where even the Rambam admits Tosefos for fasting at least. The reason should rather be found in Rambam Chapter XXIX of Hilchoth Shabbos in the 11th halacha where he says that the Mitzvah of Kiddush and Havdala is to be practiced at the time of the entrance and…
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The Late Friday Service in the Light of Halacha, Part 1 (1956)

The institution of Late Friday Services in American Synagogues, even in a number of otherwise strongly Orthodox ones, is a comparatively recent phenomenon. It is for that reason that, to my knowledge, the matter has not yet been analyzed with a view to testing its Halachic permissibility and, as a result, recommending either its acceptance, rejection or modification. Yet the introduction of this innovation into our own synagogues places upon us the responsibility, which we cannot escape, of developing just such a critique. This problem to which we address ourselves, like others of its kind on the contemporary scene, must be treated on two levels: the purely Halachic and the “trans-nalachic.” By the latter term I mean those matters which cut across technical lines, and are questions of policy that are primarily subjective value judgements in which we look at the picture in its totality, and take into consideration such elements of basic principle and public psychology as Pritzas Geder, Eis Laasois the comparative worth of Tefiloh Betzibor and שינוי מטבע שטבעו חכמים. While the purely Halachic issues require more scholarship, these trans-halachic matters call for more wisdom, and will ultimately be as decisive as the purely Halachic in determining our future practice. Of course, this dichotomy cannot be taken too literally, for the Halacha must necessarily deal with these larger “gestalt” issues as well, in the formulation of a final decision. But in this study I shall attempt to concentrate, insofar as possible, on the Halachic material per se. I shall do so, of course, without attempting to be comprehensive or presuming to offer my Psak. This is merely a first attempt to present some of the aspects of the problem for consideration. Description and Origin of Problem: The Late Friday Service is usually held during the winter months, when candle lighting takes place in the early afternoon. At about 8 or 8:30 P.M., the Kabolas Shabos and Maariv is held. This may be eith…
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