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September 1956

The Late Friday Service in the Light of Halacha, Part 1 (1956)

Shabbat Practical Halacha Kehillat Kodimoh
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R. Lamm Response to Rabbis Wolf and Shoham re: Late Friday Night Services (1956)

I am grateful to the Editors of CHAVRUSA for giving me this opportunity to bring the discussions on the Late Friday Service to a close conclusion by responding briefly to the comments of Rabbis Weiss, Shoham, and Wolf published in the last issue. I am indebted to Rabbi Weiss for his thoughtful past article in which he supports my contentions in part, and particularly for bringing to my attention the Halachic dimension of the Kabbalat Shabbat psalms and hymns.Insofar as the Halachic criticism of my thesis is concerned, Rabbis Weiss and Shoham agree in disputing my equation of the Talmudic case of a prevenient Saturday night Maariv and our current problem of the Late Friday Service. They argue, essentially, that an early Saturday Maariv necessarily precludes Tossefet Shabbat, which is not the case with the Friday late service. There is no question that they are right — provided we remember that is only if we speak of an occasional delay in the Friday Maariv, so that Tossefet Shabbat is observed as usual. We, however, are discussing a case of, as I put it originally, "normalizing" the Friday Maariv at a late hour. There is no secret as to why we do so — it is because not only Tossefet Shabbat but even Shabbat itself will not be observed until that hour. It is an accommodation provided for those who do not observe the Shabbat. And I maintain that a regular and set Late Service necessarily precludes Tossefet Shabbat, by its very nature and cause and purpose, and gives rise to the legitimate fear of its inspiring actual desecration of the Sabbath proper. When we accept these realities in their practical context, we may justifiably entertain this equivalence between the early Saturday Maariv and the Late Friday service.I fail to understand why Rabbi Shoham seems amused by my attempts to find authority in Talmud and Rishonim for a peculiarly modern problem. If we indeed believe that the Halacha is always relevant and not just fossil material for dissection by legal antiqu…
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…
Shabbat Practical Halacha Kehillat Kodimoh

Article

The Late Friday Service in the Light of Halacha, Part 2 (1956)

The Time Element B: The next phase of our analysis of the time-element does not involve the matter of Tosefes Shabos and the fear that a Late Service will result in its violation, but concerns a totally different though less severe question. And that is the subject of Orach Arah or Derech Eretz. The source of this argument is Shabos 23b where the Talmud relates that the wife of R. Joseph was late in kindling the candles. Her husband rebuked her for her negligence, on the basis of a Breisoh that: לא ימוש עמוד הענן יומם ועמוד האש לילה מלמד שעמוד ענן משלים לעמוד אש – רש"י אלמא אורח ארעא בהכי His wife then began to kindle the lights much earlier when, we read, אמר לה ההוא סבא תנינא ובלבד שלא יקדים ולא יאחר. The following should be mentioned with regard to this thesis: 1) As stated, Rashi refers to it as Orach Arah, and it is thus of a lower level of severity, since it does not inherently involve the essential laws of Shabos. Further evidence in support of Rashi that this does not touch on the question of Kdooshas Hayoim can be adduced from Yalkut Shimoni (Bshalach 230) where we read as follows: בא הכתוב ללמדך דרך ארץ מן התורה על ערבי שבתות עד שעמוד הענן קיים יהי עמוד האש צמח 2) Even more important in this connection is the possibility that this entire episode of R. Joseph and his wife, and the dictum of Hahoo Sava, does not refer to the Sabbath candles but to the Chanukah candles. Such is the reading of Bahag, Hilchos Chanukah. A similar conclusion may be derived from a study of the text of R. Asher (assuming that all references to Ner on that folio are consistent – cf. text of Alfasi), although the Vilno Gaon emends the text with the word שבת indicating that the entire discourse refers to both Shabos and Chanukah. Maimonides mentions the prohibition of Loi Yakdim Vloi Yaacher as a unit only with regard to Chanukah in Hilchos Chanukah Perek 5, Halacha 5, and not in regard to Shabos; in the laws of the latter (Perek 8 Halacha 3), he only mentions the prohibition of late…
Shabbat Practical Halacha Kehillat Kodimoh