Mishnah
Mishnah

Responsa for Berakhot 4:1

תְּפִלַּת הַשַּׁחַר, עַד חֲצוֹת. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, עַד אַרְבַּע שָׁעוֹת. תְּפִלַּת הַמִּנְחָה עַד הָעֶרֶב. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, עַד פְּלַג הַמִּנְחָה. תְּפִלַּת הָעֶרֶב אֵין לָהּ קֶבַע. וְשֶׁל מוּסָפִין כָּל הַיּוֹם. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, עַד שֶׁבַע שָׁעוֹת:

The morning prayer may be recited until midday. R. Yehudah says: Until the fourth hour. [For, according to the Rabbis, the daily burnt-offering may be sacrificed until midday; and, according to R. Yehudah, until the fourth hour of the day. "Until the fourth hour" is until the end of the fourth hour, a third of the day when the day is twelve hours long. And its time is always until the end of a third of the day according to the relative length or shortness of the day, as stated above in respect to the Shema. And the halachah is according to R. Yehudah.] The afternoon prayer may be recited until the evening [i.e., until it gets dark.] R. Yehudah says: Until midway through the day (plag haminchah). [The time of minchah ketanah ("the small minchah") is from nine and a half hours until nightfall — two and a half hours — so that plag haminchah, which is half of that, is an hour and a quarter (before nightfall). The ruling in this regard is that one may follow either practice. If he wishes to follow the sages and to recite the afternoon prayer until the evening, he may do so, so long as he does not recite the evening prayer at that time. For since he considers it day as far as the minchah prayer is concerned, he cannot consider it evening for purposes of the evening prayer. And if he wishes to follow R. Yehudah, to recite the afternoon prayer only until the plag haminchah, an hour and a quarter before nightfall, he may do so; and from that time on, he may recite the evening prayer.] The evening prayer has no fixed time. [Its time is the entire night. It is taught: "it has no fixed time," rather than: "its time is the entire night," for the evening prayer is optional, corresponding, as it does, to the time of the consumption of the limbs and fat-pieces — the entire night. And the latter is optional; for once the blood has been sprinkled, the offering is accepted, even if the limbs and fat-pieces become unclean or are lost. Today, however, it (the evening prayer) has been accepted as binding.] And the mussaf ("additional") prayer may be recited the entire day. [If he delayed reciting it until after the seventh hour he fulfills the obligation, but he is called "an offender." And this is the halachah.] R. Yehudah says: Until the seventh hour.

Shut min haShamayim

We were also unsure regarding the statement in the Mishnah, "The afternoon prayer may be recited until evening" (Berachot 4:1). Does this refer to sunset, or to the time when the stars become visible? For when reading the words of Rabbi Yehuda carefully, he claimed that the prayer could be recited until 'plag hamincha'1a point in the day ten and three-quarter hours after sunrise. In the Talmudic discussion (Berachot 26b:15), they ask whether this word 'until' includes the whole last portion of the day, or means up until that point of time. They then argue that if 'until' includes the last portion of the day until the twelfth halachic hour, then Rabbi Yehuda would not be in disagreement with the other rabbis [which he seems to be]. Therefore, it seems that when the rabbis say 'until evening', they also mean until the twelfth hour, which is the time that the stars are visible in the sky2 according to the understanding of the Talmud in Berachot 2b:4. Regarding all this I asked [in my dream] whether, in the case of a headache3meaning of Hebrew unclear or in other extenuating circumstances, one could recite the afternoon prayer until the time the stars are visible?4The Talmud finishes its discussion of the correct time for the afternoon prayer inconclusively (Berakhot 27a:14), yet the question here assumes a normative practice of finishing it early, before 'plag mincha', and is asking about extenuating circumstances. R. Hai Gaon quotes the contemporary practice in the Babylonian academies to recite the afternoon prayer up to nightfall when necessary (Shibbolei Haleket 47). The 12th-century provençal work Sefer Hashlama writes that people were not consistent, and sometimes said the afternoon prayer late or the evening prayer early (cited in Beit Yosef Orach Chaim 233). The contradiction between these two practices is discussed in Tosafot on Berakhot 2a:1.
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