Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Mistaken Intentions

I think I might give a shiur somewhere soon and I might discuss the following. I might also just make a lot of jokes [that one I posted about the shower radio has kept me going the whole day:-)] and hope that it will open their hearts for future learning.

מעשה שהיה: A person was accustomed to davening late mincha and one day he was asked to join a minyan for early mincha and he joined. Then, LO AND BEHOLD he davened again later. AHHHHHH [my possible future last name - if you follow the blog avidly you understand. Recently I have been posting a lot so if you are not keeping up it is understandable:-)], how we are creatures of habit!!

The issue was that when he davened the second time it was after plag hamincha [an hour and a quarter before sunset] and according to Rebbi Yehuda one can already daven maariv then. So maybe the tefilla he was davening can count for maariv. The question is - Do you have to have intention that this tfilla should count for maariv in order for it to count for maariv. [On a similar note - If you are reading the Torah and you read the correct word from the sefer but it is in a different place than where you are actually up to. Does that work??]

The Chesed Li-avraham Rav Avraham Teumim says that in a case where someone wanted to daven mussaf later in the day and accidentally davened shachris again [on Rosh Chodesh?] it counts as mincha. He proves this from the halacha [מג"א רס"ח ח] that says that if one intended to daven shachris and instead davened mussaf, it counts for him as mussaf. In the same vein even though he was thinking "mussaf" and instead davened shachris again it counts as mincha because one doesn't have to have the specific tefilla in mind.  

Rav Shlomo Kluger begged to differ and said that you can't compare the two cases. In the case of one who mistakenly davened mussaf it counts as mussaf because the nusach of the tefilla has only mussaf written all over it. In the Chesed Li-avraham's case, he intended to daven shachris and the nusach was in fact the nusach for shachris so it can't count as mincha. BOY IS BEING A YID COMPLICATED SOMETIMES:-). According to this, in our case [the second mincha after plag] it can't count as maariv if he intended it as mincha because the nusach is a mincha nusach.

He proves this thesis from the halacha that when davens twice to make up for a missed tefilla he must have in mind that the first tefilla counts for the present obligation and  the second for the previous obligation that was missed.

But sweetest friends - there is a SHTARK proof for the Chesed Li-avraham in the mishna brura תכ"ב סק"ד - please take a peek there and figure it out yourself.

Hey Reb M.G.B.Y. - is that geshmak or WHAT?????:-)

עפ"י דברי הגאון הגדול רבי אברהם גנחובסקי זצוק"ל בשיעור שנאמר באסרו חג הפסח תשס"ד והודפס בספר בני רא"ם סי' מד