The
gemara in Brachos [12b] says that one must say המלך
הקדוש during the aseres yemei
teshuva instead of the usual הא-ל הקדוש. Tosfos
and the Rosh write that if one is not sure whether or not he said המלך הקדוש he
should assume that he said הא-ל הקדוש as that is his habit and people follow
habits… So rules the Shulchan Aruch [582/1]. [However, if at the beginning of
shmoneh esrei he had kavvana to say המלך then he can assume that he did].
The
author of the Sdei Chemed in his Michtav Li-chizkiyahu [סימן י'] presents a fascinating question. Let us say
that someone says המלך but is not sure whether he is holding by המלך הקדוש or the later המלך
המשפט. What should he do??
Should he say המשפט, הקדוש or go back
to the beginning? There are many possibilities.
[Myse she-haya: A Jew was bentching, said yaaleh vi-yavo, continued [without thinking, instead of U'bnei Yerushalayim]] with Visechezenah, Modim, Sim Shalom, Elokai Netzor etc. When he got to Oseh Shalom, he wanted to take his three steps back but realized that he was sitting down. He said to himself "Vaist ois [I know from this] that I am takeh bentching and not davening shmone esrei".
The power of not paying attention....:-). Heard from the Rebbe Shlita].
The
author of the Chasdei Dovid said that one should conclude המשפט because of safek brachos li-koola. We will
explain: Let us say that you are in the middle of shmone esirei and don't know
where you are holding. Should you apply the rule of ספק
ברכות לקולא and say from where you are sure that you
DIDN'T say or should you go back further and say from where you are sure that
you DID say? The Chasdei Dovid and the
Chaye Adam adopt the former position and he should say from where he is sure
that he DIDN'T say [but the brachos about which he is in doubt, he should skip].
One
might argue based on the psak of the Shulchan Aruch [107/1] that if one is in
doubt as to whether he davened, he should daven. So too, if he is in doubt
about how many brachos he said, he should say all of those about which he is
uncertain and return to המלך הקדוש. The
response is that when one is uncertain as
to whether or not he davened, he should daven again with a תנאי נדבה - a conditional voluntary davening: "If I
davened already then this should be a voluntary davening. If I didn't, then
this should be a fulfillment of my obligation." However, there is no תנאי נדבה for only part of the davening. So the Chasdei
Dovid is correct and he should only say what he is sure that he didn't say but
not what he is not sure about.
The
Shorshei Hayom says that one should go back to המלך
הקדוש. This can be explained
in a number of ways. 1] He holds that one can say part of the tefillah with a תנאי נדבה in an instance where he is in doubt. He may
only not daven a tefillah בנדבה ["this
tefillah should be voluntary"] when he is sure that he already davened.
But when there is a chance that he didn't yet daven then a תנאי
נדבה is permitted. 2] It could be that he holds ספק ברכות לחומרא and if he doesn't know where he is holding, he
should go back to where he is sure he DID say [and thus say all of the brachos
about which he is in doubt]. This is the opinion of the Yerushalmi [Brachos
5/3] the Hagaos Ashree [Megila 2/1] the Ohr Zarua and others [unlike the Chaye
Adam].
This
was explained by the Steipler [Kehilos Yaakov Brachos 17] as follows: If one
skips one bracha of shmone esrei then all of the brachos are li-vatala. So if
we allow him to skip all of the doubtful brachos then it will emerge that he
might end up saying the rest of shmone esrei li-vatala. It is a קולא skipping the doubtful brachos but that might
result in many brachos li-vatala. If he goes back to where he is sure that he
said, he thereby ensures that all of the rest of the brachos will be כשר וישר valid kosher brachos. So in our case if we
allow him to start with המשפט we have the concern that the rest of the brachos will be li-vatala, so we
tell him to go back to הקדוש and fulfill the famous dictum "better
safe than sorry".
There
is a ton more to say – look in the teshuva of the Michtav Li-chizkiyahu and in
the writings of [see the end]….
מאוצרותיו של הגר"א גנחובסקי זצ"ל
