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Thought for the Day: Tashlumin Learns Both from Whence It Came and Where It Is

No one Jew can fulfill all 613 mitzvos. Some are specific to kohanim, some to women; one (geirus) can only be done be a non-Jew!  So how do we reach the perfection that only comes from fulfilling all 613 dimensions of perfection?  Chazal tell us that by learning about a mitzah that we cannot fulfill, we are credited as fulfilling it.  Moreover, some mitzvos, even though one could fulfill them, it is not desirable to fulfill them.  Returning a stolen object, for example.  Stealing something just to return it is at best a mitzvah ha'ba b'aveira and generally frowned upon.  So some mitzvos are best fulfilled even l'chatchila through study.  I am going to put tashlumin in that category.  I found the following case cool because it touches on a lot of issues.

Suppose Moshe is unable to daven mincha one erev rosh chodesh.  So at ma'ariv he will daven a tashlumin right after his ma'ariv sh'mone esrei.  So far so good.  Ma'ariv on rosh chodesh itself is interesting, because if one forgets "ya'aleh v'yavo" he is b'di'avad yotzi.  Since this is t'fila, once he is not obligated to repeat, he is actually forbidden to repeat.  With that in mind, we are prepared to investigate the four possible scenarios: Moshe says "ya'aleh v'yavo" in both shmone esrei's, only the first, only the second, or neither.

The best case is that Moshe says "ya'aleh v'yavo" in both sh'mone esrei's.  Even though the one he missed did not contain a "ya'aleh v'yavo", the tashlumin sh'mone esrei is, l'chatchila, just like the one that it follows, not like the one that we missed.  (Had he said it then, in fact, he would not have been yotzi and would have been required to repeat.  Interestingly, therefore, one could be in the odd position of saying precisely the sh'mone esrei for tashulim that caused him to have to say a tashlumin in the first place.  Such is halacha.)

If Moshe says "ya'aleh v'yavo" only in the first sh'mone esrei, he is also ok (b'di'avad).  Since even his main sh'mone esrei would be ok without "ya'aleh v'yavo", the tashlumin certainly cannot have a more severe requirements.

If Moshe says "ya'aleh v'yavo" in only the second sh'mone esrei, then he is not yotzi his tashlumin and must repeat.  The problem here is that even though his ma'ariv was fine without "ya'aleh v'yavo", once he adds "ya'aleh v'yavo" in the tashlumin, it looks like he is making his second t'fila the main one.  Tashlumin must always follow the main sh'mone esrei, so this negates his tashlumin and it must be repeated.  (He does not need to repeat the first; it's not that bad.)

Finally if Moshe omits "ya'aleh v'yavo" from both sh'mone esrei's he is also fine.  The main is fine because that's how a rosh chodesh sh'mone esrei works.  His tashlumin is fine, because the one he missed also didn't have "ya'aleh v'yavo", so the tashlumin can't be more stringent.

By the way, all those extra sh'mone esrei's are not l'vatala.  In fact, they even count toward a person's required 100 brachos a day.  HaShem is so good to us!
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