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Thought for the Day: Davening Shacharis after 10:00 AM

If you don't regularly daven כותיקין, then I don't think I can really explain how it feels to wake up and see the sun shining through the window. Maybe its something like the feeling one would experience if he arrived to his own wedding a day late. Sure, there are things you can do to remediate, but you really have lost something that cannot be recovered. Even that is not quite the same, because -- as the saying goes -- "there are plenty of fish in the sea", but that תפילה כותיקין is forever lost.

What is the remediation? As with any remediation, that תפילה כותיקין is lost, but there are a few levels of salvaging some shreds of communication with the Creator. First, as the Shulchan Aruch says (O.Ch. 89:1), the time for תפילה extends till 10:00 AM. (That is, the first third of the day.  For brevity, though, we'll henceforth call that 10:00AM, which is the time when you have a twelve hour day that begins at 6:00AM. Appropriate adjustments need to be made for other length and/or start of day.) It's not תפילה כותיקין, but it is at least תפילה at the appropriate time. One is even allowed to daven any time in that window לכתחילה; though heaven knows why one would give up תפילה כותיקין.

After halachic noon (aka, dead center between day start and end) one may no longer daven the תפילה of shacharis. What about between 10:00 AM and noon? That's when all the trouble starts. The Shulchan Aruch goes on to say that if one accidentally or (even) on purpose delayed past 10:00AM, then he can and should (even if delayed on purpose) say say תפילה. It's not תפילה in its correct time, but, nebbich, it is still a תפילה. I added "nebbich", because the Mishna Brura recommends davening with a condition that this is simply a donation תפילה, since many of the later poskim forbid saying תפילה at all after 10:00AM.

Now, here is a question that you will not find in the addressed in the Shulcha Aruch (nor anywhere else that I searched, for that matter): suppose you wake up very late (which is not considered missing "on purpose"). Should you seek another nine men in a similar boat to have a minyan, or nebbich you've not only lost תפילה in its time, but you've also lost תפילה בציבור? Since I didn't find that question addressed, I asked R' Fuerst, shlita. The rav answered that if the other nine also overslept, the go for it. If, however, the others just decided to daven later for no good reason, then just daven by yourself. Why the difference? If you look back at siman 58 in the Biur Halacha there, you'll find that while תפילה can be said after 10:00AM even by those who delayed in purpose, the brachos around sh'ma cannot be said after 10:00AM if one delayed on purpose. Overslept? Not great, but still in the game. Just felt like coming late? You certainly need to daven, but it's no longer a team sport.

Can you find people and even shuls who say it's ok to daven that late and even to set the times for services that put the congregants in that position many weeks of the year? Sure. Find a shul that does that with relying on any mainstream halachic authority? Nope.

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