Thought for the Day: Preparing to Daven, Davening, Preparing to Serve, Serving, Preparing to Daven, ....

The mishna (Brachos 30b) says that the חסידים הראשונים/earlier particularly pious one would delay שעה אחת/one hour, then daven. Why? In order to direct their hearts/minds to their Father in Heaven.  Wow. That is intense. So intense that even the mishna refers to them with a reverence for the amazing piety of the previous generation.

Now, very often the term שעה אחת doesn't mean a 60 minutes hour, it just means a short period of time. But here it actually means a full, 60 minute hour. That is according to the Mishna Brura, sk 1 on siman 93 in the Orach Chaim section of the Shulchan Aruch.

Wait... what?! The Mishna Brura and Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim are הלכה למעשה/normative Jewish law that we are expected to follow. An hour before each שמונה עשרי, three times a day. Oh, yes, and the gemara adds (Brachos 32b) that one should delay an hour after davening before going on with his day. These חסידים הראשונים also spent an entire hour on שמונה עשרי itself.

There must be a disconnect somewhere, right? I mean, have you ever seen anyone spend an entire hour preparing for mincha, then an hour davening mincha, then another hour recouping before going back to work? I haven't. But before I reveal the disconnect, I'd like to offer the clues that led me to investigate this. First, when the gemara on 32b starts to analyze this statement in the mishna, it asks: מנא הני מילי/what is the source for this halacha? (My free translation; much more accurate than Google's "manna, my dear" 😜.) That's a very strange question to ask about pious behavior. What is the source for this? We never ask that question about pious behavior! One more thing; go back to the mishna on 30b and look at Rashi's explanation of them delaying an hour. Says Rashi: in the place where they came to daven.

Ok, fine... Here's the deal. In the days of the חסידים הראשונים, people would learn in Beis Medrash, then daven in Beis HaKeneses (don't ask why I transliterate some terms and use native Hebrew alefbais for others; I am not clear on that either). That is why we need a source for their behavior: they were stopping their learning an hour early to daven. Are you allowed to do that? There is a time to daven and a time to learn. That's why we need the source.

What about siman 93 that codifies this as normative behavior? I pulled a fast one on you. The gemara on 32b brings a bereisa (see? another transliteration; strange), that is an authoritative text from the time of the mishna, but not in the official canon of mishnayos. We usually would not pasken like a bereisa when we have a mishna, but this mishna is really to tell us about the exalted behavior of our pious ancestors, not to tell us practically how we should act. Nonetheless, the mishna sets a bar and context for the bereisa. As that Mishna Brura, sk 1 goes on to explain: that full hour was for the חסידים הראשונים, but in our generation it is enough to delay a few minutes before and after davening.

Davening is a meeting with the Creator, our Father in Heaven. The rest of the day is spent doing our respective jobs. Meetings are also work (as I recall from my pre-retirement days), and they are critical to running the business correctly. However, there is a time to meet and a time to work. For a Jew; there is a time to daven and a time to serve. Each according to his level and ability.