I’m not the type of person who arrives late to an
appointment. I always like to arrive a couple moments early. Even when I was
not a rabbi, you could depend upon me being in shul before services begin. The
only exception was when I was a student and davened at JTS. I regularly
attended morning services at school before breakfast and classes. I never
wanted to lead services because I was very self-conscious. Dr. Saul Lieberman,
one of the greatest Talmudist in the 20th century, was the Rabbi of
the synagogue and he intimidated me. I was afraid to make a reading mistake in
front of him. Secondly, I’ve never been known as a great singer. In fact, I say,
“When it comes to singing, my congregation pays me hush money!” One day I
entered the Seminary’s chapel for morning services five minutes early. To my
surprise my friend Ed Friedman was davening at the Amud and was already at
Baruch Sheamar because Dr. Lieberman told him to start leading services. At
that juncture there were only three people in the shul, Dr. Lieberman, Ed, and
me. I realized that if I didn’t want to leave services, I had to make a point
of arriving late.
I can set my watch according to the arrival of my
congregants. I know who will arrive on time, who will arrive in time for the
Torah service, and who will arrive in time for the sermon. Today’s daf TB
Berachot 21 discusses what should a person do when he arrives late to the
synagogue. If the congregation is reciting the Amidah, should he try to catch
up? There is a machloket, a disagreement
between Rabbi Huna and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi when a person should wait to
start his Amidah.
Rav Huna said: One who did not yet pray and enters
a synagogue and found that the congregation is in the midst of reciting
the Amida prayer, if he is able to begin and complete his own
prayer before the prayer leader reaches the blessing of thanksgiving
[modim], he should begin to pray, and, if not, he should not
begin to pray. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: If he is able to begin and
complete his prayer before the prayer leader reaches sanctification [kedusha],
then he should begin to pray. If not, then he should not begin to pray.
The Gemara clarifies: With regard to what do they
disagree? The basis for their dispute is that one Sage, Rav Huna, holds:
An individual is permitted to recite kedusha on his own, so
he need not insist on reciting it along with the prayer leader; and the
other Sage, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, holds that an individual
may not recite kedusha alone, and, therefore he is required to
complete his prayer before the communal prayer leader reaches kedusha.
After a discussion why we need a minyan to recite the
kedusha, the Gemara says And, in any case, everyone agrees that one
may not interrupt his prayer in order to respond to kedusha. However,
a dilemma was raised before the Sages of the yeshiva: What is the
ruling? Is one permitted to interrupt his prayer in order to
recite: “May His great name be blessed” in kaddish? When Rav
Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, he said: Rabbi Yehuda and
Rabbi Shimon, disciples of Rabbi Yoḥanan, said: One may not interrupt his
prayer for anything, except for: “May His great name be blessed,” as even
if one was engaged in the exalted study of the Act of the Divine Chariot
[Ma’aseh Merkava an early
form of mysticism] (see Ezekiel
1) he stops to recite it. However, the Gemara concludes: The halakha
is not in accordance with his opinion. (Sefaria.com translation)
So what should you do? According to theShlchan Aruch, Orech
Chayim 109:1 the person who enters a synagogue and finds that the community is
davening the Amidah, if he can finish his Amidah before the shaliach tzibur, the
person leading services, reaches the kedusha, he should daven. If not- he
should wait. The law is decided according to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, who was
greater than Rabbi Huna. Rabbi Adda bar Ahava teaching and today’s daf also supports
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi.
Nevertheless if a person arrives later than the kedusha he
needs to see whether he will be able to recite Modim, a prayer near the end of
the Amidah, with the congregation. If he can’t conclude his prayers before Modim,
he should wait to begin his personal prayers until afterwards. Rashi explains
the reason why he should wait until after Modim. When the entire congregation
is bowing before God with reverence and the individual who came late isn’t
bowing, it looks like he is denying God to whom everybody else is reverently bowing.
Speaking on behalf of all rabbis and cantors, try to make
every effort to come on time for often we don’t have a minyan at the beginning
of services.
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