DVAR HALACHA 27

DVAR HALACHA 27

The Shulchan Aruch in siman reish samech ches discusses a surprisingly common mistake. A person begins the weekday Shemoneh Esrei on Shabbos and then suddenly realizes what happened.

Before knowing what to do, we must first recognize that there are two very different kinds of mistakes, and each has its own halachah.

1. A Mistake of Habit

Sometimes a person knows perfectly well that it is Shabbos and fully intends to daven the Shabbos Shemoneh Esrei. However, because he has said the weekday Shemoneh Esrei so many times, his mouth automatically begins "Atah Chonein..."

In this case, his mistake was one of habit, not of thought.

If he caught himself after saying only the word "Atah," he should simply continue with the proper Shabbos tefillah.

• On Friday night, continue with "Atah Kidashta."

• At Shacharis, continue with "Atah... Yismach Moshe."

• At Minchah, continue with "Atah Echad."

The Biur Halachah leaves unresolved the case of someone who already said the words "Atah Chonein." The Aruch HaShulchan, however, rules that even then he should stop immediately and continue with the Shabbos Shemoneh Esrei, since he always knew that it was Shabbos and merely misspoke.

2. A Mistake of Thought

A different halachah applies if a person actually forgot that it was Shabbos. Thinking it was a weekday, he intentionally began the weekday Shemoneh Esrei before realizing his mistake.

Here, the Shulchan Aruch distinguishes between the various Shabbos tefillos.

If he remembered after saying only the word "Atah,"

• on Friday night or at Minchah, he may continue with the Shabbos nusach, since those tefillos also begin with the word "Atah."

• at Shacharis, however, he must first complete the entire brachah of "Atah Chonein" before continuing with "Yismach Moshe," since the word "Atah" in that tefillah belongs to an entirely different sentence.

If he already said the word "Chonein," then for all three tefillos, Friday night, Shacharis and Minchah, he completes the entire brachah of "Atah Chonein" before continuing with the Shabbos Shemoneh Esrei.

The Mishnah Berurah explains that, fundamentally, there is nothing inherently wrong with reciting the weekday Shemoneh Esrei on Shabbos. In fact, the weekday Shemoneh Esrei would have been appropriate on Shabbos as well. Chazal only replaced it with the shorter Shabbos Shemoneh Esrei out of kavod Shabbos, so as not to burden the tzibbur with the many middle berachos.

The Yerushalmi and Midrash Tanchuma offer another explanation. Shabbos is meant to free us, even temporarily, from the worries that fill our minds during the week. Throughout the week our Shemoneh Esrei is filled with requests for wisdom, health, livelihood and forgiveness. On Shabbos, Chazal wanted us to set those concerns aside and focus instead on the kedushah and serenity of the day.

Therefore, once a person has already begun one of those weekday berachos, Chazal did not require him to interrupt it in the middle of the bracha. Instead, in many cases they instructed him to complete that beracha with which he has already begun and then continue with the Shabbos Shemoneh Esrei.

This idea is hinted to in a longstanding minhag.

The Shiyurei Knesses HaGedolah records the minhag of saying "Veyanuchu bah" on Friday night, "bo" at Shacharis and "bam" at Minchah. The Dirshu quotes his explanation that the combined gematria of these three words is 57, equal to three times nineteen, the nineteen berachos of the weekday Shemoneh Esrei that were replaced by the three abbreviated Shabbos tefillos of Shabbos.

Musaf follows a completely different rule.

Since there is no weekday Shemoneh Esrei corresponding to Musaf, whenever one realizes that he has mistakenly begun the weekday Shemoneh Esrei during Musaf, he should stop immediately and begin the Musaf Shemoneh Esrei without completing the brachah.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Reuven Eidlitz

Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, Monsey NY  

This dvar halacha is l’zchus refuah sheleima for Avraham ben Chaya Leah and Shmuel Avigdor ben Rivka b’soch sha’ar choley Yisroel