Hilchos Shabbos Table Learning

A Weekly Guide to Shabbos Laws for Personal Study and Family Discussion

✨This weeks Topic✨

🕯️ Davening Mincha After Lighting Shabbos Candles

📜 The Basic Halacha

A woman who lights Shabbos candles generally accepts Shabbos with her lighting, which means:

👉 She must daven Mincha before lighting.

If she already lit the candles and accepted Shabbos:

❌ She should not daven Mincha afterward
✔ Instead, she should daven Maariv twice (the second Maariv counts as the makeup for Mincha)

But… there are nuances and exceptions 👇

🧑‍⚖️ Details & Practical Cases

❗ If she already lit candles and didn’t daven Mincha:

• Standard ruling: ❌ No Mincha — instead daven Maariv twice
  • Some Poskim allow Mincha bedieved, especially if she intended before lighting to daven afterward
  • But the preferred practice is to follow the stricter view

💡 If she knows she won’t have time for Mincha before lighting:

She can make a stipulation before lighting:

🗣️ “I am not accepting Shabbos with this lighting.”

If she says this, then:

✔ She may light
✔ Then still daven Mincha
✔ And accept Shabbos afterward

Important:
⚠️ She must accept Shabbos within 10 minutes after the lighting.

👨‍🕯️ What About Men Who Light Candles?

A man does not automatically accept Shabbos when lighting.

Therefore:

✔ He may light and still daven Mincha afterward
✔ As long as he accepts Shabbos within 10 minutes of lighting

Some communities still prefer men to daven Mincha before lighting — but this is custom, not law.

❓ Q&A Section

🙋‍♂️ Q: Can someone daven Mincha after accepting Tosefes Shabbos?

A: Yes.
Accepting early Shabbos (Tosefes Shabbos) does not block Mincha.

This is the common minhag.

🙅‍♂️ Q: When is Mincha no longer allowed?

Once a person accepts Itzumo shel Yom — the essential Shabbos — Mincha becomes forbidden.

Examples of accepting the “real Shabbos”:

• Davening Maariv
  • Saying “Bo’i kallah” with full acceptance
  • Explicitly accepting Shabbos in a halachically binding way

After this point:

❌ Mincha is no longer an option
✔ One must make it up by davening Maariv twice

📝 Quick Summary Table

🛠️ Melacha Corner 🛠️

🕰️ The Shabbos That Vanished: What To Do When Crossing the International Date Line

❓ The Question

You’re on a cruise from Hawaii to Australia. Late Friday afternoon your ship crosses the International Date Line… and suddenly the calendar jumps straight to Saturday night.
It feels like Shabbos disappeared completely.

So what do you do?

• Do you keep Shabbos based on where you started?
• Do you follow the ship’s clock?
• Do you treat this as a special halachic case?

📜 The Practical Halacha

You keep Shabbos according to your personal seven‑day count, regardless of what the ship’s clock says.

👉 That means:
• You begin Shabbos at the next sunset that would have been Friday night for you.
• Even if the ship says “Saturday night,” halachically you still enter Shabbos.
• You keep Shabbos for a full halachic day until the next nightfall.
• Then, you switch to the local weekly cycle.

Result:
Your next Shabbos will arrive sooner than usual — only ~5 local days later — but that’s correct halacha.

🧭 Why? Two Halachic Models

Halacha debates how Shabbos “works” when a person crosses time zones so drastically.

1️⃣ The Personal‑Count Model (Day Seven is YOUR Day Seven)

Shabbos is the seventh day from the last Shabbos you kept, no matter where you are.

• You always keep Shabbos after six intervening days
  • Even if the local calendar jumps forward or backward
  • Two Jews standing side‑by‑side on the same ship could keep Shabbos on different days!

2️⃣ The Geographic Model (Shabbos Follows the Place)

Shabbos exists as a global phenomenon tied to sunrise/sunset in each location.

• If you walk into a place where Shabbos is over, you may “miss” Shabbos that week
  • If the calendar moves backward, you might experience Shabbos twice

⚖️ And the Halacha Is… Be Stringent for BOTH Views

Since both positions are powerful and carry major consequences, halacha rules:

✔ You must keep Shabbos when your personal seven‑day cycle demands it
and
✔ You must respect the possibility that the local geographic Shabbos is binding

This leads to unusual but necessary halachic outcomes:

• You might keep Shabbos even though locals say it’s Sunday
  • You might keep Shabbos twice if you cross the line the other way
  • You might keep Shabbos at a time that feels “impossible” on the civil calendar

🌍 Where Is the Halachic Date Line?

The modern International Date Line is a civil invention, not a halachic one.

Halachic authorities do not all agree on:

• Whether halacha follows the international line
  • Whether the true halachic line lies elsewhere
  • Whether some locations are really a different halachic day altogether

👉 Meaning:
A ship may say “Saturday,” but halachically it could still be “Friday night.”

Because the halachic Date Line is unresolved, great caution is advised when traveling near Shabbos in the Pacific.

🕯️ The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Approach

The Rebbe’s view (as understood from letters and talks):

• Shabbos follows location, not personal count
  • A traveler may legitimately miss Shabbos one week
  • Or may keep two consecutive Shabbos days
  • Tefillin, davening, and other mitzvos become complicated due to halachic doubt

Because the exact halachic Date Line is unclear, even Chabad follows practical stringencies such as:

• Wearing tefillin with a condition
  • Avoiding such travel before Shabbos when possible

📝 Simple Summary

When crossing the Date Line close to Shabbos: