Q&A: Adding to the commandment in reciting the Shema after its proper time
Adding to the commandment in reciting the Shema after its proper time
Question
Hello Rabbi,
The Mishnah in Berakhot says: “From when may one recite the Shema in the morning? From when one can distinguish between blue and white. Rabbi Eliezer says: between blue and leek-green. And one finishes it” until sunrise. Rabbi Yehoshua says: until three hours, for that is the way of kings to rise at three hours. “One who recites from then on has not lost out; he is like a person reading from the Torah.”
Why is there no prohibition of adding to the commandment here when reciting the Shema after three hours? It seems to me similar to someone sitting in the sukkah on the ninth day, who violates the prohibition of adding to the commandment.
With blessings,
Answer
There are disputes regarding the prohibition of adding to the commandment. But as a rule, performing some commandment outside its proper time is not considered adding to the commandment, but rather a transgression or the neglect of a positive commandment. See chapter 4 of Berakhot regarding the morning prayer outside its proper time (= “he has the reward for a commandment, but he does not have the reward for a commandment performed at its proper time”). Sitting in the sukkah is adding another day to the festival of Sukkot, about which it says “seven days.” That is not performing the commandment at the wrong time. According to this, if a person were to celebrate Sukkot in Kislev instead of Tishrei, that would be performing it at the wrong time and not adding to the commandment.
Another note: in order to violate the prohibition of adding after the proper time has passed (not at its proper time), one needs intention to add. Only during the proper time is there a prohibition of adding even without intention.