Q&A: Mincha and Ma'ariv Back-to-Back
Mincha and Ma'ariv Back-to-Back
Question
Rabbi, hello and blessings.
I am in a community abroad where the main weekday Ma'ariv minyan is attached to Mincha before sunset (not with plag in between them—one according to the regular time and one according to Rabbenu Tam), and I understood that this is problematic ab initio. The problem is that there is not always an accessible Ma'ariv minyan afterward, so the question is: what is preferable? To pray with a minyan but back-to-back, or after sunset with a fairly high chance of praying alone? Thank you!
Answer
See here:
https://ph.yhb.org.il/02-25-07/
As a rule, if there is a difficulty and there will not be a minyan, and that is why in your place they have the practice of adjoining the prayers, then it is worthwhile to pray with them. But if you are not one of the local community members, or if in your opinion they do this without justification, it is preferable to pray alone at the proper time.
One should remember that praying Mincha and Ma'ariv in a self-contradictory manner is not necessarily a problem, since there are halakhic decisors who argue that in the dispute between Rabbi Yehuda and the Sages, one may act like this master or like that master because there is no single absolute truth; if so, it is possible that there is no problem here of self-contradiction either.
If there is a fixed later minyan (and there is no minyan problem in the earlier minyan) — it is certainly preferable to pray with it. And if there is doubt whether there will be a minyan or not — in my opinion it is still preferable.
Discussion on Answer
It is preferable to wait for the later one, or to pray alone.
Regarding the end—the Rabbi said that if there is doubt whether there will be a later minyan, then that is preferable. And I didn't completely understand. Is it preferable to pray with the earlier minyan, or to take the risk and wait for the later one?