Q&A: Evening Prayer During the Day
Evening Prayer During the Day
Question
On summer Sabbaths we go to an early evening prayer service. Mincha is scheduled a few minutes before plag ha-mincha, and afterward we have Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma'ariv. Until now, I understood that what we are doing follows the view of Rabbi Yehuda in the Mishnah, who holds that one may pray Mincha until plag ha-mincha, and after that it is already considered night and the time for the evening prayer.
I learned that one should not light candles before plag ha-mincha (and there is no dispute about that). I do not understand this Jewish law: if the time after plag ha-mincha is treated as night, why is it forbidden to light candles close to nightfall?
Answer
Some halakhic decisors wrote that in pressing circumstances one may light a large candle even before plag ha-mincha. But the accepted practice is not to do so. It seems that this is because from plag ha-mincha onward there is indeed a legal status of night in the sense that the Sabbath has already begun, but it is not actually night yet. After all, there is still full daylight then. So what is the point of lighting a candle for a time that is already illuminated?