Q&A: The Time for Tefillin by Torah Law?
The Time for Tefillin by Torah Law?
Question
Since tefillin are a Torah commandment, if someone did not put them on earlier, does he need to put them on at night? It is clear to me that someone who does this violates the rabbinic decree, but is he still obligated to put them on? And if so, until when is the final time for them—perhaps until the beginning of the morning time for tzitzit and tefillin the next day?
Answer
Clearly not. If the Sages established that one may not put them on at night, then one may not. True, there are halakhic decisors who wrote that in a pressing situation—for example, a soldier in a non-Jewish army who did not put on tefillin—he should put them on at night. But ordinarily one should not do this.
Tosafot in Sukkah 3a write that someone who fulfilled a Torah commandment in a manner not in accordance with the view of the Sages has lost the commandment. The Ran there disagrees, but that is only regarding the question whether he lost the commandment. But it is obvious that it is forbidden to do so.
Also, Rabbi Akiva Eger, in his glosses there, disagrees with the Magen Avraham on the question whether someone who sounded the shofar on the Sabbath fulfilled the commandment or whether the commandment is void. On the face of it, it seems void (it is no better than a commandment that comes through a transgression).
Regarding prayer, there is a special rule that one who prays after the proper time receives reward for prayer, but not reward for prayer in its proper time (beginning of chapter 4 of Berakhot), and I explained this in my article on "the verse repeated it to make it indispensable," and expanded this to all areas of religious service.
Discussion on Answer
Is it even permitted to say the text of the prayer when it is not in its proper time?
I wrote about this and linked to it. What is the question?
*(Tosafot in Sukkah 3a)
Indeed.
Beyond the basic conceptual issue of fulfilling a Torah commandment when it has been forbidden rabbinically, it would seem simply that if there is an obligation to put on tefillin every day, and nighttime is also a tefillin time, then the night belongs to the following day, so in any case it would not help someone who already failed to put them on during the day. The conceptual question is relevant for someone who knows he will not be able to put on tefillin during the day for some reason (I think the question came up during the Holocaust, for example in the case of forced labor during the day), and then the question is whether he could put them on at night before the day begins.
Rabbi, thank you so much for the detailed answer! For the references, the different opinions, and the additional case of prayer, and for the referral to the article—it’s really not something to take for granted.