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The Supplementary Prayer (Tashlumim)

08 – Making Up a Forgotten Prayer

A person who forgot to pray, or did not pray due to circumstances beyond his control, must make up the missed prayer. If he forgot to pray Shacharit, he makes it up after Minchah. First he prays Minchah, and after the last Kaddish, he recites the Amidah again to make up for the missed Shacharit. If he wishes to pray the supplementary prayer together with the Amidah repetition, he is permitted to do so; however, he must be careful to pause between the two recitals of the Amidah for at least the amount of time that it takes to walk the distance of four amot.

If one forgets to pray Minchah, he makes it up after Ma’ariv. Following the last Kaddish, he recites the Amidah again as a supplementary prayer for the missed Minchah. If he forgets to pray Ma’ariv, he makes it up after Shacharit; either he prays the supplementary Ma’ariv Amidah together with the Amidah repetition, or he recites it after the last Kaddish of Shacharit.[9]

Whoever forgets to recite a supplementary prayer after the obligatory Amidah can b’dieved make it up during the entire time specified to recite that prayer. This means that if one does not pray a supplementary prayer for Minchah immediately after Ma’ariv, he can b’dieved make it up until chatzot (halachic midnight), since l’chatchilah that is the last possible time to pray Ma’ariv. There are those who say that b’dieved it can be made up even until amud hashachar. If one did not pray the supplementary prayer for Ma’ariv immediately after he recited the Amidah for Shacharit, he can b’dieved make it up until the conclusion of four hours. If he did not pray the supplementary prayer for Shacharit immediately after the Minchah Amidah, he can b’dieved make it up until bein hashemashot (see Mishnah Berurah 108:15; Kaf HaChaim 11). He should not wait until the end of the time to pray. Instead, he should stand and pray immediately upon remembering that he missed the supplementary prayer so as not to lengthen the interval between the obligatory prayer and the supplementary prayer. Even if he began to eat, he must immediately stop eating and pray the supplementary prayer (Mishnah Berurah 108:10).

The person praying must be careful to pray the supplementary prayer after the obligatory one. If he intended to recite the first prayer as supplementary and the second as obligatory, he did not fulfill his obligation of the supplementary prayer, and he must pray a third Amidah in order to make up for the forgotten prayer. For instance, if a person forgot to pray Minchah on Shabbat, and on Motza’ei Shabbat in the Amidah of Ma’ariv he did not recite the Havdalah wording, “Attah Chonantanu,” having in mind that it is for the supplementary Minchah, whereas in his second Amidah he did recite the Havdalah wording, he must repeat the supplementary prayer for Minchah. However, if he mistakenly forgot to say Attah Chonantanu in the first Amidah and then remembers in the second Amidah and recites it, since he intended the first Amidah to be for Ma’ariv and the second to be as a supplement for Minchah, he fulfilled his obligation.[10]


[9]. The Acharonim disagree as to whether or not it is permissible to fulfill one’s obligation of a supplementary prayer (tashlumim) by hearing the chazan’s repetition of the Amidah. According to the Pri Megadim and the Mishnah Berurah 108:5, since it is an obligation to pray a supplementary Amidah, one who knows how to pray by himself cannot fulfill his obligation by hearing the repetition. According to the Chida, it is permissible to fulfill one’s obligation of the supplementary Ma’ariv Amidah by hearing the ShacharitAmidah repetition, since in essence Ma’ariv is optional. That is also how Kaf HaChaim 108:6 rules, but he adds that a verification must be made that the chazan, indeed, has kavanah to fulfill the obligation of those who are listening to his repetition, as written in Yalkut Yosef 108:7. The Mishnah Berurah, too, is lenient b’dieved, and rules that if a person has kavanah to fulfill his obligation of a supplementary Ma’ariv in the Amidah repetition of Shacharit, he does fulfill it. Aruch HaShulchan 108:16 is completely lenient, meaning that in the Amidah repetition of Minchah as well, one can fulfill his obligation if he missed the Shacharit prayer. Regarding the chazan himself, everyone agrees that the Amidah repetition that he recites can effectively be considered as his supplementary prayer (Mishnah Berurah 108:4).It seems that when the Shulchan Aruch 108:2 writes that a person prays again after Shacharit, he is referring specifically to one who is praying individually. However, if he is praying in a minyan, it is preferable that he prays his supplementary prayer together with the chazan’s Amidah repetition or after the last Kaddish, for if he does not, he loses out on responding to some of the Kaddishim as well as reciting Kedushah d’Sidra.

[10]. The majority of poskim maintain that everything depends on the person’s kavanah (Mishnah Berurah 108:28, unlike the Taz). The Magen Avraham and Taz are doubtful concerning a case in which a person has kavanah in the first Amidah for tashlumim and the second one as an obligation, but he did not recite Attah Chonantanu and lacks tangible proof that he prayed the second Amidah as the obligatory prayer. Therefore, perhaps he does not need to repeat his prayer. Nevertheless, the opinion of the Shulchan Aruch and most poskim is that he must repeat the Amidah, and that is the halachah. It is best that he make a stipulation that if he is not obligated to recite this prayer, his prayer is considered voluntary (Mishnah Berurah 108:7; Yalkut Yosef, part 1, p. 214).

09 – In What Situations Are Supplementary Prayers Not Recited?

The Chachamim instituted the recital of a supplementary prayer solely to make up for the preceding prayer that was missed. Therefore, one who missed both Shacharit and Minchah, due to circumstances beyond his control, prays a supplementary prayer after Ma’ariv for Minchah alone. If he desires, he may pray an additional voluntary prayer for the Shacharit that he missed (Shulchan Aruch 108:4-5), although nowadays we are not accustomed to praying voluntary prayers.[11]

One who forgot to recite Musaf cannot make it up since the Musaf offerings are only brought on specific days. Similarly, one who forgot to pray Shacharit on a day that Musaf is recited, even though we learned that one must make up the prayer in the Amidah immediately following it, the Musaf prayer does not count and one must make up Shacharit after Minchah.

Someone who intentionally (b’meizid) missed one of the prayers cannot make it up. The Rishonim write that if he wants, he may recite it as a voluntary prayer (Shulchan Aruch 108:7). However, we already learned that today we are not accustomed to praying voluntary prayers, since one who does must be sure that he can concentrate throughout the whole prayer, from beginning to end (Kaf HaChaim 108:31).

Nonetheless, one who did not recite Minchah or Ma’ariv when he still had the chance, thinking that after he finished the matter occupying his attention, time for prayer would remain, but was ultimately drawn into what he was doing, while the time to pray passed, is not considered to have purposely negated his prayer and must make it up after the next one. The law regarding a person who started to eat before praying, with the thought that he would have time to pray afterwards, but eventually forgot, is similar. Despite the fact that he started to eat when it was forbidden (earlier in this book 12:6-7; 24:6; 25:9), since he did not contemptuously cancel his prayer, he makes it up after the next one (Shulchan Aruch 108:8). However, consider the case of a person engaged in a game, such as soccer, who was called to go pray lest the proper time pass. Out of his enthusiasm for the game, he said, “Just one more minute,” and continued to play. Meanwhile, the time to pray passed. In such a case, he cannot make up his prayer. Were it not for the game, he would have been more than happy to pray. Nevertheless, since he knew for certain that the time to pray was about to lapse, he is, indeed, deemed one who scornfully neglected his prayer.


[11]. According to the Rambam, Rosh, Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah, Rashbam, and Shulchan Aruch, it is only permissible to make up the last prayer. Others say that he may make up all the prayers that he missed, as writes the Rashba and “yesh omrim” in Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah. The Shulchan Aruch writes that it is good to make up all the prayers as voluntary (tefillat nedavah). However, since today we are not accustomed to praying voluntary prayers, it seems that only one who is certain that he will have the proper kavanah may pray a voluntary prayer to make up a missed Amidah.

10 – Additional Laws and Cases of Uncertainty

One who forgot to recite Minchah on Erev Shabbat must pray the Ma’ariv Shabbat Amidah twice, the first for Ma’ariv and the second for the Minchah that he missed. Even though that Minchah was supposed to be a weekday Amidah comprised of eighteen berachot, nevertheless, since the time to make it up falls on Shabbat, the wording of the Shabbat prayer is recited (Shulchan Aruch 108:9).

One who forgot to recite Ya’aleh V’Yavo in Minchah of Rosh Chodesh did not fulfill his obligation. If the following day is a second day of Rosh Chodesh, clearly he must pray a supplementary prayer after Ma’ariv for the missed Minchah and in both recite Ya’aleh V’Yavo. However, if the evening already begins a regular day, there is doubt concerning this issue. On the one hand, if the whole problem is that he did not mention Ya’aleh V’Yavo in Minchah, how would it help to pray another Amidah after Ma’ariv without Ya’aleh V’Yavo? On the other hand, he did not fulfill his obligation for Minchah, since at that time it was Rosh Chodesh and he failed to recite Ya’aleh V’Yavo, whereas if he were to pray a supplementary prayer he would fulfill his obligation because he would recite the appropriate prayers for that specific time. In practice, the ruling is that one is to recite Ma’ariv twice and make a stipulation that if he is not obligated to make up the missed prayer, the additional prayer he is praying should be considered voluntary. There is no need to introduce any new personal requests at this time.

The ruling is similar to the law regarding one who errs on Shabbat and instead of reciting Minchah of Shabbat recites the weekday wording without mentioning the sanctity of Shabbat. The law in that case requires that he recite two weekday Amidahs on Motza’ei Shabbat with a stipulation that if he is not obligated to make up the prayer, the additional prayer he is praying should be considered voluntary (Shulchan Aruch 108:11).

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