Reply To: Chassidim

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#1895323
n0mesorah
Participant

Dear Bochur,

This question (mostly) pertained to eastern Europe as whole. A lot of the confusion predates chassidim. keeping track of the time was a communal occupation. As the reformation progressed, the concept of when the day starts and ends became more convoluted. This resulted in misunderstandings in all aspects of timekeeping. Mincha is the hardest tefillah to schedule. (Wake up and daven shacris. Do not go to sleep until after maariv.) It follows that mincha got pushed later as the clock became more flexible. (Read misunderstood.) Maariv had to get pushed back, as nobody ever davened maariv before mincha. As of the first part of the last century, it was still more common to come across maariv before shkia, than mincha after.

The one that is not older than the chassidim, is shacharis. Before the advent of electricity and the modern city, everyone davened in the early hours of the morning. The halachic problem was davening too early. It is doubtful if there was (what we call) an eight o’clock minyan anywhere in the world three hundred years ago. The late shacharis started in Kotzk. They would rise for tikkun chatzos and say tehillim and then learn for the entire morning. Only after the townspeople started on their day, they would begin to daven until midday. Kotzk eventually devolved into Gur. After the war, the Imrei Emes put a stop to the late shacharis. While the late shacharis has spread to the yeshivaliet (With the notable exception of the sefardim.) and Flatbush et al, Gur still does not have any minyanim past the zman.