Deliberate Delay in Prayer Beyond the Proper Time

Question

Before the morning prayer, a person intentionally delayed praying until after the designated prayer time has passed. What should he do?

Answer

That individual acted improperly and is considered someone who sinned deliberately. Therefore, if it is still before midday, he should pray and stipulate that if he is obligated to pray the morning prayer, it will be considered as such. However, if according to the law, it is too late to pray, it will be considered a voluntary prayer, and there is no need to add something new to this prayer.
If midday has already passed, even though the time for the afternoon prayer has not yet arrived, he should not pray. Regarding this, the verse states, 'What is twisted cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.'

Source

Concerning the law of prayer after its designated time, Rabbi Yehuda and the Rabbis disagreed at the beginning of Tractate Berakhot regarding whether the morning prayer is valid until midday or until four hours into the day. The halacha was decided in the Shulchan Aruch, Chapter 89, Section 1, that the prayer time extends until four hours. However, the earlier authorities wrote that even though the prayer time is until four hours, if one prays after that time, he will receive the reward for prayer, but not the reward of praying within its designated time.
The earlier authorities presented two reasons for the law of prayer after four hours: either it is considered a compensation, as we find that when one unintentionally missed a prayer, he can complete this prayer in the subsequent prayer, or it is because Rabbi Yehuda concedes to the Rabbis that post factum, if one did not pray, he can still pray until midday; he was speaking only about the obligation ab initio. At any rate, there are several differences that stem from these two reasons:
1. When one misses the set time deliberately: if the prayer is considered a compensation for a missing prayer, then, when one intentionally did not pray within four hours, he may not pray, as there is no compensation for a prayer that was intentionally missed, as explained in the Shulchan Aruch, Chapter 108. However, if the prayer is due to Rabbi Yehuda's concession to the rabbis post factum, one can still pray, even after having missed the time intentionally.
2. Another implication arises within the half-hour after midday, as according to the basic law, the time for the afternoon prayer is at midday, but it was decreed not to pray the afternoon prayer until half an hour after midday. Therefore, if the prayer after four hours is due to Rabbi Yehuda's concession, it is not appropriate to pray, as even the Rabbis hold that the morning prayer time extends until midday only. However, if the prayer after four hours is a compensation, it is certainly appropriate to pray. (And even though normally one does not recite the afternoon prayer before the compensation for the morning prayer, it still suffices, since one cannot yet pray the afternoon prayer due to the decree of the sages.)
Therefore, in this specific case where the questioner missed the prayer intentionally, if it is already past midday, he cannot recite the makeup prayer, no matter which side of the issue he follows, since, according to the law of compensation, there is no completion for an intentionally missed prayer. And if the reason for being able to pray after four hours is that Rabbi Yehuda concedes to the sages, then the midday has already passed, and now the sages agree with Rabbi Yehuda that it’s too late for the morning prayer. However, before midday, the Mishnah Berurah ruled in Chapter 89, subsection 6, that one should pray and stipulate that if it is a prayer of completion, it will be considered a voluntary prayer, and if it is a prayer according to the law, it will fulfill the obligation of the morning prayer, albeit not within its designated time.

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