Halacha2go

510. Is a mitzvah valid if we add a t’nai (stipulation) to it?

There’s an interesting discussion in poskim regarding the question of t’nai b’mitzvos (mitzvos done conditionally), where one declares that a mitzvah being performed may or may not count, depending on whether a certain condition we’ve made will be met. For instance, may one listen to havdalah in shul with the stipulation that he will be yotzei (meet his obligation) now unless it turns out that his wife needs him to make havdalah for her at home, in which case he retroactively won’t have been yotzei now? In such a scenario, there are three possible options:

The t’nai goes into effect; he is yotzei havdalah now if the t’nai is met and his wife doesn’t end up needing him to make havdalah, and he isn’t yotzei retroactively if his wife does.

The t’nai fails to take hold and is ignored; if he listens to havdalah with the basic intent of meeting his obligation, he is yotzei no matter what stipulations he attempted to make.

The t’nai causes the performance of the mitzvah to be disqualified; mitzvos only work if done 100%, so the fact that the mitzvah is up in the air as a result of the t’nai makes the mitzvah invalid, regardless of whether the t’nai ends up being fulfilled.

At first glance it would seem that such a t’nai shouldn’t be valid for many mitzvos, since there’s a general rule that any action that can’t be done through a shliach (representative) can’t be bound to a precondition either; accordingly, any attempt to attach a t’nai to mitzvos she’b’gufo (mitzvos that one must do in person, like tefillin) would fail and the mitzvah would be fulfilled regardless. Alternatively, if the t’nai does take effect, it can be argued that any mitzvah that is dependent on breirah (an act or event occurring later that will have a retroactive effect) may be rendered inherently invalid.

However, we find several examples in major halachic works of mitzvos that are done with certain stipulations. For example, men who don two pairs of tefillin do so to satisfy the conflicting opinions of Rashi and Rabeinu Tam regarding the order of the parshios (Torah portions) in the tefillin; according to Shulchan Aruch, they are essentially making a stipulation that the ‘correct’ pair of tefillin should be regarded as the one used to fulfill the mitzvah, whereas the other pair should be regarded as ‘merely straps and boxes.’ Consequently, the majority of later poskim conclude that a t’nai made for any mitzvah is valid. Thus, one could in fact stipulate that being yotzei havdalah in shul will depend on determining later whether his wife needs him to make havdalah for her or not.

Similarly, if someone is asked to join a minyan (quorum) for krias haTorah (Torah reading) later in the day, and he joins an earlier minyan in the interim but is still planning to be yotzei with the later reading, he may listen to the earlier kriah and make a t’nai that in case he doesn’t end up hearing kriah later, he will have been yotzei with the earlier kriah.

However, in the case of Krias haTorah, there are other aspects which can prevent the efficacy of such a stipulation.

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Halacha #510: Is a mitzvah valid if we add a t’nai (stipulation) to it?