Minutes Till Minchah
The very first paragraph in Shulchan Aruch expounding the laws of Minchah raises the following question: “What if there is barely any time left for Minchah?” How appropriate! Very often, people are busy and leave Minchah prayers for the last possible moment.
The Shulchan Aruch says that if time is too short to complete the chazzan’s recitation of Shemoneh Esrei within the appropriate time, the recitation of the first three brachos will suffice. When is the appropriate time by which the chazzan should complete his recitation?
Rebbe Shlomo Zalman, zt”l, says that it is shekiah, sundown. Chassidim would certainly disagree with this ruling. I remember the time I drove up to the mountains, and it was pitch black outside. I located a Satmar bungalow colony and entered the shul to catch Ma’ariv. To my dismay, they were already up to the silent Shemoneh Esrei. I figured I would daven Shemoneh Esrei with them and say birchos Shema and keriyas Shema afterwards. I was totally flabbergasted when the chazzan began reciting chazaras ha’shatz. It then dawned on me that they were in the middle of Minchah!
The Maharit says that one should certainly not leave Minchah for the last possible moment. Perhaps an urgent situation will arise and one will miss the opportunity to daven Minchah. As the Gemara writes in Berachos, in Eretz Yisrael, they curse one who waits until sunset to daven Minchah. Further, he cites our Gemara in Pesachim (65a) that illustrates that, as a general rule, one should never be one of the procrastinators.
Everyone in Klal Yisrael has a mitzvah to eat from the Korban Pesach on Pesach night. Consequently, there were many korbanos that needed to be slaughtered and offered on erev Pesach. The sheer number of Jews made it difficult for everyone to offer their korban Pesach at the same time. So, there were three shifts of Jews offering their Korban Pesach. The Gemara cites biblical support for these three shifts.