Shabbat 9B

מתני׳ לא ישב אדם לפני הספר סמוך למנחה עד שיתפלל. לא יכנס אדם למרחץ, ולא לבורסקי, ולא לאכול, ולא לדין, ואם התחילו ⁠— אין מפסיקין. מפסיקין לקרות קריאת שמע ואין מפסיקין לתפלה.

Mishnah: After having dealt with the limited and defined topic of the halakhot of carrying out on Shabbat, the Mishnah begins to deal with the halakhot of Shabbat chronologically, beginning with activities that one may not perform prior to the onset of Shabbat. With regard to one’s daily conduct, the Mishnah says: A person may not sit before the barber adjacent to the time of minḥa until he recites the afternoon prayer. And a person may not enter the bathhouse and may not enter to work in a tannery [burseki]. And he may neither begin to eat a meal nor to sit in judgment until he prays. And however, if they already began engaging in those activities, they need not stop and recite the Amida prayer. The tanna articulated a principle: One stops engaging in all of these activities to recite Shema and one does not stop to recite the Amida prayer.

גמ׳ הי ״סמוך למנחה״? אילימא למנחה גדולה ⁠— אמאי לא? האיכא שהות ביום טובא! אלא סמוך למנחה קטנה.

Talmud: First, the Talmud seeks to clarify: Which “adjacent to minḥa,” in other words, adjacent to which minḥa is the Mishnah referring? There is a difference between the time of greater minḥa [minḥa gedola], which begins approximately a half hour after noon, and the time of lesser minḥa [minḥa ketana], which begins approximately 2½ hours before sunset. The Talmud elaborates: If you say that it is prohibited to perform all of these activities adjacent to minḥa gedola, why not? Isn’t there still much time remaining in the day? Rather, the Mishnah means adjacent to minḥa ketana.