Berakhot 132

5:
There are other technical terms used in our mishnah which must be explained:-

Demai is the technical term which denotes produce from which it is not certain whether the levies that we mentioned in the last shiur have been removed or not. The produce only becomes eatable once those levies that are applicable have been removed. (Foods grown and processed in Eretz-Israel even today require the removal of Terumah and the redemption of Ma'aser – and this holds true whether the food will be bought or eaten in Eretz-Israel or in the Diaspora. However, all the major Israeli vendors of foods – raw and processed – remove these levies before releasing the commodities to the market. Those who understand Hebrew will be able to see the certification to this effect on the packaging.)

Tevel is the technical term for produce of Eretz-Israel from which it is certain that the levies have not been removed.

Hekdesh refers to commodities that owners have donated to the Bet Mikdash. From the moment that the donor so decided in his or her mind the commodities become the property of the Bet Mikdash and anyone eating them is guilty of sacrilegious embezzlement [me'ilah].

6:
The "waiter" referred to by the mishnah is not a professional, but one of the diners themselves who attends to the needs of the others. It was the custom for one of the company to wait on the others – and if the company included one's teachers this was considered a most desirable honour.

The Samaritans are a people much discussed and there is a difference between the rabbinic understanding of the provenance of the Samaritans and the understanding of modern historians and other scholars. The term refers to the people who lived in the area in the centre of the country known as Samaria. According to the Biblical record [2 Kings 17], after the Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 BCE and a major proportion of the population was forcibly resettled elsewhere in the Assyrian empire, other peoples were settled in their stead to avoid a population vacuum. These peoples adopted some of the Israelite customs but continued to maintain their idolatrous customs as well.

The scholarly view is that the Samaritans were the remnants of the population of the former Kingdom of Israel; these continued to celebrate their religious customs which were somewhat different from those that developed in the Kingdom of Judah (from which later normative rabbinic Judaism was to spring forth). After the return of the Babylonian exiles of Judah to Eretz-Israel (after 539 BCE) a complete dichotomy between the two populations was established. During the 4th century BCE the Samaritans established a Bet Mikdash just outside Shekhem, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Israel, to rival that of Judah in Jerusalem – and the break was final and enmity and distrust ensued.

The Samaritan community still survives – a few hundred in number. The mishnah considers them to be reliable as far as those mitzvot which they keep (thus they may be included in zimmun) but this no longer holds good: they are no longer considered Jews by normative Judaism – which is OK by them since they look upon us as impostors.

7:
Amounts of food in rabbinic parlance are measured in terms of other items: olive's bulk [ke-zayit] egg's bulk [ke-beytzah] and so forth. Modern poskim have tried to give these terms modern equivalents, but there is considerable disagreement. Let's say that a ke-zayit is something in the region of 25 to 30 cc [about one ounce].

To be continued.

Mitch Bruntel writes:

I've always known that the birkat is to be recited by 3… I know that the rabotai nevarach (let us pray…) is just a call to prayer… The fact that the requirement applies to adults (only?) is self evident, as children aren't yet of the majority. But Women??? Anyway my questions revolve around the fact that this essentially means we are all exempted from doing birchat (at home…) if we are as strict as the sages say we should be. Also, if we never do Birkat at home as a family, then how will our kids ever learn how to bench? This is the most troublesome portion of this issue, and in my family, we "cheat" and count my wife, and 12 yr old daughter, for benching. Even with all that, we usually only get 3 of us together for dinner on Shabbat. The great side effect is that my 4 yr old is starting to sing the birkat very nicely and even gets some of the words occasionally.

I respond:

I think that there must be a misunderstanding here for which I take full responsibility. It is only the 'Invitation' [Zimmun] that requires a company of three (or more): Birkat ha-Mazon itself should be recited every time we eat bread regardless of how many people have dined together – and there is no reason why it should not be recited out loud for exactly the reasons that Mitch has discovered intuitively.

Zimmun is what Mitch referred to as Rabotai nevarekh. The literal translation of these words is "Gentlemen, let's recite Grace" – to which the response is Yehi shem Adonai mevorakh le'olam va'ed – "Let God's Name be praised now and forever". The leader repeats this response and then adds, Bi-reshut rabotai – nevarekh she-akhalnu mi-she-lo – "With your consent, Gentlemen, let us praise [God] of whose property we have eaten". The response to this is Barukh she-akhalnu mi-she-lo u-ve-tuvo ĥayyinu – "Praised be [God] of whose property we have eaten and through whose grace we live". The leader then repeats this response. That is all there is to Zimmun and this is all that requires three or more. Everything that comes after this in your prayer-books is Grace After Meals and must be said even by an individual eating alone.

In order to avoid the gender problem inherent in the term rabotai many Conservative Jews substitute a different term: Ĥaverim nevarekh ["Friends, let's recite Grace"].

But Women??? – Patience is a virtue!