Tractate Berakhot of the Talmud of Eretz-Israel: 0003

1:
The Gemara has now established that the correct time for reciting the evening Shema is, according to the Mishnah, "from the time when the priests go in to eat their terumah, and that time is when daylight fades into darkness.

2:
The Gemara now seeks to define that time more accurately and notes that an indication of this time is the appearance of stars in the sky. Even though this indication is nowhere made explicit in the Bible the fact that the appearance of stars is a sign of nightfall can be seen as being implicit in the following verses. First of all Nehemiah 4:15 tells us that the people building the walls around Jerusalem worked from first light until the appearance of the stars. Because of the danger of enemy attack half the work force was on guard duty while the other half was rebuilding Jerusalem's defences. We are told that they "did the work … from dawn until the appearance of the stars". Then in the following verse [Nehemiah 4:16] we are told that "the night was for guard duty and the day for work". This suggests that day and night may be defined by these two parameters: first light indicates the arrival of daytime and the appearance of stars indicates the onset of night. Thus, even though there is no explicit statement to this effect in the Bible it may certainly be deduced from what Nehemiah says. "Even though there is no proof for it there is a hint for it" — that the onset of night is defined by the appearance of the stars.

3:
The Gemara has now established that the correct time for reciting the evening Shema is when the stars begin to appear. This prompts the obvious question: how many stars make night? The Gemara answers this question by quoting the teaching of Rabbi Abba bar-Pappa that when the brightest, star is first seen it is still daytime; when a second star is seen it could still be day or it could be a sign of night; only with the appearance of a third star can one be sure that darkness and night have set in.

4:
The Gemara objects. How can Rabbi Abba say that the appearance of a second star is not a definite sign of night? We have derived the definition of night from the scriptural verse in Nehemiah which refers to the appearance of stars. The word 'stars' is plural and two is enough to indicate a plurality. So, one could deduce from the biblical text that the appearance of two stars is an indication of the onset of night, and not the appearance of the third star.

5:
The Gemara answers this objection by actually agreeing with the logic! Since it is agreed that the first star to appear indicates that it is still day it doesn't count towards an indication of the onset of night. Therefore, when Nehemiah speaks of 'stars' announcing the onset of night he is indeed referring to two stars: the second and third stars to appear, excluding the first, which indicates that it is still day.

Michael Epstein writes:

Would you recommend an edition with English translation that we could follow along with you?

I respond:

I am not familiar with any English translations of the Yerushalmi. Indeed, until I received Michael's question I was not aware that there were any! The only information that I can give is what I have found in Wikipedia. But please be aware that I have never seen these translations and therefore I cannot recommend any of them.

Ed Frankel writes:

Wow, what a great first lesson, and I like the way it is set up. BTW, how is it you came to truly study Yerushalmi in such depth? It was not even taught when I was at JTS, even having Lieberman as my teacher. While I have a copy of it in my library, I don't think I have cracked it open in years. Of course, as a 1 volume edition, it is not so easy to read anyway.

I respond:

I thank Ed for his kind words. I can only hope that I shall still deserve them many shiurim down the line. For centuries the superiority of the Talmud Bavli over the Yerushalmi was axiomatically accepted, though there were many sages throughout the generations who sometimes, here and there, preferred the Yerushalmi over the Bavli. (Rambam and the Gaon of Vilna are two examples that spring to mind.) However, over the past decade in particular, in Israel at least, there has been a growing undertow which would restore the Yerushalmi at least to equality with the Bavli, if not more. Recently I have seen quoted more and more the determination of the midrash that

A few years ago I noticed that a rabbi in Jerusalem, Rabbi David Bar-Ḥayyim, was re-introducing in his Bet Midrash the prayer-ritual that was followed in Eretz-Israel until the collapse of the Yishuv under the onslaught of the crusaders at the end of the 11th century CE. This prayer-ritual is different from those that we know today, which are all based on the prayer-ritual of Babylonian Jewry. (And that is true of them all – Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist etc.) I have spent much time in reconstructing the nusaḥ Eretz-Israel, and it was that work that drew me back to the Yerushalmi. I hope this is a sufficient response to Ed's question.