Berakhot 020

6:
One could well ask why was it necessary for the mishnah to stipulate the format of these b^erakhot? After all, if their text has been settled and formulated in the prayer-books why do we need to know further? This is a mistaken presumption. The text of the blessings was not formulated in mishnaic times, but was left quite free for the improvisation of the worshipper! Rambam [Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Keriat Shema 1:7] states:

But it is clear from Rambam's responsa that what he meant was that the number, framework and the subject-matter of the b^erakhot was instituted at the start of the Second Commonwealth, but not their actual wording. Ezra and his Bet Din established, for example, that the first b^erakhah of the Shema in the Evening must both start and end with the liturgical formula barukh attah… and that its general subject matter must be the transition from daytime to night. But within those parameters the worshipper (or in public, the Ĥazzan) has free reign for improvisation. Indeed, several sages deprecate prayer that never deviates from a fixed text!

and so forth. Indeed, as great a sage as Rav Sa'adya Ga'on [Iraq, 10th century CE] composed variant texts for these b^erakhot, to be used on different occasions – and these texts are still in use in some rites (such as the Italian Synagogue in Jerusalem). There is ample evidence that the texts of these b^erakhot were never intended to be sacrosanct. Hence the necessity for the mishnah to elaborate on the parameters within which the improvisation can take place.

To be continued.

Art Kamlet asks concerning birkhot ha-mitzvot, which I defined as being blessings we recite praising God for having given us the specific mitzvah that we are about to perform:

Out of curiosity, what are the blessings for 1) Honoring parents, and 2) Be(ing) Fruitful and Multiply(ing)? At what time before their performance are the blessings recited?

I respond:

Not all mitzvot require a b^erakhah before them, and we find in our classical sources many categories of exception. I will use Art's examples to demonstrate.

We do not recite a b^erakhah before performing the mitzvah of honouring our parents because we only recite a b^erakhah when the mitzvah we are about to perform will be completed by that act. There is no end to the mitzvah of honouring one's parents, which continues even after their death by honouring their memory, therefore there is no time at which this mitzvah is completed. Therefore: no b^erakhah [see Gemara Menaĥot 42a-b].

We do not recite a b^erakhah before "being fruitful and multiplying" for several reasons. Firstly, the act of sexual intercourse is part of this mitzvah but is not identical with it. The vagaries of life being what they are, the sages said that one has not completed the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying until one has brought children into the world and they have reached adulthood – and some would even add until you have grandchildren from them! Thus, as far as this mitzvah is concerned, sexual intercourse is a means to an end, not an end in itself. We do not recite a b^erakhah, for instance, when writing tefillin or building a sukkah: they too are a means to an end, not the end itself.

Other considerations (which are not uncontested in our sources):- where even non-Jews generally see themselves as required to perform what we call a mitzvah we cannot say that "God has made us (uniquely) holy with the command to …" Alternatively, where the performance of a mitzvah causes pain or suffering to another we do not recite a b^erakhah, and there is the pain of childbirth. (I find this argument problematic: what about circumcision and sheĥitah (kosher slaughtering of animals?)

Next Shiur