Berakhot 024

נושא: Berakhot

Berakhot 024

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

The Exodus from Egypt should be included at night. Rabbi El'azar ben-Azaryah said, "I am like a seventy-year-old and have not been able to explain why the Exodus from Egypt is to be recited at night, until ben-Zoma based it on the following midrash: The Torah says, 'So that you will recall the day you left Egypt all the days of your life' [Deuteronomy 16:3]; [if it had only said] 'the days of your life' this would have indicated the daytime, 'all the days of your life' must include the nightime. The rest of the sages [give a different midrash to this verse]: 'The days of your life' indicates this present world, 'all the days of your life' includes the Messianic Age.

Ron Kaminsky asks concerning the liturgy surrounding the recital of the Shema:

I'm curious. What exactly is the status of Bar^ekhu which said in public before the first blessing before the Shema? Is it mentioned in the Mishna (we don't see it mentioned here)? My siddur ("Rinat Yisrael – Asheknaz") has the title Kriyat Shema Uvirchoteha [Recital of Shema and its blessings] before it so I assume it is associated with the Shema in some way.

I respond:

Bar^ekhu is not a part of the blessings of the Shema, but rather an introduction to public prayer. In the ancient synagogue it was the custom to recite the whole of the Shema responsively: the Ĥazzan [cantor] would call out the first part of a verse and then the whole congregation would recite the verse from beginning to end out loud in unison. They would then repeat this procedure with the next verse, and so on. This was only done in public [with a minyan, a quorum of ten] and the worshipper chosen to lead the proceedings was considered very honoured. Just as there was a formal introduction to Grace after Meals when recited with its quorum, so there was introduced a formal Invitation to public worship. As we shall see in Chapter Seven, Mishnah Three: Rabbi Akiva says,

We find in the synagogue that whether there is a large minyan or a small minyan [the Ĥazzan] says Bar^ekhu et Adonai [Everyone bless God]. Rabbi Ishma'el says, Bar^ekhu et Adonai ha-mevorakh [Everyone bless God who should be blessed].

This is the text used to this day. Bar^ekhu is one of the liturgical items called D^evarim she-bik^edushah [particularly sacred items] that are only recited when a minyan is present.

Jim Feldman writes about the incident reported in the previous shiur concerning the deposition of Rabban Gamli'el:

These are names we all knew but history we had never seen. It is interesting to see how, in spite of much effort to suppress the concept, the women of Israel have always added much wisdom and important leadership. The transactions you describe are marvelously typical of academic bodies. One question that bothers someone from a longtime democracy is the passing of leadership as an inheritance. Why should we honor and give weight to those whose authority derives strictly from dynastic origins?

I respond:

Concerning Jim's first two points. This piece of history is reported extensively in both Talmuds – indeed my account was based very heavily on the Gemara [Berakhot 27a-b]. The only point in the account of the Gemara that I omitted was the part played in all this by Rabbi Akiva. The version in the Babylonian Talmud paints him as the peacemaker between the rivals; the version in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel suggests that he may have been looking out for his own preferment. In cases too numerous to mention individually the Talmudim and the Midrashim report sound and sage advice given by women in times of crisis. Their social position in Eretz-Israel may have been more akin to that of the Roman "Matrona" [Mistress of the House], and their social position in Babylon may have been much more "oriental". At any rate, we now know enough to be very wary, when assessing the status of women in our sources, of assuming an identity between these two centres.

Jim is concerned at the impropriety of a position of authority being inherited. The rabbis were on Jim's side, but – as is always the wont of the Oral Torah – they did not abrogate what they considered an institution of the Torah; they reinterpreted and hedged. A person may – must – inherit the position of a parent upon their decease provided that they are equal or better in knowledge and acumen.

When the late Chief Rabbi of Israel, Isser Yehudah Unterman, died his son (also Rabbi Unterman) claimed that rabbinic law gave him the right to inherit his father's position. This claim was rejected by the Chief Rabbinate Council. They said that the provision does not apply to positions of authority where the term is for a fixed period of time after which the incumbent must step down or be reelected: it only applies to positions for life.

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