Berakhot 072
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
TRACTATE BERAKHOT, CHAPTER FOUR, MISHNAH ONE (recap):
The Morning Amidah [may be recited] until noon; Rabbi Yehudah says [only] until the [end of the] fourth hour. The Afternoon Amidah [may be recited] until evening; Rabbi Yehudah says [only] until Plag ha-Minĥah. The Evening Amidah has no fixed parameters. The Additional Amidah [may be recited] all day; Rabbi Yehudah says [only] until the [end of the] seventh hour.
DISCUSSION:
Jeff Silver writes:
A small question regarding your explanation of the proper posture for reciting Tefillah [Berakhot 069]. My mother has for thirty odd years been a teacher at Yeshivat Rambam in Boston. As a result, I have frequently learned "tidbits" from her colleagues, through her, but without cites to authority. One of these tidbits was that one should always look at the text: that not do so, to assert that one knows the text by heart, is arrogant. Is there support for that view in halakhah?
I respond:
There can be no original halakhic requirement to pray from a written text, since – as I have pointed out on a few occasions – there were originally no written texts of prayers and all had to be recited from memory. Nowadays, some people might find the constant need to eye a text disturbing to their concentration; others might find the requirement to keep the eyes tightly shut an insuperable obstacle to their worship at all! Therefore, halakhah takes an inclusive stance. Check out the Kitzur Shulchan Arukh of Rabbi Shelomo Ganzfried, 20:1, which takes the same either/or attitude that I did.
Also in Berakhot 069 I wrote: First Parents: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah (actually nearer 60%). These congregations give the First Mothers their rightful place next to the First Fathers in this first berakhah of the Amidah – not only ideologically but textually as well.
Alan Ganapol comments:
While Bilhah and Zilpah were but substitutes for Leah and Rachel in providing children to Yaakov… they are still our biological mothers… so… IMVHO… I don't think they should be left out of the "Mothers" contingent…
I respond:
The Talmud precludes your suggestion. The Gemara [Berakhot 16b] states that
only three are termed 'Fathers' and only four are termed 'Mothers' [Sarah & Abraham, Rebecca & Isaac, Rachel, Leah & Jacob]. Why so concerning the Fathers? – You can't say that this is because we don't know whether we are descended from Reuben or Shim'on [etc], because we don't know whether we are descended from Rachel or from Leah either! So the reason must be that these [seven] are important and the rest not so. Another source teaches that slaves are not given the [honorific] title of Abba John Doe and Imma Jane Doe [and Bilhah and Zilpah were of that status]. Does the fact that the slaves of Rabban Gamli'el were so addressed contradict this source? – No, they were indeed important people.
Sally Esakov queries my statement [Berakhot 070] that Despite rabbinic attempts to suggest otherwise by midrashic means, there is no specific indication in the Biblical text of a belief in the resurrection of the dead. Sally writes:
How about the Dry Bones from Ezekiel ? How would the issue of "breathing the breath of life" into the only or first born son by Elijah, Elisha be interpreted ? What is the view taken in the Kabbalah (does the Rambam agree) and doesn't this view prevail ? Doesn't the issue of Chabad following the, now deceased, coming of Mashiah, seem somewhat to go along resurrectional belief ?
I respond:
Oh boy! A careful reading of Ezekiel 37:1-14 will reveal that the dry bones are a metaphor. The Judean exiles see Babylon as the sepulchre of their aspirations for national independence, and themselves as the skeletons of the now late Kingdom of Judah. Verse 11 states quite explicitly: "He said to me, Son of Man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are cut off.'" The rest of the passage, continuing the image of the metaphor, promises that the "sepulchre" will yield up its "dead" who will be restored to national independence…
The stories of Elijah [I Kings 17:17-24] and Elisha [II Kings 4:1-38] restoring a child to life should also be read with modern understanding. Note how Elijah [verse 21] stretches himself out over the child three times; note how Elisha [verse 34] also lies on top of the child, sets his mouth upon the child's mouth, and breathes into him seven times until the child opens his eyes… The child obviously was suffering from sunstroke [verses 18-19].
Karol Kestler also asks about the attitude of Kabbalah. Sorry folks, but I'm the wrong address for questions about Kabbalah! Rambam is the antithesis of Kabbalah – small wonder that Ra'aved the Kabbalist tries to denigrate him at every turn. Had the Zohar existed during Rambam's lifetime I have no doubt that he would have dismissed it as "mumbo-jumbo" – just as he dismissed astrology and other quasi-sciences. As far as the messianic element in Chabad is concerned, I will make but one very uncharitable comment: Judaism has already once given birth to another religion which is based on a belief in a dead Messiah: the world does not need another one such.
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