Berakhot 105

Today's shiur is dedicated by Sherry Fyman to Ron Weiss and Jack Greenberg in honour of their moving into their new home.

11:
The other item discussed in our mishnah is another addition to the Amidah. This one is made at the end of every Shabbat and Festival, and it concerns the duty of making a distinction between the sanctity of the holy day and the profanity of the ordinary weekdays. The making of this distinction is referred to in Hebrew as "Havdalah". Havdalah is, of course, the exact opposite of "Kiddush", which is the ceremony that declares that the day is sanctified. The custom now established – which accords with the view of Tanna Kamma in our mishnah – is that during the Amidah recited after Shabbat on Saturday night [Motza'ei Shabbat] we add a short paragraph to the fourth berakhah of the Amidah which celebrates God as making a distinction between holy and profane, between light and darkness, between Jews and the gentile world and between the seventh day and all the other days of the week. We should distinguish between this "Havdalah" and the ceremony performed in the home (and elsewhere) having the same purpose.

To be continued.

Ed Frankel sends the following comment concerning rain:

In exploring the differences between asking for rain and acknowledgment of God's control of natural forces, I am taken by the mishna in [Tractate] Ta'anit. Several points stick out in my mind as I recall it. To ask for rain during Sukkot is a folly not just because we don't want it then, but to have it would be a curse, which is indeed echoed in Sukkah, where rain during Yom Tov is likened to the king spilling the wine in the face of the steward who served it. Further, though, I am interested there in the minority view which holds that if gevurot geshamim [the power of the rains] is to simply recall God's control, it is always appropriate, and not only during the rainy season. I would not be surprised if this is the basis of the Sephardic nusaĥ [version] in which there is a year-round statement, switching from "who causes the wind to blow and rain to fall" to a simple "who causes dew to fall". The latter, unscientifically correct as it is, does reflect the Almighty's constant control of nature.

I respond:

The addition during the summer months of the mention of dew in the State of Israel is a general custom, not just a custom of the oriental communities.

Concerning "4th December" David Fishman sends the following correction. The amplifications [in square parentheses] are mine:

I fear that you have been misled regarding the "precession" of the secular date for beginning to say ten tal u'matar [grant rain]. Because of the Julian drift from the "true" solar year (365 days, 5 hrs., 48 mins., 46.09 secs.), the t'qufah of Tishrei [autumnal equinox] advances one day relative to the "true" equinox every 122.3 years (this advance is corrected for in the secular calendar by the Gregorian reform of omitting 3 leap days every 400 years). Thus, while the secular date of the "true" equinox varies between September 21 and 22 according to the interval since the last (secular) leap year and position within the 400 year cycle, the uncorrected t'qufah of Tishrei these days falls on October 7 (or 8 for the year preceding a secular leap year), stemming from over 1700 years of drift since the time of [the Babylonian Amora] Shemuel [who made the initial calculations – SR]. This yields us the current dates of December 4 and 5 (the latter, again, only in the secular year preceding a secular leap year, e.g. 1995, 1999) for the date of the evening we begin to say teyn tal u'matar in the Amidah (the evening preceding 59 days after the t'qufah. The "precession" of the secular starting date depends on the secular calendar. Since there will be no omission of a leap day in 2000, the starting date will not change to December 5/6 until the year 2100, when the quadrennial leap day will again be omitted.

I respond:

Er… I thought that that was what I er… meant to say. Sincerest thanks to David.