Tractate Berakhot of the Talmud of Eretz-Israel: 0007

נושא: Y

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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Today's shiur is dedicated by Sherry Fyman
in memory of her father,
Fred Fyman,
Ephraim ben Hatchkel z"l,
whose Yahrzeit will be on 21st Sivan.

משנה:
מֵאֵימָתַי קוֹרִין אֶת שְׁמַע בָּעֲרָבִין מִשָּׁעָה שֶׁהַכֹּהֲנִים נִכְנָסִין לוֹכַל בִּתְרוּמָתָן…

גמרא:
אָמַר רַבִּי מָנָא קַשְׁיְתָה קוֹמֵי דְּרַבִּי חִזְקִיָּה: כַּד תְּנִינָן תָּמָן 'רָאָה אַחַת בַּיּוֹם וְאַחַת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, אַחַת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת וְאַחַת לְמָחָר — אִם יוֹדֵע שֶׁמִּקְצַת הָרְאִיָה מֵהַיּוֹם וּמִקְצָתָהּ לְמָחָר וַדַאי לְטוּמְאָה וּלְקָרְבָּן, וְאִם סָפֵק שֶׁמִּקְצַת הָרְאִיָה מֵהַיּוֹם וּמִקְצָתָהּ לְמָחָר וַדַאי לְטוּמְאָה וְסֵפֵק לְקָרְבָּן. רַבִּי חִיָּא בַּר יוֹסֵף בְּעָא קוֹמֵי רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: מָאן תְּנָא רְאִיָה נֶחֱלֶקֶת לִשְׁנַים? רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אָמַר לָהּ: קַשְׁתָה עַל דַּעַתְךָ דְּאַת אָמַר כָּל הֶרֶף עַיִן וְהֶרֶף עַיִן שֶׁבְּחַצִּי מִיל דְּרַבִּי נְחֶמְיָה סָפֵק הוּא. לָמָה? אָמַר לֵיהּ: קַשְׁתֵּיהּ לִכְשֶׁיָּבֹא אֵלִיָהוּ וְיֹאמַר 'זֶהוּ בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת.'

Mishnah:

From what time may we recite the Shema in the evening? — From the time when priests go in to eat their terumah…

Gemara:
Rabbi Mana posed the following question to Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah: We learned [a mishnah] elsewhere [Tractate Zavim 1:6]: "If a man experiences one [discharge] during the day and another during twilight or one during twilight and another the following morning, if he is certain that the discharge was partly during the day and partly during the following morning he is definitely ritually impure and must definitely bring a sacrifice. [However,] if he is not sure whether the discharge occurred during the day and also during the following morning he is definitely ritually impure and may not have to bring a sacrifice." Now, Rabbi Ḥiyya bar-Yosef posed the following question to Rabbi Yoḥanan: Which sage is it who holds that the experience of a discharge can be divided into two? — It is Rabbi Yosé who says so. This is problematic for you [Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah,] because you say that each blink of an eye during Rabbi Neḥemyah's half a mil is twilight. Why? He responded: It is indeed problematic. When Elijah comes he will tell us 'this is twilight'.

קומי — before, in the presence of, posed a question to
כד — when
תנינן — we learned in a mishnah (or barayta)
תמן — there (a chapter of the Mishnah)
בעא — asked a question, posed a problem
מאן — who

1:
In the previous shiur we learned that Rabbi Yosé and Rabbi Neḥemyah differ as to the parameters of twilight. Rabbi Yosé says that twilight is the split second that separates day from night while Rabbi Neḥemyah says that twilight lasts several minutes; in fact it last about the time it takes someone to walk half a mil. We also saw in the previous shiur that Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah tried to reconcile the opinions of the two sages by saying that Rabbi Yosé says that every single blink of an eye during the period defined by Rabbi Neḥemyah is twilight.

2:
Now comes Rabbi Mana with a question whose purpose is to cast doubt or refute what Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah said. In order to understand his question we must explain a law which has been in abeyance now for considerably more than one thousand years!

3:
One of the most daunting passages of the Torah for the modern student is Chapter 15 of the book of Leviticus. That chapter deals with ritual impurity caused by involuntary excretions from the human reproductive organs. If a man experiences an involuntary discharge from his genital organs he is termed in Hebrew a zav. (This should not be confused with a seminal discharge, termed keri.) The zav is ritually impure. In order to become ritually pure again he must bathe in a mikveh and later bring an expiatory sacrifice to the Bet Mikdash. In order to refute Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah Rabbi Mana first quotes a specific mishnah from Tractate Zavim. (Incidentally, it is statements such as this that prove that the fact that we no longer have Gemara for many of the tractates of the mishnah does not mean that they were not studied in the Bet Midrash of the sages; it is another indication that the Talmud of Eretz-Israel is unfinished.)

4:
For our present purposes I can do no better than to present to you the explanation of the commentary Pney Moshe:

A zav becomes ritually impure according both to the number of discharges and the number of days the discharges last. If a man experiences three discharges in one day or three discharges during two or three consecutive days (without an intervening day without a discharge) — in all such cases he is ritually impure and must bring a sacrifice. But if he experiences only two discharges he is only ritually impure but does not have to bring a sacrifice. Now, he may experience one discharge during the day and another during the following twilight (or one during twilight and another the following morning); if he is sure that at least part of the [twilight] discharge began while it was still day and continued into the night — even if there was not enough time to bathe [in a mikveh] and to dry himself, which is the minimum time needed to separate one discharge into two — they are nevertheless considered to be two discharges because these are two separate days… because the discharge that came during twilight counts as two because it spans two separate days.

5:
We should note that the mishnah that Rabbi Mana refers to is what we call stam mishnah; that means that the name of the sage whose ruling is given is not mentioned. But in many cases the Amoraim, the sages of the Talmud, did know who the Tanna of a stam mishnah was. Rabbi Mana now reminds Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah that on one occasion Rabbi Ḥiyya bar-Yosef asked Rabbi Yoḥanan whether he knew which Tanna it is whose ruling is given in the mishnah that the experience of a discharge at twilight can be considered two? Rabbi Yoḥanan replied that it was Rabbi Yosé — the very same Rabbi Yosé who holds that twilight lasts only as long as the blinking of an eye! Now, at last, Rabbi Mana can point out the problem with the view of Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah that "each blink of an eye during Rabbi Neḥemyah's half mile is part of twilight." If Rabbi Yosé holds that the twilight of Rabbi Neḥemyah consists of a whole series of "eyeblinks" (as you, Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah, say) how could he also say that twilight can divide one discharge into two? It would be enough to divide the discharge into dozens of discharges!

6:
Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah has to agree that his explanation is flawed, and that — according to him — it is not possible to determine when twilight begins and ends. When Elijah comes to herald the messianic age he will tell us how to define twilight!

7:
This convoluted discussion serves simply to knock down Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah's attempt to reconcile the two views about the length of twilight that we encountered in the previous shiur. If it has been too recondite for you to follow do not despair: its only purpose was to show that the opinion of Rabbi Ḥizkiyyah regarding twilight is untenable. In our next shiur the discussion will return to the passage from day to night (and from night to day).

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