Tractate Berakhot of the Talmud of Eret—-Israel: 0014

1:
We now come to the next phrase in our mishnah: the time for reciting Shema in the evening is when the priests eat their terumah and that time lasts until the end of the first watch (according to Rabbi Eli'ezer). The day was divided into hours because it was quite possible for those used to doing so, to look at the position of the sun in the sky and determine what the time was: which of the six hours from sunrise until midday was current or which is the six hours from midday to sunset. Obviously, this was not possible at night. The night was divided into watches, presumably based on the custom observed by those whose task it was to guard palaces and temples. In all probability Rabbi Eli'ezer in the mishnah is referring to the watches of the Levitical guard in the Bet Mikdash. But by the time of Rabbi and Rabbi Natan, more than a century after the destruction of the Bet Mikdash, the technical details about these watches had been forgotten.

2:
Rabbi is, of course, the sobriquet of Rabbi Yehudah, the president of the Sanhedrin and the compiler of the Mishnah. Rabbi holds that the night should be divided into four watches, each three hours long. (Thus the end of the first watch would arrive some three hours after sunset.) Rabbi Natan, his contemporary, holds that the night should be divided into three watches, each four hours long. We shall examine the reasoning of both these sages in due course.

3:
Rabbi adds further that one hour consists of twenty-four onah, which in turn consists of twenty-four et which in turn consists of twenty-four rega. Hebrew speakers will immediately recognize that these three terms denote the passage of time. Obviously, it was impossible at that time to determine the real length of a rega (13,824 in one hour, nearly 4 per second!) Rabbi Ḥelbo describes the length of a rega as the time it takes to say rega. The rest of the sages hold that it is even shorter than that! The Babylonian sage, Shemu'el, who was also an astronomer, divides one hour into 56,848 parts! Obviously, there was no practical purpose for any of these artificial calculations.

4:
Rabbi, who holds that the night is divided into four watches, bases his opinion on a biblical verse: "at midnight do I rise to offer thanks to You for Your righteous judgements" [Psalm 119:62]. Since King David is the presumed author of the Psalter [Bavli, Bava Batra 14b] he must be the speaker of this sentence. If David arose at midnight to offer thanks to God this must indicate that there were four watches, two before midnight and two after midnight, otherwise how could he rise in the exact middle of the night? In the continuation of this discussion this opinion of Rabbi is referred to as 'at midnight' for convenience. Rabbi Natan also bases his opinion on a biblical source: Gideon attacked the enemy "at the head of the middle watch" [Judges 7:19]. There can only be a middle watch if there are three watches.

5:
Each sage is entitled to his opinion because both sages base their opinion on a biblical foundation. Yet, if Rabbi Natan is correct, how would he explain the verse quoted by Rabbi: "at midnight do I rise"? — which also suggests that David would rise at the end of the second of four watches. Elsewhere in that extremely long Psalm [119:148] David says "My eyes precede watches to ponder Your pronouncements". Rabbi Natan's response would be that sometimes David arose 'at midnight' and sometimes 'before watches', depending on circumstances. The Gemara asks for this to be explained. The explanation given is that when David dined in regal state, entertaining dignitaries, his repast would finish late; therefore he would be able to meditate only at midnight. However, when he dined privately his meal would be over much earlier and he could start his meditations before 'watches' — presumably before the start of the second watch.

6:
The Gemara now emphasizes that whatever time he started his meditations David was never asleep when dawn broke! This is indicated in another biblical verse [Psalm 57:9]: "Awake, O my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn." This is understood as David saying that despite the fact that he is a king and like all kings he is entitled to sleep late into the morning, nevertheless he feels obliged to forego his own glory ("Stay awake, my glory!) in order to render homage to his Creator, whose glory is so much greater.

7:
This homiletic discussion will be continued in the next shiur.