Blessings. Blessings. We are studying today’s daf, Daf Tet Zayin, in memory of Ram Ben Este and Yosef Ben Sabut, and I would like to add a memory before beginning today’s daf. We are at the bottom line: “And Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina said: Why were the tents associated with the rivers?”
In the portion of Balak, when Balaam blesses the Jewish people, there are two adjacent verses. One verse says, “Like rivers that flow, like gardens planted beside a river.” Tosafot does not like the reading of this verse as it appears here, because the word that the Gemara is going to expound as “tents” actually means spices. Tosafot therefore quotes a different verse.
In any event, the Gemara’s question is: What is the connection between the tents and the rivers? What is the connection between the tents of Torah and the rivers to which Balaam compares the Jewish people?
Just as a person goes to a river and immerses himself in it, as in a ritual bath, and the ritual bath makes him pure, so too, the tents of Torah make a person pure. If a person is guilty and goes to the tents of Torah, they make him innocent. Which tents are we discussing? As it says, “Even the tents”—the houses of study. When a person goes to the study hall, the tent of Torah, it is like a ritual bath. Just as a person emerges pure from a ritual bath, when a person goes to the tents of Torah, studies Torah, and enters the study hall, even if he is guilty, the Torah makes him innocent.
Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi were preparing a canopy for the wedding of Rabbi Elazar. In earlier times, the rabbis themselves would prepare the wedding canopy; they did not give the work to florists. They were personally building the canopy for Rabbi Elazar’s wedding.
One of them said, “Instead of watching you rabbis prepare the canopy, I will go to the study hall, learn a new Torah insight, and return and tell it to you.” Even on the day of the wedding, they studied Torah. They did not waste a moment. He went to the study hall and found the students studying before Rabbi Hanina.
While reciting the Shema, he became confused. He was daydreaming and lost his place. He knew that he was somewhere between the sections, but he did not know exactly where. If a person knows that he is in the first paragraph or in the second paragraph but does not know where within the paragraph, he must return to the beginning of that paragraph.
If he is between the paragraphs but does not know between which paragraphs he is, he returns to the earliest point. What is the earliest point? He should return to “And it shall be,” because if he is between the paragraphs, he has certainly already recited one paragraph, and by returning to “And it shall be,” he is unquestionably covered.
There are also two places in the Shema where the phrase “Hear, Israel” appears. If he does not know whether he has reached “And it shall be” or the later passage beginning with “And it shall be,” he must return to the first recitation. But what if, despite not knowing where he is, his mouth automatically opened and began reciting the familiar words? Since he has already begun saying those words, we can assume that he is at that point, because he is accustomed to saying them after the preceding section.
He returned to the rabbis who were building the canopy and told them the insight. They said to him, “It was worthwhile. Even if we had come only to hear this new insight from you, it would have been enough. We spent the day building the canopy instead of studying, but it was worthwhile to receive this insight from you.”
The Mishnah discusses workers. Workers who are working at the top of a tree or at the top of a wall may recite the Shema where they are; they do not have to climb down. They may recite the Shema at the top of the tree or wall. This does not apply to the silent prayer, because the silent prayer requires concentration. A person standing in a tree is afraid that he will fall. How can he have the necessary concentration while praying? Regarding the Shema, one does not need the same concentration for the entire prayer; the first verse, or the first paragraph, is the primary requirement. But regarding the silent prayer, a person must climb down. It is impossible to pray properly while standing in a tree.
The Mishnah then discusses a groom. A groom who marries a virgin is exempt from reciting the Shema on the first night of his marriage. In those days, weddings were held on Wednesday, so this applied from Wednesday night through the end of Shabbat. His mind was occupied with the mitzvah of marital relations with the virgin bride. If he was unable to fulfill the mitzvah on Wednesday night, it continued to occupy his thoughts on Thursday night and Friday night, for up to four nights. After four days, however, his mind was no longer occupied with it; he had already married and was no longer preoccupied in the same way.
In the account under discussion, the groom recited the Shema on the first night. The students said to him, “Rabbi, you taught us that a groom is exempt. Yet you are reciting it yourself. You are not following your own teaching.” He replied, “I cannot refrain from accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven even for one night.” In other words, most people are exempt, but Tosafot says that an important person may recite it even on the first night. He was unwilling to forgo accepting the yoke of Heaven even for a single night.
The workers may recite the Shema at the top of a tree or wall. There are certain trees with many branches, allowing a person to stand comfortably. An olive tree and a fig tree are examples. Therefore, although we said that a worker may not pray the silent prayer while standing in an ordinary tree, if he is in an olive tree or a fig tree, where there is sufficient room, he may pray the silent prayer there.
With regard to other trees, however, the employer himself must climb down. Even if it is an olive tree, and even though we were lenient for a worker in an olive tree, that leniency applies only to a worker. We do not apply it to the employer. In all cases, he must climb down in order to pray the silent prayer with proper concentration. We all agree that the tree is not the optimal place to pray. We are lenient with a worker because we do not want him to neglect his employer’s work, but the owner himself must descend from every tree, including an olive tree.
There was a rabbi named Rabbi Mori, the grandson of Shmuel. He is referred to as Rabbi Mori, son of the daughter of Shmuel. Why does the Gemara describe him in such a seemingly confusing way—as the son of Shmuel’s daughter? The explanation is that Shmuel had a daughter named Zachel. She was abused by a gentile and became pregnant from him. He later converted, and Rabbi Mori was born from that relationship. Although his father was Jewish by the time Rabbi Mori was born, the father was referred to as a convert. They did not want to mention his father’s name or call him Rabbi Mori, son of a convert, so they referred to him as the son of Shmuel’s daughter.
Rabbi Mori asked Rava a question. We learned in the Mishnah that workers may recite the Shema at the top of a tree or wall. This seems to show that they are capable of having the necessary concentration. Yet another teaching says that one who recites the Shema must concentrate when reciting the first verse: “Hear, Israel.” It is derived from the verse, “Now, Israel, be silent and listen.” Just as there, when Moshe Rabbeinu taught the Torah to the Jewish people, they had to be silent and listen attentively, so too, the first verse of the Shema must be recited with concentration. How, then, can workers recite the Shema at the top of a tree? How much concentration can they have while standing there?
Rava remained silent. He had no answer. Rabbi Mori said to him, “Did you hear anything about this?” He replied that he had heard a teaching from the scholars of the academy: As long as the workers are in the tree, they must stop working while reciting the Shema. They cannot continue cutting figs or branches while reciting it. They may remain at the top of the tree, but they must temporarily stop their work and concentrate.
There is also another teaching that says they may continue working while reciting the Shema. The answer is that for the first paragraph, which requires the primary concentration, they must stop working. They pause for a short time, recite the first paragraph with concentration, and then they may resume their work.
The discussion then returns to workers who recite the Shema. We are no longer speaking about people standing in trees, but about ordinary workers. What is a worker’s minimum religious obligation toward his employer? If a person were to pray all day, study all day, or perform mitzvot all day, he would be taking time from his employer. What, then, is he minimally required to do?
The teaching says that workers who are employed by others may recite the Shema, recite its blessings, and eat bread. They recite the blessings before the Shema and after it, including the morning blessings of the Shema. If they eat bread for breakfast or lunch, they recite the blessing over the bread and the blessings after the meal. However, they may not serve as the cantor, because that would take additional time. The cantor must repeat the silent prayer and recite the additional responses and prayers. They may pray with the congregation, but they should not serve as the cantor. Priests likewise do not serve in roles that would take additional time.
The Gemara asks: What does this mean? Elsewhere, we learned that workers are not permitted to recite the entire silent prayer. Rather, they recite an abbreviated version. The answer is that the teaching permitting the full silent prayer follows Rabban Gamliel, while the teaching permitting only the abbreviated prayer follows Rabbi Yehoshua. There is a dispute between them regarding the shortened form of the silent prayer.
But if the ruling follows Rabbi Yehoshua, every person is permitted to recite the shortened prayer. Why does the teaching mention workers specifically? The answer is that the two opinions refer to two different types of workers.
One type of worker receives a regular salary as well as meals. Such a worker is being compensated generously: he receives wages and food. We do not allow him to waste time, because he is receiving a generous salary. He should recite only the shortened silent prayer.
Another type of worker does not receive generous wages. His entire compensation is food. His salary consists of his meals. Since this is a small and meager form of compensation, we allow him to recite the full silent prayer. Thus, the ruling depends on how the worker is compensated. If he receives money and food, he has a substantial salary and should not take extra time; he recites the shortened prayer. If his only compensation is a meal—a tuna sandwich for lunch, for example—that is his entire payment, and he may recite the full silent prayer.
The same distinction applies to the blessings over food. Workers who receive a salary do not recite the blessing over bread, because that blessing is rabbinic and we do not want them to take additional time from the employer. Regarding the Grace after Meals, they recite only two blessings instead of the usual four. The first blessing is recited in its regular form, and the second blessing, the blessing over the Land, includes the other material in an abbreviated form. They combine the relevant passages in order to shorten the Grace after Meals and avoid taking time from the employer.
If the workers are being paid in food, or if the employer is sitting and eating with them, the situation is different. When the employer is sitting with them, he is being lenient, and there is no concern that they are taking time improperly. In that case, they recite the blessings in the regular manner.
We previously encountered the teaching that a person must recite the Shema while sitting in his house. This excludes a person who is on the way to perform a mitzvah. A person traveling along his own road must recite the Shema, but a groom is exempt because he is occupied with a mitzvah. A widow’s groom, however, is obligated, even though the marriage is also a mitzvah, because his mind is not preoccupied in the same way. The particular preoccupation connected with fulfilling the mitzvah with a virgin bride is what creates the exemption.
Where do we see in the verse that the discussion concerns a person traveling for his own purposes? Rabbi Pappa explains that just as a person who goes on the road voluntarily is required to recite the Shema, so too, the verse refers to someone traveling voluntarily. But perhaps “when you go on your way” includes a person traveling to perform a mitzvah. Who says that a person occupied with a mitzvah is exempt? Perhaps he is obligated.
The answer is that the wording “when you go on your way” refers to one’s personal activities. When a person is going on his own way, he is obligated to recite the Shema; when he is going to perform a mitzvah, he is exempt. The Gemara challenges this: If that is so, why does the exemption apply only to someone marrying a virgin? A person marrying a widow is also performing a mitzvah and should also be exempt.
The answer is that the groom marrying a virgin is preoccupied, while the groom marrying a widow is not preoccupied in the same way. The question then arises: Is ordinary preoccupation enough to exempt a person? If someone were to call you and tell you that your yacht had sunk, you would certainly be preoccupied. Would that exempt you from reciting the Shema? We know that it would not.
We see that ordinary preoccupation does not exempt a person from reciting the Shema. The teaching says that a mourner is obligated in all the mitzvot of the Torah except for the tefillin. The reason is that tefillin are called a sign of glory, as it says, “Your glory shall be bound upon you,” while a mourner has ashes in place of his glory. Nevertheless, a mourner is obligated to recite the Shema, even though he is preoccupied with his loss.
What does this show? Preoccupation by itself does not exempt a person. Why, then, is a groom marrying a virgin exempt, while a groom marrying a widow is not? The answer is that there is a difference between the mourner’s preoccupation and the groom’s preoccupation. The mourner is distressed over his loss, but being preoccupied with that loss is not itself a mitzvah. It may be a mitzvah for him not to wear shoes or take a bath, but the distress over his loss is not the mitzvah.
The groom marrying a virgin, by contrast, is occupied with a mitzvah. His preoccupation is the preoccupation of a mitzvah, and that is different. The groom marrying a widow is not preoccupied in the same way, because the particular circumstances that create the preoccupation are absent. Therefore, it is not mere preoccupation that exempts a person; it is preoccupation with the performance of a mitzvah.
The Mishnah teaches that on the first night after a person’s wife dies, Rabban Gamliel bathed. Suppose a person’s wife dies on Sunday and she has not yet been buried. He is an acute mourner, and an acute mourner is generally prohibited from bathing. Yet Rabban Gamliel bathed.
His students said to him, “Our rabbi, you taught us that a mourner is prohibited from bathing. Why are you bathing?” He replied, “I am delicate.” He was accustomed to bathing and could not go even one day without a bath. But if the prohibition is from the Torah, what difference does it make that he was delicate? The law is the law.
Rabban Gamliel also had a servant who died. People came to offer him condolences, but one does not accept condolences for servants, because servants are not Jewish. If he accepted their condolences, people might think that the servant was Jewish and that Rabban Gamliel’s family had a different lineage. The Gemara explains that the servant had been a good person, and Rabban Gamliel said that he was deserving of the same kind of praise one might give a good person.
We previously learned that a groom is exempt from the Shema on the first night, but the Gemara says that if the groom wishes to recite it, he may. This does not mean that anyone who wants to take the name of a pious person may do so. A person who is not known to be righteous and focused should not simply decide to recite the Shema on the night of his wedding, because it may be considered arrogance.
The reason Rabban Gamliel permitted himself to bathe on the night his wife died is that he held that the acute mourning of the night is rabbinic. According to the Torah, the acute mourning applies during the day; on the following night, the prohibition is rabbinic. Since Rabban Gamliel was delicate, the rabbis did not impose the rabbinic restriction on him.
The same reasoning explains the case of a servant or maidservant who dies. The formal laws of mourning do not apply in the same way. People who return from the cemetery used to stand in rows, and the mourners would walk between them while receiving words of consolation. This ceremony is not performed for the death of a Canaanite servant or maidservant. There was also a special blessing recited when mourners were given their first meal, and that blessing is not recited when such a servant dies.
However, ordinary words of consolation may still be offered. Once, the maidservant of Rabbi Eliezer died. His students came to comfort Rabbi Eliezer, even though one is not formally required to console him in that situation. They thought that because she had been a good maidservant, they should visit him.
When Rabbi Eliezer saw them approaching the house, he did not want them to come and offer condolences, so he went upstairs to the attic. They followed him there. He went to the antechamber, and they followed him there as well. He entered the living room, and they followed him there too. Clearly, they did not understand the hint.
He said to them, “I thought that you would understand and withdraw when I moved away. I went from one place to another, expecting you to take the hint and leave, but you continued following me. Now I see that you are not even affected by boiling water.” In other words, he was saying that they did not understand even after he had repeatedly withdrawn from them.
Rabbi Eliezer had already taught them that servants and maidservants are not mourned in the formal manner. One does not stand in a row for them, and one does not recite the special blessing of consolation over them. What, then, should one say when a person loses a servant or maidservant? Just as one says to someone who loses a donkey or an ox, one says, “May God replace your loss.” That is all. One also does not deliver a eulogy for them.
If the servant was a good one, however, a person may say a brief eulogy praising him. The rabbis then said to Rabbi Eliezer, “If that is what you say about a servant, what have you left to say about proper Jewish people?” They felt that he had praised the servant too highly. If this was the praise given to a servant, what praise remained for everyone else?
There are only three patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I personally would not refer to the tribes as patriarchs, because we do not know from which tribe we descend. How could we say, “Reuben our father” or “Simeon our father” when we do not know whether we come from Reuben or Simeon? Perhaps this is also the reason that the matriarchs are not referred to in the same manner: we likewise do not know from which matriarch we descend.
In earlier times, just as people used titles such as “Mr.” or “Sir,” important people were called “father.” The word meant a respectful title, not necessarily a biological relationship. With servants, however, one did not use such titles. If a young child called a servant “father,” people might think that the servant was his biological father and conclude that the child did not have proper lineage. If that were believed, the child might be considered unfit to enter the congregation. Therefore, servants were not referred to by the titles “father” or “mother.”
The family of Rabban Gamliel, however, did refer to servants by those titles. This is not a contradiction. The children of Rabban Gamliel’s family were important, and everyone knew who they were. There was therefore no concern that someone would mistakenly think that they were the biological children of the servants.
A verse in Tehillim says, “I will bless You throughout my life; in Your name I will raise my hands.” This refers to raising one’s hands toward Heaven when pronouncing God’s name. When a person does this, it is considered as though he brought the fats of a sacrifice upon the altar and removed the ashes from the altar. It is as though he served in the Temple.
A person who does this receives blessing in two worlds, this world and the World to Come. The verse uses a plural expression, indicating that one will sing and praise in both worlds.
After completing the silent prayer, the sages would add personal prayers. One such prayer was: “May it be Your will, Hashem our God, that You establish us in our midst, or establish us in our portion, with peace and friendship; that our bodies should be filled with students; that our end should be good; and that we should have our portion among a good group and good friends.” They also prayed that when they awoke in the morning, they would awaken with fear of Heaven.
The reason for this prayer is that when a person goes to sleep, the evil inclination can place improper thoughts in his mind. It may tell him not to go to the synagogue the next morning, not to recite the blessings, and not to accept the yoke of Heaven. Therefore, the rabbis prayed in the silent prayer that they should awaken with fear of Heaven and be ready to serve God.
Another personal prayer was: “May it be Your will, Hashem our God, that You remove the shame from us.” We are ashamed because of our sins. “Look at our suffering,” including all the troubles and afflictions that come upon us. “Clothe Yourself in Your mercy and cover Yourself with Your strength to protect us. Cover Yourself with Your kindness and treat us beyond the strict law. Grant us the gift of peace, even though we do not deserve it. Be merciful and give it to us freely, and allow us to come before You with Your goodness and humility.”
After Rabbi Zeira completed the silent prayer, he would say: “May it be Your will that we should not sin, that our sins should not cause us humiliation, and that the sins of our ancestors should not cause us shame.”
After completing the silent prayer, he would also pray: “May it be Your will that our Torah should be our main occupation, that our hearts should not become depressed, and that our eyes should not become darkened.” We should have good eyesight and a long life; peace, blessings, and health; a life free of sin; a life of honor and glory; a life filled with love of Torah; a life of fear of Heaven; and a life that satisfies all our requests for our benefit and for the benefit of all people.
When he completed his prayer, he would say: “May it be Your will, Hashem, that You save us from a person who is brazen, from a brazen person, from a bad person, from a bad neighbor, from an evil occurrence, from a difficult judgment, from a harsh litigant, from a Jewish litigant, and from a litigant who is not Jewish.”
He would add that even if he had some protection from Antoninus and from the government, one cannot rely on anyone. Even though Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi had protection from Antoninus, he still prayed to be saved from these dangers. One must always pray for protection and not rely completely on any human being.
May the Name be blessed. Amen.