Kommentar zu Berakhot 4:11

תפלת השחר עד חצות – Since the morning daily offering is offered until noon, according to the Rabbis, and according to Rabbi Yehuda, is not offered other than up until the fourth hour of the day. “Until the fourth hour” is until the end of the fourth hour which is one-third of the day at the time when the day has twelve [equivalent] hours, and so is its time is forever, until the end of the first third of the day, according to the length or shortness of their daytimes, as we have written above regarding the [recitation of the] Shema. And the Halakha follows Rabbi Yehuda.

Introduction The fourth and fifth chapters of Berakhot are about the “Tefillah” the central prayer which we today call the “Amidah” or the “Shmoneh Esrei”, due to its eighteen benedictions (actually nineteen, one was added in later). The Tefillah (henceforth I will refer to it as the Tefillah, the common term in rabbinic literature) is the central piece of rabbinically created liturgy. While its precise time of creation is not known, it seems to have coalesced into full fruition and taken prominence after the destruction of the Second Temple. The first three blessings are praises of God, the next 13 are petitions and the final three are expressions of gratitude. On Shabbat and holidays the petitions are not recited and there is rather one, or on Rosh Hashanah, three, intermediate blessings. The Tefillah is recited three times a day. The earliest hint to praying three times a day can be found in Daniel 6:11. There are various reasons to explain why thrice daily prayer but the one that strikes me as most convincing is that there are three natural times to the day: 1) sunrise; 2) midday, when the sun begins its descent; 3) nightfall. Other reasons, such as to correspond to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are probably best seen as reasons provided after the number had already been determined. The first two tefillot, Shacharit and Minchah, correspond to the two daily Tamid offerings, the Shacharit Tamid and the Minhah Tamid. But there was no real offering at night, so the connection between three prayers and the Temple service is weak. Our mishnah begins by discussing when all three daily Tefillot (plural of Tefillah) must be recited.

תפלת המנחה עד הערב – until it gets dark.

The morning Tefillah ( is until midday. Rabbi Judah says until the fourth hour. The sages say that the morning Tefillah can be recited until midday (the sixth hour). Note that this is long after the Shema had to have been recited, a topic discussed above in 1:4. According to the first opinion there, the Shema had to be completed by sunrise, and according to Rabbi Judah by the third hour. Neither of these times would connect the Shema with the Tefillah. It seems that in mishnaic times the two prayers were not really connected. That connection began probably in the talmudic period.

עד פלג המנחה – the time of the “small Minha” which is from nine-and one-half hours [into the day] until the nighttime, which is [the equivalent of] two-and-one-half hours. Hence it is found that “Plag HaMinha” is one half of this measure which is one and one-quarter hours, and that the determined law/practice [in this matter] is that he who followed [the Sages] followed them, and he who followed [Rabbi Yehuda] followed him, and he who wants to follow the words of the Sages and recite the afternoon prayer until the evening should do so, as long as he does not recite the evening prayer at that time, since he considers that daytime period for the matter of reciting the afternoon service, he is not able to consider it nighttime and to recite] the evening service. But, if he comes to act according to the words of Rabbi Yehuda, that he should not recite the afternoon service other than until “Plag HaMinha” (i.e., 4:45 pm), which is an [halakhic] hour-and-a-quarter before the nighttime, he should do so, and from that point onwards, he may recite the evening service.

The afternoon Tefillah ( until evening. Rabbi Judah says: until the middle of the afternoon. The Minhah Tefillah can be recited until evening, according to the first opinion. Rabbi Judah says it must be recited by the “middle of the afternoon.” The “afternoon” begins at 9 ½ hours (this is the time that the Minhah sacrifice was offered) and continues until evening (the 12th hour). Therefore, the middle of that time is 10 ¾ hours.

אין לה קבע – Its time [the evening service] is all night long, but when it [the Mishnah] teaches, “Ein Lah K’vah/It has no fixed time,” and it doesn’t teach, “its time is all night long” – it comes to teach us that the evening service is optional, since it was [considered] parallel to the offering of the limbs and fats which are offered all night, and these are optional, since when the blood is poured, the sacrifice is accepted, even though the limbs and fats were defiled or lost. However, nowadays, it (the recitation of the evening service), has been accepted as obligatory.

The evening prayer has no fixed time. Maariv, the evening Tefillah, has no time limit.

ושל מוספין כל היום – But if he recited [Musaf] later after the seventh hour, he has fulfilled his religious obligation, but he is called a sinner, and this is the Halakha.

The time for the additional prayers ( is the whole day. Rabbi Judah says: until the seventh hour. Additional prayers (Mussaf) are those recited on Shabbat, Rosh Hodesh and holidays (Pesah, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur). According to the first opinion, they may be recited at any time during the day, and according to Rabbi Judah they can be recited only until the seventh hour.

מה מקום – that is to say, what is its nature?

Introduction In today’s mishnah we learn that Rabbi Nehuniah ben Hakaneh had a special prayer that he would say when he went in and out of the Bet Hamidrash (the rabbinic study hall).

שלא תארע תקלה – that no stumbling block should come through me, as it is explained in the Baraitha: “that I should not stumble in a matter of Halakha and that my colleagues would rejoice [in my being in error],” that evil should come upon me in that I caused them to be punished [through my errant decision].

Rabbi Nehunia ben Hakaneh used to pray as he entered the Bet Hamidrash and as he left it a short prayer. They said to him: what is the reason for this prayer? He replied: When I enter I pray that that no mishap should occur through me, and when I leave I express thanks for my portion. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 28b) gives a fuller reading of this blessing. It reads: “Our Rabbis taught: On entering what does one say? “May it be Your will, O Lord my God, that no mishap should occur through me, and that I may not err in a matter of halakhah and my colleagues rejoice in my [embarrassment], and that I may not call unclean clean or clean unclean, and that my colleagues may not err in a matter of halakhah and that I may rejoice in their [embarrassment].” On leaving what does he say? “I give thanks to You, O Lord my God, that You have place my portion with those who sit in the Bet Hamidrash and You have not set my portion with those who sit in [street] corners, for I rise early and they rise early, but I rise early for words of Torah and they rise early for frivolous talk; I labor and they labor, but I labor and receive a reward and they labor and do not receive a reward; I run and they run, but I run to the life of the world to come and they run to the pit of destruction.”

אני נותן הודיה על חלקי – I express thanks for the good that has been my portion that my I have been placed among those who sit in the House of Study. And these two prayers [recited] when one enters the House of Study and when one leaves it are obligatory upon each and every person to recite them and so we say in the Baraitha – When he enters: What should he say? And when leaves, what should he say? – implying that it is obligatory to recite them [both].

מעין שמונה עשרה – There are those explain in the Gemara that a person recites a shortened form of each of the middle blessings in the Amidah and recites the concluding blessing for each one. And there are those who say [the prayer] “הביננו – O Lord our God, Cause Us to Understand [and to] Know Your Ways” which is one blessing which has an abstract of each of the middle blessings of the Shemoneh Esreh and we conclude this with the blessing, “Praised are You, who hearkens to prayer.”

Introduction This and the next mishnah are perhaps the most important mishnayot in the two chapters concerning the Tefillah. Here we see that there was some rabbinic opposition to the institution of fixed prayers. We should recall that in biblical times there were no fixed prayers, by which I mean prayers fixed in time and wording. Rather, all prayers are spontaneous. The transition from spontaneous to fixed prayer seems to have been part of the transition to a post-Temple world. While there may have been some attempts to fix prayer formulas while the Temple still stood, they don’t seem to have attained much prominence in the literature. The sacrificial service seems to have been sufficient to fill people’s spiritual needs. As always occurs when there is innovation, not all agree as with the innovation or with its particular details.

שגורה בפיו – learned and fluent in it. And the Halakha is like Rabbi Akiva – for an individual whose prayer is not fluent in his mouth or is in a hurry , should recite the first three blessings [of the Amidah] and the last three blessings [of the Amidah] and the “הביננו” prayer in the middle , which is an abstract of all the middle [blessings], except for [the Amidah] during the rainy season since a person should not recite הביננו"” because he must mention the “request for rain” [“ותן טל ומטר לטובה – provide dew and rain for a blessing”] in the “blessing of the years” and also except for Saturday evenings and the conclusion of holy days where he needs to recite the Havdalah prayer in the [fourth] blessing, "חונן הדעת" – who grants knowledge.”

Rabban Gamaliel says: every day a man should pray the eighteen [blessings]. Rabban Gamaliel seems to have held a position of political leadership among the rabbis and it is he who directs a liturgist to compose the Tefillah. He therefore mandates that every person recite these eighteen blessings three times a day. Note that this would not have been easy in a time when they did not have siddurim (prayerbooks). The first siddurim were not composed until the Geonic period (8th-11th centuries). Nevertheless, Rabban Gamaliel mandates that each individual recite the entire Tefillah.

Rabbi Joshua says: an abstract of the eighteen. Rabbi Joshua says that he need not recite the full eighteen but rather may recite an abbreviated form. There are two different explanations to this. Both explanations hold that he must recite the first three and last three blessings in their normal fashion. These are the blessings that are part of every Tefillah, even those on Shabbat and holidays. One explanation holds that he recites the 12 intermediate blessings but abbreviates each one of them. The other explanation is that he combines the themes of all 12 blessings into one blessing. In either case, while Rabbi Joshua agrees that one should recite these blessings every day, he doesn’t require the full formula.

Rabbi Akiva says: if he knows it fluently he prays the eighteen, and if not an abstract of the eighteen. Rabbi Akiva tries to mediate between the two previous opinions. If he is capable of reciting the full Tefillah, then he should do so. If, however, he is not capable because he is not familiar enough with it, then he may recite the shorter version.

העושה תפלתו קבע – That his prayer appears to him like a burden, and the word “קבע/fixed” implies that it is like a fixed statute upon me to pray and I have to fulfill it.

Introduction The first section of today’s mishnah continues the debate over the daily recitation of the Shmoneh Esrei. The second section deals with someone who cannot pray the full Shmoneh Esrei because he is in a dangerous place.

מתפלל תפלה קצרה – And what is this short prayer? That he recites: “Save O LORD, your people…”

Rabbi Eliezer says: if a man makes his prayers fixed, it is not [true] supplication. Rabbi Eliezer objects to the entire institution of fixed prayer. One who is given a fixed liturgy is not engaged in true supplication. The only reason he is saying the prayer is that he is obligated to do so. This is always a present and potent danger when it comes to fixed prayer. It seems that Rabbi Eliezer is espousing a traditional position. Traditionally prayer had been spontaneous, as we can see from the biblical record. Rabbi Eliezer objected to Rabban Gamaliel’s innovation that every person would have to say a set formula three times a day. While Rabbi Eliezer lost out and the halakhah was established that one is obligated to recite a fixed formula, we would do well to heed his warning and remember that while reciting prayer, it is preferable to prevent it from becoming too fixed, as if one is reading a letter. This is in my opinion one of the greatest challenges when it comes to Jewish prayer.

בכל פרשת העבור – Even at the time when they are turning aside to sin, “may their needs be revealed before You to have compassion upon them.” “פרשת”/crossroads – means “turning aside.” “העיבור”- of the crossroads. But the Halakha does not follow Rabbi Yehoshua, but rather, the prayer that is recited in a place of danger is “The needs of your people are many, etc.” And when a person recites it as he is walking, he does not recite the first three or last blessings [of the Amidah] but when he passes through the place of danger and is able to compose himself at ease, he must go back and recite the Amidah as it has been established if the time for its being recited has not yet passed.

Rabbi Joshua says: if one is traveling in a dangerous place, he says a short prayer, saying: Save, O Lord, Your people the remnant of Israel. In every time of crisis may their needs be before You. Blessed are You, O Lord, who hears prayer. When someone is traveling in a dangerous place and cannot either concentrate or stay still long enough to recite the Shmoneh Esrei, he should recite this short prayer which basically asks God to provide one’s needs to make it through the current crisis.

היה רוכב על החמור ירד – The Halakha does not follow the [opinion of this] anonymous Mishnah but rather whether or not he has someone who can hold his donkey or not, he should not descend [from it] because his mind is not at ease when he descends [from it].

Introduction This mishnah deals with a person who is traveling on a donkey when it comes time to recite the Shmoneh Esrei. As an aside, it is in this mishnah that we learn that while praying one should face Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. This is connected to I Kings 8:44, “When Your people take the field against their enemy by whatever way You send them, and they pray to the Lord in the direction of the city which You have chosen and of the House which I have built to Your name.”

יחזיר את פניו – [He should turn his face] towards Jerusalem, as it says (I Kings 8:48), “and they pray to You in the direction of their land…”

If he is riding on a donkey, he gets down [and prays.] It is preferable, if possible, to pray while standing still. Therefore, he should get off the donkey before praying.

יכוין את בלו כנגד בית קדשי הקדשים – as it states (I Kings 8:35), “and then they pray towards this place…”

If he is unable to get down he should turn his face [towards Jerusalem], and if he cannot turn his face, he should direct his heart to the Holy of Holies. If he cannot, he should at least try to face Jerusalem. If he can’t even do this, he should at least direct his heart towards Jerusalem and to the Holy of Holies, the most important part of the Temple.

באסדא – much wood tied and fastened together on which they float them on the river and people walk upon them, and in the language of the Bible (II Chronicles 2:15), they are called “rafts.”

If he is traveling in a ship, on a wagon or on a raft, he should direct his heart toward the Holy of Holies.
This mishnah reiterates that when praying one should face Jerusalem and if this is impossible, one should direct one’s heart towards the Holy City. The mishnah is simple and requires no explanation.

אין תפלת המוספים אלא בחבר עיר – In communities of the city, that is to say, as a tzibbur/congregation and not as an individual.

Introduction The final mishnah of the chapter deals with the musaf prayer, the additional prayer recited on Shabbat, festivals and Rosh Hodesh. This prayer corresponds to the musaf sacrifices offered in the Temple on the aforementioned days.

בחבר עיר ושלא בחבר עיר – whether as a congregation or as an individual.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah says: The musaf prayer is said only with the local congregation. According to Rabbi Elzazar ben Azaryah the musaf prayer is not an individual prayer but rather a communal one. It is only said with the local congregation. It seems that according to Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah the musaf retains a connection to its Temple roots. While the other regular prayers are only loosely connected to the Temple, the musaf prayer is strongly connected. Since the Temple was a public offering, the musaf prayer does not become an individual prayer.

ר' יהודה אומר משמו – in the name of Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah. There is a difference between the first teacher [of our Mishnah] and Rabbi Yehuda: An individual who dwells in a city where there aren’t ten [individuals – for a Minyan], according to the First Teacher [of our Mishnah] according to the opinion of Rabbi Eleazar who said, that they did not establish this other than with a community of the city, then an individual is exempt. But according to Rabbi Yehuda, an individual is only exempt when he is in a place where ten [individuals are found] and the שליח ציבור/emissary of the congregation exempts him. And the Halakha follows the Sages.

The sages say: whether with or with out the congregation. The other rabbis do not make any distinction between the various recitations of the Tefillah. All are equally obligatory upon the individual regardless of whether the community is reciting them.

Rabbi Judah said in his name: wherever there is a congregation, an individual is exempt from saying the musaf prayer. Rabbi Judah somewhat modifies Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah’s position. Individuals are obligated to recite the musaf tefillah, but only if there is no congregation in his community to recite the prayer. If the community is reciting the prayer and he can’t be there for some reason, then he is exempt.