Berakhot 14b (יד:) — the Talmud in English

Because

it is written

[Jeremiah 10:10]

“But the Lord is the true God.”

And since we find that the prophet joined them together, one may not interrupt between them. The Gemara now discusses a case in which one interrupted after saying, “The Lord your God is true whether, when he begins to say the blessing of “True and certain” again, he

repeats and says

once more

“true,” or

whether he begins with “and certain” and

does not repeat and say “true”?]]

The amoraim disagreed about this:

Rabbi Abbahu said in the name of

Rabbi Yohanan: He repeats and says “true.” Rabba said: He does not repeat and say “true.”

The Beit Yosef Rish wrote that from Raba's statements Beit Yosef Rish 60] wrote that from Raba's statements it is proven that an individual does not repeat and say "the LORD your God Emet."

A certain

man

who descended,

that is, he led the prayer

before Rabba. Rabba heard him say “true, true” twice,

but he did not repeat and say, “The Lord your God is true.”

Rabba said: Every “true, true,”

that is, the flow of the tongue with regard to the word “true

seized this man.

Rav Yosef said: How excellent is that teaching

that follows:

When Rav Shmuel bar Yehuda came

from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia,

he said: In the West

when they recite the Shema in Eretz Yisrael

in the evening,

they do not recite the entire passage of tzitzit, but only

“Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God; true.”

Because the mitzva of tzitzit does not apply at night, there is no need to mention it.

Abaye said to him: What excellence is there in this teaching? And

since they did not need to say the entire passage,

didn’t Rav Kahana say in the name of Rav

that with regard to the evening recitation of Shema,

one should not begin,

that one need not begin to recite the passage of tzitzit,

but if he began, he completes it!

And since the people of Eretz Yisrael began reciting it, why did they not complete the entire passage?

And if you would say

that saying

“and say to them”

alone

is not a beginning,

because they had still not begun to state the subject of the mitzva of tzitzit, and therefore they could skip to and say only the end of the passage.

But didn’t Rav Shmuel bar Yitzhak say in the name of Rav that reciting

“Speak to the children of Israel”

is not a beginning,

but

reciting “and say to them” is a beginning?

If so, why did they not finish reciting the entire passage? The Gemara answers:

Rav Pappa said: They in the West hold

that saying

“and say to them” is also not a beginning,

and he is not obligated to continue reciting the entire passage

until he says “and they shall make for themselves fringes,”

for only saying the beginning of the subject of tzitzit mentioned in the passage obligates him to recite all of it.

Abaye said: Therefore, we

Babylonians

do begin

to recite the passage of tzitzit in the evening, up to “and say to them,” just

as they begin in the West

[and in this practice we do not follow Rav, who said, “One should not begin.”]

And since we begin,

and our view is that “and say to them” is considered a beginning,

we also complete

the entire passage.

For Rav Kahana said in the name of Rav: “One should not begin, but if he began, he completes it.”

Hiyya bar Rav said:

If he

said “I am the Lord your God,” he must

complete and

say “true,”

in accordance with the prophet’s wording, “But the Lord is the true God.” He must also continue with the blessing that begins “True and faithful.” But if he recited the passage of tzitzit and

did not say “I am the Lord your God,” he need not say “true,”

nor the continuation of the blessing.

The Gemara raises an objection: How can he skip the entire passage of tzitzit and the blessing that follows it?

But

we learned above [12b] that one who recites the Shema

must mention the exodus

from Egypt

at night?

The Gemara answers:

He says the following:

“We thank You, the Lord our God, that You brought us out from the land of Egypt, redeemed us from the house of bondage, performed miracles and mighty acts for us at the sea, and we sang to You,”

and he concludes, “Who is like You ” through “Redeemer of Israel,” thereby fulfilling his obligation to mention the exodus from Egypt at night.

We learned in the Mishna: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha said: Why does the passage of Shema precede

“And it will be, if you surely heed”? So that he first accepts upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven.

The Gemara offers another reason for placing “Shema” before “And it will be, if you surely heed.”

It was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai says: It is proper that one first recite

the passage of

“Shema” before

“And it will be, if you surely heed,”

because this,

“Shema,” concerns the person’s obligation

to study

Torah himself, as it says in it, “And you shall speak of them.”

to study

the Torah himself, as it says in it, “And you shall speak of them,”

Whereas

that one,

this,

“And it will be, if you surely heed,” concerns the obligation

to teach

others, as it says in it, “And you shall teach them to your children.” Necessarily, a person must first study himself, and only afterward can he teach others.

For this reason, the recitation of the passage

“And it will be, if you surely heed” precedes “And the Lord spoke,” because this,

“And it will be, if you surely heed,” contains

teaching

Torah,

whereas

that one,

this,

“And the Lord spoke,” contains only

performing

the mitzvot of tzitzit.

The Gemara is astonished:

Is that so?

Does

“Shema”

contain only

“study”?

Does it not contain

“teach” and “perform”? But it is written

in the passage of “Shema

”

“And you shall teach them diligently,”

and it also says in it “And you shall bind them” and “And you shall write them,”

that is, performing the mitzvot?!

Furthermore,

there is another difficulty with the reason of the beraita: Does the passage

“And it will be, if you surely heed”

contain only

“teach,” and

not

“perform”? But it is written

in it

“And you shall bind them,”

which refers to performing the mitzva of tefillin, and likewise

“And you shall write them,”

which refers to making a mezuzah? The Gemara explains:

Rather, this is what

the tanna of the beraita said:

It is proper that “Shema” precede “And it will be, if you surely heed,” because this,

the passage of “Shema,” contains

“study,” “teach,” and “perform,”

whereas “And it will be, if you surely heed” does not contain “study,” but only “teach” and “perform.”

For this reason, the recitation of the passage

“And it will be, if you surely heed” precedes “And the Lord spoke,” because this,

“And it will be, if you surely heed,” contains

“teach” and “perform,”

whereas

“And the Lord spoke” contains only “perform.”

The Gemara asks: Why did Rabbi Shimon need to provide a reason for the order of reciting the passages of the Shema?

Let him derive it from

the reason

of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha

in the Mishna.

The Gemara explains: Rabbi Shimon does not disagree with the reason in the Mishna; rather,

“one reason and another” he said. One reason is so that he first accepts upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven and afterward accepts upon himself the yoke of the mitzvot. And another

reason is

because it contains these other matters.

And if you will say that Rav indeed And if you will say that Rav indeed And if you will say that Rav indeed

Rav washed his hands,

he would wash his hands in the morning,

recite the Shema, and put on

tefillin,

and pray

the Eighteen Benedictions.

The Gemara asks:

How did he do

it

in this manner,

putting the recitation of Shema before putting on tefillin?

But it was taught in a beraita: One who digs a niche for

the burial of a

dead person

in the walls of a

burial

cave is considered occupied with a mitzva, and therefore he is

exempt

at that time

from reciting the Shema, from prayer, and from tefillin,

even though the time for performing them occurs while he is digging;

and

all the more so is he exempt

from all the mitzvot stated in the Torah

whose time is not fixed.

When the time for reciting the Shema arrives, he emerges

from the cave,

washes his hands, puts on tefillin, recites the Shema, and prays.

This indicates that he puts on tefillin before reciting the Shema, unlike Rav’s practice, in which he recited the Shema before putting on tefillin?

Before resolving this difficulty, the Gemara first discusses the substance of the beraita itself:

This itself is difficult: At first it says

that the tanna said that he is

“exempt”

from reciting the Shema, since he is occupied with a mitzva.

And

the

latter clause

says that the tanna said that he is

obligated

to ascend and recite it?

The Gemara explains:

This is not difficult; the latter clause

speaks of a case in which there are

two

people engaged in digging, who cannot dig together. Therefore, one recites and prays, and when he finishes, he exchanges places with his fellow. Whereas the

latter clause

concerns

one

person, who digs alone and must continue until he finishes, and is exempt from all the mitzvot.

The Gemara returns to its difficulty concerning Rav:

In any event, this is difficult for Rav,

for putting on tefillin precedes the recitation of the Shema.

The Gemara answers:

Rav

disagrees with this beraita, because

he holds in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha, who says

in our Mishna that one must first accept

the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven

in the passage of “Shema,”

and afterward

accept

the yoke of the mitzvot,

and therefore he put on tefillin after reciting the Shema.

The Gemara rejects this:

Say that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha said

this when one is obligated to recite two passages, in which case he must

precede the recitation

of “Shema,” which constitutes acceptance of the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven,

to the recitation

of “And it will be,” which constitutes acceptance of the yoke of the mitzvot. But when one is obligated both to recite and to perform, to precede the

recitation

of “Shema”

to the performance

of the mitzvot in practice,

do you hear him say that?

Furthermore,

there is another reason to reject this:

Did Rav hold

that

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha!? But didn’t Rav Hiyya bar

Ash i say: Many times [

often]

I would stand before Rav, and

I saw that he

arose early

in the morning,

washed his hands,

recited

the blessings over Torah

and taught us chapters, put on tefillin, and afterward recited the Shema.

This indicates that Rav disagreed with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha, since he preceded engaging in Torah, which is “the recitation of a mitzva,” to reciting the Shema, which is “the recitation of the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven” .

And if you would say

that Rav indeed holds like Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha, and the reason he preceded Torah study to the recitation of the Shema was only

in

a case

in which the time for reciting the Shema had not yet arrived.

This cannot be said. For

if so, what

new point is there in

the testimony of Rav Hiyya bar Ashi?

It is obvious that before the time for reciting the Shema, one may study. Necessarily, his testimony comes to state that Rav studied even after the time had arrived, and thus disagreed with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha.

The Gemara rejects this: In truth, it is possible that Rav held like Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkha, and the testimony of Rav Hiyya bar Ashi was that

Rav

studied before the time arrived. Its novel point is

to exclude the view of the one who says that according to the Mishna one need not recite

the blessings over Torah;

it teaches us that even according to the Mishna one must recite them,

for Rav recited a blessing before his study .

The Gemara raises an objection:

Nevertheless, this is difficult for Rav,

because he recited the Shema first, from the beraita stating that one who digs a grave puts on tefillin before reciting the Shema ?

The Gemara answers: Rav would always put on tefillin before reciting the Shema. Only on this occasion, which was mentioned at the beginning of the matter,

the messenger was at fault,

as he delayed bringing Rav his tefillin until Rav feared that the time for reciting the Shema would pass, and therefore Rav recited it first and put on tefillin afterward.

Ulla said: Whoever recites the Shema

without tefillin —

it is as though he testifies falsely against himself!

Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yohanan said:

one who recites the Shema without tefillin does not fully accept upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is

as though he offered a burnt offering without a meal-offering, and

as though he brought

a sacrifice without libations!