Berakhot 41b — the Talmud in English

A land of olive oil —

Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Ḥanina said: A land whose measures are all like olives,

for the measures of the Torah are always the measure of an olive.

The Gemara raises an objection: Is it conceivable that

all its measures

are measured by the measure of an olive?

But there are these

fruits

that we said

above: wheat, barley, grape, fig, and pomegranate, with which things are measured?

The Gemara answers:

Rather,

this is how it should be explained:

A land whose majority of measures

of the Torah are

like olives —

such as eating forbidden fat, blood, notar, and pigul.

Honey

mentioned in the Torah is date honey, and the measures of the Torah are based upon it,

like a large dried date,

which is a date, in order

to become liable on Yom Kippur

for eating it.

And the other one,

Rabbi Yitzḥak, who said above that from this verse we learn the laws of precedence in blessings, and disagreed with Rabbi Ḥanan — from where does he derive all these measures?

The Gemara answers: This is not a difficulty for Rabbi Yitzḥak. Are

these measures explicitly written

in the verse?

Rather, they are rabbinic,

and

the verse is merely an indication.

And if so, the principal meaning of the verse is still explained as having come to praise the Land of Israel for its important fruits and to enumerate them according to their order of importance.

Rav Ḥisda and Rav Hamnuna were sitting at a meal. They brought dates and pomegranates before them, and Rav Hamnuna took [them] and recited the blessing over the dates first

[Rav Hamnuna took [the dates] and recited the blessing over the dates first].

Rav Ḥisda said to him

to Rav Hamnuna: Why did you recite the blessing over the dates first? Do you not hold, sir, the ruling that Rav Yosef said, and some say Rabbi Yitzḥak:

Whatever is earlier in this verse

comes first for the blessing?!

Yet pomegranate is written in the verse before date honey.

He said to him,

Rav Hamnuna to Rav Ḥisda:

This,

date honey, is mentioned

second after

the word

“land”

written in this verse,

and this,

the pomegranate, is mentioned

fifth after

the word

“land,”

and everything adjacent to “land” mentioned in the verse comes first for the blessing.

Rav Ḥisda said to him:

rav Khasda:

Who will give us iron legs, so that we may follow you

[Who will give us iron legs, so that we can walk after you constantly and hear your words]?

It was stated: They brought figs and grapes before them during the meal

[They did not come in order to eat them with the bread, for if so they would not have required a blessing; rather, they came to sweeten his mouth during the meal].

Rav Huna said: They require

the fruits

a blessing before them,

because since they come to sweeten the mouth, they do not have the status of secondary [to the bread],

but they do not require a blessing after them,

because the Grace after Meals exempts everything eaten during the meal, if it does not come as secondary to the bread.

And Rav Naḥman likewise said: They require a blessing before them, but they do not require a blessing after them.

But Rav Sheshet said: They require a blessing both before them

and after them,

before them, in accordance with the reasoning of Rav Huna and Rav Naḥman; and after them, since he holds that the Grace after Meals exempts only foods that come to nourish, but not foods — such as these fruits — that are eaten because of their sweetness as a dessert.

For you have no

[we have not found]

thing that requires a blessing before it but does not require a blessing after it —

except bread that comes as pas haba bekisanin alone !

At first, one recites over it “Who creates varieties of nourishment” [and not “Who brings forth bread,” because since it is not bread over which people establish their meal, but eat it only casually, it is not sufficiently significant for one to recite over it “Who brings forth bread”], and at the end one does not recite over it the blessing ordinarily pertaining to it, namely, the abridged three-part blessing [but only “Who creates numerous living beings”].

And since we have found no distinction between the first blessing and the final blessing except with bread that comes as pas haba bekisanin alone, it necessarily follows that if one recites a blessing over the fruits at the beginning, one must also recite a blessing over them at the end.

And they disagree

these amoraim with

Rabbi Ḥiyya.

For Rabbi Ḥiyya said: The blessing over

The blessing over

bread

exempts all types of food

during the meal, both from the first blessing and from the final blessing,

and

likewise,

wine exempts

with its blessing

all

types of

of

beverages,

even not during a meal, both from the first blessing and from the final blessing, because bread is the head and first of all foods, and they are all secondary to it; and likewise wine is the head and first of all beverages, and they are all secondary to it.

Rav Pappa said: The halakha is: Foods that come because of the meal

to eat them with the bread

during the meal

are secondary to the bread; therefore,

they require neither a blessing before them nor a blessing after them .

And

foods that come

not because of the meal,

which are eaten

during the meal,

such as porridge, cabbage, and spinach, which are not a relish but come for nourishment and satiety,

require a blessing before them,

since they do not come to be eaten with the bread and are not secondary to it; they were not exempted by the blessing “Who brings forth bread.”

But they do not require a blessing after them,

because they are types of “nourishment,” and the Grace after Meals exempts them.

And foods that ordinarily come

after the meal,

such as fruits — even if they brought them during the meal, since they did not bring them in order to eat them with the bread —

require a blessing both before them and after them.

Before them, because they are not secondary to the bread; and after them, because they are not included among nourishment to be exempted by the Grace after Meals .

They asked Ben Zoma: Why did they say that things that come because of the meal during the meal do not require a blessing, neither before them nor after them?

He said to them

Ben Zoma:

Since

they became ancillary to the bread,

the bread exempts them.

The Gemara asks:

If so,

it would be fitting that

wine

during the meal,

also, bread should exempt it [

it should be exempted by the blessing over bread], for it comes because of the meal .