Pesachim 104b — the Talmud in English

And we conclude:

And the halakha is not in accordance with him!

because one does not conclude with two [subjects].

Ulla happened to come to Pumbedita.

Rav Yehuda said to his son, Rav Yitzhak: Go and bring him

go and bring to Ulla

a basket

a basket

of fruits, and see how he performs havdala.

And through this you will be able to observe how he performs havdala.

He did not go

Rav Yitzhak himself, but

he sent Abaye

in his place, to go to Ulla.

When Abaye came

back,

Rav Yitzhak said to him

Rav Yitzhak:

What did

Ulla

say? Abaye said to him

Abaye:

He said, “Blessed is He Who distinguishes between sacred and profane,” and no more.

That was his entire havdala, and he did not say the other distinctions in it.

Rav Yitzhak came

Rav Yitzhak

before his father,

Rav Yehuda.

Rav Yehuda said to his son

Rav Yehuda to his son:

What did

Ulla

say? Rav Yitzhak said to him

Rav Yitzhak:

I did not go,

but

I sent Abaye

to Ulla,

and he told me

that Ulla said as follows:

“Who distinguishes between sacred and profane”

only.

Rav Yehuda said to him

Rav Yehuda to his son, Rav Yitzhak:

The grandness of my master and the stubbornness of my master,

that is, your grandness and your stubbornness, in that you did not go yourself—

caused my master not to hear the teaching from his mouth.

So that they would not say this teaching of Ulla in your name, but in Abaye’s name. For they said that any Torah scholar whose teaching is uttered from his mouth, his lips move in the grave.

An objection is raised:

It was taught in a beraita:

All the blessings, one opens with “Blessed,” and concludes them with “Blessed,”

for they have an opening and a conclusion.

Except for the blessing of

the

mitzvot,

such as [the blessing] “to wrap oneself in tzitzit” and “concerning the taking of the lulav,”

the blessing over fruits, and a blessing adjacent to its fellow blessing,

such as the blessings of the Eighteen [blessings],

and the final blessing of the Shema.

And although the recitation of the Shema interrupts between the blessings before it and after it, nevertheless the blessing after it is considered a blessing adjacent to the blessing before the recitation of the Shema, because one must attach the blessing “True and Certain” [or “True and Faithful” in the evening] to the end of the recitation of the Shema. Therefore, they are considered one extended blessing.

There are some of them that

that

one opens

with them

with “Blessed,” but does not conclude

with them

with “Blessed.”

Such as the blessing over the mitzvot and the blessing over fruits, which are short blessings, and therefore they have only an opening.

And there are some of them that one concludes with “Blessed” but does not open with “Blessed.”

Such as a blessing adjacent to its fellow blessing, which does not open with “Blessed,” because the preceding blessing, which opened with “Blessed,” exempts it from this.

And “the Good and Who does good,”

which is the fourth blessing of the Grace after Meals, although it is adjacent to its fellow, to the first blessing of the Grace after Meals, which opens with “Blessed,” nevertheless it too

opens with “Blessed,”

since it is a blessing in its own right, which was instituted as thanksgiving for those slain at Beitar [in which one says “the Good” because they were given burial, and “Who does good” because they did not decompose].

And one does not conclude

it

with “Blessed,”

although we extend it somewhat. For nevertheless, it is all one thanksgiving, and it is like the blessing over the mitzvot and fruits.