More on gezera shava, where an analogy is made between two words or phrases in different parts of Torah to imply that what happens in one happens to the other. The rabbis consider a phrase about streams and gardens. Running water imparts ritual purity, and this meaning is carried over.
The rabbis move on to the teaching in our Mishna where one recites the Shema in order and returns to the at last spot if s/he errs. Rabbi Ama and Asi were tying a chuppa, wedding canopy, for Rabbi Elazar. He studied while they worked and promised to return with his learning. Rabbi Elazar learned about where to stop and return when erring in recitation of prayer. Such practices will lengthen one's days.
A new Mishna teaches about concentration on the Shema. Labourers who are working may recite the Shema where they are - on trees or on stones, unlike the Amida which demands intent of the heart. The Mishna says that the groom is exempt from saying the Shema from the first night, which is usually a Wednesday, until Saturday night if he has not consummated the marriage because he is preoccupied by other concerns related to that consummation. Once Rabban Gamliel married a woman and recited Shema even that first night. His students challenged him. He answered, I am not listening to you to refrain from reciting Shema, and I preclude myself from the acceptance of teh yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven for even one moment. Steinsaltz tells us that today the groom is not exepmt becasue noone is capable of the intent required for saying the Shema in today's age.
The Gemara considers other laws that dictate how labourers pray during their workdays. The rabbis discuss a groom's obligation with reference to sitting and walking on his way. It is possible that a groom is walking on his way toward performing a mizvah, and so he is exempt from saying the Shema.
Amud (b) asks teach that one who marries a virgin is exempt but one who marries a widow is not? The Gemara says that he is proccupied with his thought about a virgin but not about a widow. There are challenges: others are preoccupied, like those whose ships are lost at sea and mourners, but they are not exempt from saying the SHema. The Gemara counters that there is a mitzva to be preoccupied with sex with one's virgin wife, while other preoccupations are voluntary.
A new Mishna teaches that Rabban Gamliel bathed on the first night after his wife died. His students asked him why, for he had taught them that a mourner is prohibited to bathe. He answered, I am not like other epeople, I am istenis, delicate. This was interpreted to mean that he Rabban Gamliel considered himself to have physical distress that others did not experience when mourning.
When his slave Tavi died, Rabban Gamliel accepted condolences for that death as one would of a close family member even though he had taught his students that slaves should not be mourned as family. He says, may lave Tavi is not like all the rest of the slaves, he is virtuous.
Regarding exempting a groom from the Shema on his wedding night, the rabbis say that he is permitted to do so if he wishes. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says not everyone who wishes to assume the reputation of a G-d-fearing person may assume that reputation, and not everyone who wishes to recite the Shema on his wedding night may do so.
The Gemara discusses whether aninut, acute mourning, is in effect during the day but at night it is only in effect by rabbinic law. Amos (8:10) notes that terrible things will happen if we observe these laws improperly. When it comes to a delicate person, the Sages did not issue a decree that one should afflict oneself during the period of acute mourning.
We are taught that when Rabbi Eliezer's maidservant died, his students came to console him and he watched as they followed him to the second floor, the gatehouse, and then the banquet hall. Then he said to them that it seems that they would be burned by lukewarm water, that they could not take a hint, and he did not wish to receive their condolences. Now, he said, I see that you are not even burned by boiling hot water. For slaves and maidservants who die, one does not stand in a row to comfort the mourners, nor recite the blessing of the mourners or consolation of the mourners. Instead we say what we've said to one whose ox or donkey has died: May G-d replenish you loss, focusing on the fact that slaves are property alone.
The rabbis compare this with other ways in which we only honour certain people. Only our patriarchs and matriarchs are called Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel and Leah, and not their children. We did not know from which of their children we descended; none of these are significant enough for us to note. The Gemara discusses the names that we use to address our parents and other people who raise children, including slaves.
We end today's daf with full descriptions of the different prayers that several rabbis used to end their prayers.
Is it fair to claim that "I am delicate", or I am special or different, and thus halacha does not apply to me? This seems particularly unfair when said by a person in power.
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