Berachot 43: Blessings for the Elite &Torah Scholars, and What Disgraces Torah Scholars

When we sit with a group to eat, our blessings change.  Especially when we recline.  What does reclining mean?  Our notes teach that in Talmudic times, those who were wealthy were known to eat while lying back, conversing with others.  Of course this was only afforded to the most privileged men.  Blessings are different when drinking wine while sitting and reclining, too.  The rabbis discuss when one blessing is said on behalf of the group and when each person must say one's own blessing over wine and/or bread.

Rabbi Yochanan walks through the rituals of hand washing, blessings over wine and bread.  The rabbis consider who is to say which prayers; is the first person to wash their hands also the one to recite the Grace over Meals?  When one intends to eat, does one also intend to smell the fragrance of bread?  What is the prayer that is said over incense?  And other fragrances?

Hosea (14:7) teaches us that the young men of Israel will smell as fragrant as Lebanon.  Further the rabbis discuss the individual paths and work that makes each of us satisfied.  Rav Zutra bar Tovia quotes Rav in saying that we are safer at night when we walk together with a torch and the moonlight; perhaps with another person to hold the torch and another as witness.  And it is better to be burned than humiliate another person. 

On the topic of humiliation, we are told that Rav Pappa blessed myrtle before oil even though it was decided by Rabban Gamliel that Beit Shammai's ruling (that oil is blessed first as it is one of the seven species) was correct.  Rava says, do you not agree with the Gamliel, which allowed Rav Pappa to dispute Rabban Gamliel's view without causing any humiliation.  Instead, Rav Pappa argues that the ruling went along with Beit Hillel.  This was not true. There is no recording of a response from Rava, which is interpreted by later scholars to prove that (a) Rav Pappa was not the most brilliant Torah scholar but was able to participate because of his financial contributions, and (b) it is paramount to avoid humiliation of another human being.

Incidentally, here are the six things that might disgrace a Torah scholar and must not be done: going out to the marketplace while fragranced, go into the marketplace alone at night, wear patched shoes, converse with a woman in the marketplace, recline and eat with a group of ignoramuses, be the last to enter the study hall, and possible walk with long strides or stand tall.  Each of these is explained by suggesting that witnesses to these behaviours might assume that the Torah scholar is behaving without modesty and humility; with laziness.  As role models, such behaviours are forbidden to Torah scholars.

Our Sages seem to be equally concerned with how they are perceived and with how people should be treated.