Berachot 46: Good Manners, Protocols and Laws When Saying Grace after Meals

After a conversation, we learn that the host breaks bread and a guest recites Grace after Meals.  The Gemara discusses what is recited included in the Grace after Meals and after which blessing it stops.  The rabbis argue about whether there are two/three blessings or whether there are four/five blessings. They consider who might be permitted to say fewer blessings, like labourers, but the Grace after Meals is required by Torah.  All of these blessings that are discussed are the same blessings that we recite today.  

Our attention is drawn to blessings that begin with "Blessed" but do not end with "blessed" or vice versa.  And if we stop during the Grace after Meals so that one can join in, we go back to the place where we stopped; the beginning of the second verse.  

The Exilarch, the prosperous head of a city, tells Rav Sheshet that the Persian people had more refined manners than the Jewish people.  He describes how the first, second and third most "important" guests in a zimmun recline together - who sits in which divan in what order.  Rav Sheshet explains that the Persians tradition is less practical.  The Exilarch notes that the Persians would communicate through hand gestures.  Further, they began their before-the-meal hand washing with the greatest ranking person  They began their after-the-meal hand washing with the lowest ranking person.  This is explained with conversations about who is made to wait for whom; who is served food at which times.

Our daf ends with a humorous story about who washes his hands first at the end of the meal leading the Grace after Meals.  Rav was trembling in fear when Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi asked him to stand and wash his hands after a zimmun with Rabbi Chiyya.  Rav was very relieved to learn that he was being asked to prepare for reciting the Grace after Meals.