Berachot 47: Who is Part of a Zimmun, pt. 2

Our daf opens with stories about how rabbis honour each other.  When does one rabbi allow another rabbi to be "first"?  On a journey, or just at a doorway? Or at a doorway with a mezuza?  Does the person breaking bread have to eat his bread before others can begin their meals?  Does one who breaks bread have to wait to actually break the bread until everyone else has said "amen"?

This leads the rabbis to a conversation about how to respond to blessings:

• a chatufa, abbreviated amen, where the the first syllable is not said properly
• a ketufa, truncated amen, where the second syllable is not said properly
• a yetoma, orphaned amen, where the respondent is is unaware of the blessing one is responding to
• one should not say a blessing quickly and/or indifferently 

Ben Azzai says that an orphaned amen leads to orphaned children, an abbreviated amen leads to incomplete lifetime, and an extended amen will extend one's days - though one should not exaggerated one's amen.  

The rabbis return to their discussion regarding blessings at zimmunim.  They share circumstances where we are made to think about whether the greatest person recites the blessing even if he arrived at the end of the meal.  They share a story about a rabbi joins two others at the end of their meal and it is determined that if more food were served, the first two rabbis would eat it, and so the meal has not been completed when the third rabbi joins in.

Is demai permitted or not?  We learn that rabbis disagree about whether demai, doubtfully tithed produce, is permitted to soldiers and those who are poor.  The rabbis question blessings regarding eating tithed food and for consecrated or second tithed food after the additional one fifth has been added, as well.

Kutim might be permitted to join zimmunim because some said that a kuti was arguably more observant than an am ha'aretz, an ordinary person, regarding Torah law.  The rabbis discuss the characteristics of an am ha'aretz.  Several rabbis share their definitions:

• one who does not recite the Shema in the evening or morning
• one who does not wear tefillin
• one who does not have ritual fringes 
• one who does not have a mezuza
• one who has children but does not want them to study Torah and does not raise them to engage in study
• one who read the Torah and studied Mishna but did not learn from Torah scholars

The rabbis continue to discuss why others are not included in a zimmun.

Rabbi Yose suggests that a minor lying in a cradle is included in a zimmun.  How can this be?  He may only be an adjunct to a minyan.  Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says that nine Jews and a slave can form a zimmun of ten.  Rabbi Eliezer did not have a quorum of ten at his synagogue and he liberated his slave to complete the minyan.  The rabbis say that this teaches us that a slave not yet freed cannot be part of a minyan.  The rabbis discuss the possibility that a mitzvah came through a  transgression.  The Gemara says that a mitzva that benefits the many is a valid reason to transgress a positive mitzvah.

Our daf ends with a discussion of nine joining to become ten.  Finally, the rabbis consider how a mature minor, one under twelve but displaying signs of puberty - two pubic hairs  - might be included in a zimmun.